RicePigeon

On it.

Just checked again, looks like we finally squashed that bug

Yea rebuilding the search index usually fixes it for about a week, give or take.  Did that at least.
As for the root of the problem, the forum upgrade resolved the permissions bug, but I want the software to settle in before I optimize the table.
Granted, that may not solve it, it simply seems to be the most likely problem given all the conversations we've had about it.
In regards to the index/ thing, I made some changes to the way the site handles friendly urls, and talked to bluehost tech support to make sure it's supported, which it is.
This should remove all index/ parts from our links, and make our links more easily readable by humans and search engines.
Also upgraded our php to 7.0 finally bluehost made it available.