Does this message board freeze up
and get very slow at certain times of the day
or is this a frequent occurrance:( 
when I click on “submit” my post nothing happens
sometimes if I wait long enough it will post,
but sometimes not.
Welcome to the SDMB, Rhino.
One reason was discussed in this earlier thread,
There’s a back-up overnight for about 40 minutes that shuts everything down, but apart from that, it’s just down to spikes in poster numbers.
Hey thanks, Ice Wolf.
I will go to your link
after I post this
The too slow to wait happened yesterday
(my first day in SD…about
late afternoon Pacific Standard Time.
It does happen quite a bit, Rhino (and a lot of threads start up about it! ;))
Me, I just click, wait for th’ blue bar to sloowlly inch across, go somewhere else for a bit, then maximise the window and … “Oh, goody! It’s through! Hooray!”
Can be quite character-building, in a way. 
Well, does that time of 3:30 Chicago
mean 3:30 PM or AM–?
And, is there a search engine conneded with
SD,or what does it mean “doing a large search”?
Its 3:30 am Chicago time.
To search the SDMB database for past threads and posts, click on the word “search” at the top of the page. This will allow you to find whichever thread you are looking for. The search feature can be a little wonky, so the better you know what your looking for, and the more precise you can be, the better.
“Doing a large search” refers to when a SD user asks the server to search a large section of the database (all forums) or for a word with a lot of hits (for example, searching all cases of "christian*"in Great Debates or finding all of handyś posts 
). Since this server is already operating at max capacity (and upgrades really arent an option), a search slows it down, resulting in other users having trouble accessing the site - likely the source of your problem in your opening post.
Also, there are sometimes just too many people here - this place is really addictive!
Welcome to the boards!
Oh, and if you really want to do a lot of searches, especially for not-so-recent threads, I recommend you try www.boardreader.com, which will search its cached version of threads without asking anything of the SD server itself. When you enter a search term, just enter “sdmb” along with them to get hits from only the Straight Dope. Actually reading the threads, however, will result in server usage, as usual.
There’s a guideline around here you might need to know too, Rhino, in that it’s best if you don’t post a reply, or “resurrect” a thread older than about three months. If you see an old thread that you’d like to add a comment to, start a new one and then link back to the old thread.
WEll, Ice wolf and mnemosyne.
I don’t think I want to use that search thing
I have just figured out that one scrolls down
a thrread to read all the follow ups.
HOWEVER , BE CAREFUL . I was reading a thread
and some poster had a link to what looked
like a piece of info. I MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE
I clicked on it and
got one of those" you made an illegal function"
and my computer was shut down and I had
trouble getting rebooted.
Don’t know if this has happend to anyone else.
Just curious, but do you already know somebody here?
Happy
I don’t tend to use the search function myself, either. Some people do, some people don’t.
As for the "illegal function"error you received - I’m tempted to say that is more a problem with your own computer than with the link you clicked on - I’ve never had something like that happen to me.
If you’re worried about clicking on Happyś link, it goes to the user info of a poster here called Rhino’s Honey. I wondered the same thing when I saw your name - do you know her?
Another little piece of advice - when you type in the “Your Reply” box, or if you click on "post reply"and reply from there, you don’t have to hit enter at the end of every line. Your writing will wrap around to the next line automatically, and when you submit, it will fill up the box with your post.
Twleve posts in three days - I can see you’re well on your way to addiction like we are!
12 from 1766—= 1752 .
I see are somewhat ahead of me in posts !
Re. Rhino’s Honey… It was a strange coincidence.
The very first day I found SDMB and posted
someone replied with " Are you Rhino’s honey"
and I didn’t know what they were talking about
then by accident in some thread about cooking
for yourself I saw her name !!
I posted to her but did not get a reply.
mnemosyne
that is interesting name . Is it a Greek god or goddess?
?
She did reply to you, a bit further down in that thread, Rhino – but she didn’t go too much into it, I’d say, because it might have hijacked the thread topic.
Heh – so, no, I don’t think you weren’t noticed!