Did we ever figure out if scalar weapons are for real?
Are they still re-indexing the database? Several times I’ve gone searching for threads that I knew should have been there at a particular date, only to get no matches. If I use a more common search string, I’ll get a long string of threads going back to 2000, but with several multi-month gaps in between. Inquiries about it are usually met with, “we’re working on it, but it takes a while and it’s the least of our priorites”.
Maybe that’s a big part of all the repeated questions.
Well, re-indexing takes a bit of time, and the sad thing is, anecdotally speaking, with extremely large vBulletin databases it used to be there was quite a bit of…instability during the process. I can’t speak at all for the version the SDMB runs; my experience is only with version 2.x. I have a really powerful server, about as powerful as the SDMBs if not moreso, and my 250,000-post forums take about 15 minutes to index. There’s 6,000,000 posts here, so we could assume if all went well it would take about 6 hours. However, I think practically speaking it might take more than even a day or so, depending on memory usage and the way that version 3.x runs. Once again, not my expertise.
If memory serves (no pun intended), the last time the board was reindexed, it took several days to complete.
your humble TubaDiva
Cecil a pimp?
If only everyone were so conscientious! 
Confession: I emailed Cecil a couple of times (with questions for his column) and received polite suggestions that I join the board. I didn’t get around to it for well over a year or two or more.
Short answer: Human lameness.
Longer answer: Registering with the SDMB -even before they charged money- seemed like a bigger deal than registering with the New York Times, something that many can’t bother with.
Well, on balance, it must be admitted that humourous jokes are to be preferred to humourless ones.
And also - I love the “just the punchlines” posts - I laugh myself silly because I’ve heard all the jokes before.
But there is one, simple, unwritten rule.
Read the thread first. If your favourite punchline has already been posted…don’t post the punchline again. Okay?
Even if it’s a slight variation.
Don’t do it.
:o Wow…I really mis-typed something there. That’s an atrocious sentence of mine. I think I meant to say that I try to refrain from humour in posts unless the question has already been answered, or I’m including a good answer myself in that same post. I think I’ll be quiet now before I waste more space…