> using MyISAM was considered the #1 newbie MySQL mistake back then, and it happened all the time. The author mentions that these events took place in 2002. At

> using MyISAM was considered the #1 newbie MySQL mistake back then, and it happened all the time. The author mentions that these events took place in 2002. At that time the site was likely still running MySQL 3 and InnoDB was very new and considered experimental. Sure MySQL 4.0 had shipped in 2002 and InnoDB was a first class citizen, but back then upgrades from one version of MySQL to another weren't trivial tasks. You also tended to wait until the .1 release before making that leap. So in fairness for the folks who originally set up that database MyISAM was likely their only realistic option. I looked after and managed a fleet of MySQL servers from back then and for many years afterwards and even then it wasn't until MySQL 5 that we fully put our trust in InnoDB.