I sure do think it is possible. I am not sure how soon you will actually run into problems, but I have been using Dokuwiki, which uses text files rather than a

I sure do think it is possible. I am not sure how soon you will actually run into problems, but I have been using Dokuwiki, which uses text files rather than a database for all storage purposes. Although it is not in itself a good example for a community-centric software, it shows what can be done, the contents are versioned, there are access control lists and so on. If you can build a wiki based on files, why would you not be able to do so with some kind of forum community? Maybe Dokuwiki is already a good solution for you. I feel that the others readers reactions show that you could elaborate your motivation some more. A database can be a quick and useful solution and solves many problems, such as distributed access, central management and administration, security and backup. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DokuWiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DokuWiki