not entirely on the subject, but is there an easy query to add a vb3phrase instead of using the phrase manager?
I dont like that thing.

Even if you use phpMyAdmin or a query, you'd still have to edit a phrase using the phrase manager to update its cache.

The md5() stuff in functions_newpost.php is just used to make sure you don't double post. It is more robust than using the old query that would compare the post text, title, etc against entries in the database.