<I am only aware of one cookie that is on this server (aparently for no reason) and it is not essential for viewing or posting!

No, no, no, that cookie is there for a good reason; "good" in both senses of the word.

It's a temporary cookie which isn't stored on your computer (good), and it's not used for tracking your movements around the Internet (very good). It's used by the server to recognize you when you make successive requests, and keep your requests separate from everybody elses's (pragmatically good). Your browser holds it in memory only, and it's flushed when you close your browser.

At the moment the BBS software doesn't depend much on these session cookies, but future features such as customization, automatic fill-in of forms, and the like, will depend on session cookies. To the extent that the site can recognize you, without sharing that information with third-parties, it can serve you better.

They're benign. They're happy cookies!

--Robert