T3XT3

On our forums We have scaled the recently added posts down to a one-line per topic list, based on this
SELECT required_info FROM topics ORDER BY last_post DESC LIMIT 0,10
and a check whether the topic is visible to the user or not.

That's it, we do not include user info, but only the time of the post and the topic title..

I am aware of MySQL full text searching restrictions.

I would just suggest 3 things that will make the search feature in this board more usable:

1. Turn off flood control or reduce it significantly for registered customers. They are your potential friends and not enimies :)
2. Makin boolean searching "this +that" by default, as there is no practical approach in searching "apples OR pines". And it is more intuitive as this is default in the major search engines throught the world.
3. Display only topics, not posts by default.

By the way, there is no such option in 'advanced' search form:
"Search titles only" - does not search in the posts body
"Search posts only" - is opposite to what I have suggested.

Couldn't you make use of the caching engine to update this data on intervals rather than immediately? And there's no need to ship with the software, that's why this exists: http://community.invisionpower.com/index.php?app=ccs

SELECT p.*, t.* FROM HUH

Sorry but incase you cant read that, that means huh lol. Please elaborate a little more here.