hierarchical data
Death, Taxes, and Storing Hierarchical Data in a Relational Database
A quick update to the Buildering.net situation. Basically, we're going to convert their install of Ikonboard (no link, because really, you shouldn't use it ever), to Drupal's kinda kludgy "Advanced" Forum module.
The benefit is a unified login system, which is good enough to outweigh the loss of "real" forum features. (Personally, I prefer forums that concentrate on the basics, too many buttons confuse me!).

