I would guess because he wants to learn how to use templates.

Array merge is overkill for this, just add to the array.

:)

Well, I learned something new too then, thanks Paul. When should array merge be used?

Once again thank you all very, very much for guiding me through this. :)

Here's what I changed:

- Dropped the executionorder per acidburn's advice
- Made the template phrased because I forgot to the first time :D
- Removed the search string from the template because I know how it works now (thank you again, acidburn)
- Added Paul's code snippet to add to the global template array
- Added JumpD's code to grab the template from cache
- Changed the hook to forumhome_complete

Things I'm not sure on:

- What/how the template actually gets added to the global templates, unless that's exactly what Paul's code does. I'm assuming that it's basically if you're on the index, then add s_n_t to the cache?
- If I took a step forward here. :D

Again, very much appreciated. :) My weekend plan is to get this all sorted out. (Quite the party, I know!)

You don't need the <phrase> tags around $vbphrase[onlineinvisible]. You'll only need those if you're going to be using a variable inside of the phrase. For example: phrase1: "There have been {1} users online today, but there were {2} online yesterday." Then you'd use: <phrase 1="$userstoday" 2="$usersyesterday">$vbphrase[onlinetoday]</phrase>.

Paul's code caches the template so your board doesn't have to query for it every page load. The template is installed (if that's what you were trying to say) whenever the product is imported.

This code needs to be put in a plugin by itself using hook 'cache_templates'.
You'll want to take a look at this code again too, as it looks like you didn't copy the whole code that was posted. Take another look at JumpD's post.
If you remove the search string from the template, the plugin won't know where to place the 's_n_t' code. As I said earlier, the search string is not replaced, instead whatever is in the 's_n_t' template is added beneath it.