I'm thinking about doing some changes to my database's structure to make it easier to develop some new features.
Instead of archiving each post with the author and author_uid field, insert only the author_uid which will reference the user/author from another table.
I think this will make more sense. Regardless of the username, your ID will always be the same. Therefore, if the reference base is always the user ID, it is much easier to work with all the data.
The only thing to think about is: usually user change names for a reason.
Maybe The BeardedBAby likes to be linked to his old account, and having all the history of his posts easily searchable. But those users who changed their nickname for privacy/OpseC reasons might have a saying against it.
Any user who changes his name must be aware that his ID does not change. So, even though it might not be that easy to detect this information, it exists and is available to everyone.
Therefore, everyone should be aware that this information can be crossed. Mainly, in a community that is very used to looking at all the details and analyzing data.
