Quote - As the entire site has recently been converted to php, if the databases are still maintained manually, from a programming point of view, that's just NOT RIGHT!

Umm... PHP is a scripting extension for web pages, and really isn't related to the structure of the MySQL database software that they use here. Converting everything to PHP does not mean that they made any changes to the database structure. They may have, I don't know, but the two aren't necessarily inerconnected in any direct way.

The design of the database may, in fact, be very old and it's possible that it was never designed with the idea in mind that it would someday have to support millions and millions of data records. I've been a software developer for 25 years or so, and I can tell you that there really is no "right" or "wrong" about programming. There's stuff that works well for it's intended purpose, and stuff that doesn't. Needs change over time, and sometimes the old design doesn't remain a good fit, but it's hard (reads "expensive") to change.

To give R'osity the benefit of the doubt, they may be in a position where the database itself could use a good overhaul, and that may be a harder proposition to change than it has been to convert to a PHP based scripting environment.