Is it just me or does the slingers guide section appear and disappear from the main page all the time?  Most of the time I don’t see it unless I use the search bar, but once in a while it will magically reappear.

I think you have to be logged in to see it.

yep, it's only visible to forum members - you need to be logged in.

That’s the weird part... I am logged in, but the main page says I’m not.  I try to log in from there and it says I am already logged in, and if I click on a visible topic it shows my username. I guess it’s something weird with my browser.

Yep. Logged out. Logged in. Slingers guide reappeared. It’s the only topic that does that.

if your ip address changes then you need to do the log in and out thing.
Most people have dynamic ip addresses, so every time you reboot your router your ip address changes.

As I'm at the end of the local telephone exchange I re-boot my router quite a bit.

I find when I come onto the forum I'm logged out, I click the home button and I'm magically logged in. Same with my on my phone. I haven't typed in my password since... possibly the first time I logged in.

Ok it’s not just me :)
It really only affects the one topic because of the privacy settings but it’s a very strange quirk.

I just figured out that if I click on the breadcrumb links it says I am logged in but if I go to the home page by clicking Lariat Man, it doesn’t... interesting.

ip address changes.
Some modern routers routinely reboot to keep you at the top of the pile. So even though you might not be aware of it, your ip address could be changing regularly.

The forum software looks more at ip addresses than user names for account security.