when initializing a new post object, why do I have to use malloc on the date attribute but not on next?
typedef struct user {
    char name[MAX_NAME];
    char profile_pic[MAX_NAME];  // This is a *filename*, not the file contents.
    struct post *first_post;
    struct user *friends[MAX_FRIENDS];
    struct user *next;
} User;

typedef struct post {
    char author[MAX_NAME];
    char *contents;
    time_t *date;
    struct post *next;
} Post;