No matter that I haven’t hit it for probably five minutes, when I hit the “search” button, I am informed that I have to wait 120 seconds.
I think it’s broken. 
I had it happen to me once about 1500PDT today. First thing I clicked gave me the you have to wait 120 seconds message.
When I try to search I get this error:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 536870912 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 24 bytes) in /home/straightdope/boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/includes/class_core.php on line 3278
Of course, I know exactly what that means and that information helps me to completely fix the problem in a jiffy, but I worry that others might not.
I am one of the others. 
I was being sarcastic. I have no idea what computer gibberish error messages mean.
Damnitol.
Use Google and the site:straightdope.com parameter.
I’m just trying to hit new posts, and for that I get an instant two minute timeout. It’s quite odd.