Shouldn't need to know extensively mySQL, but PHP will require some time.
Here's my take on what would be a solution:
You have 1 page that serves all your users. Each user, upon login, has either their userID or username stored in their session. When the user goes to the "profile" or "home" page, the PHP script gets that session information and displays a listing of the directory.
No need to have 800 users and 800 PHP pages...
Obviously you'll need to know how to use the filesystem functions and all that. But it shouldn't be too hard...