phpBB and the "phpbb_search_wordmatch" table

Safe to empty?

[encyclo]

I've got a

phpbb_search_wordmatch

MySQL table which is ever-expanding, and which at well over 100MB in size represents the bulk of the database. I've read in a few places that it is possible to empty this table without it affecting operations, but does anyone know if this is true and if so, what real effect will emptying the table have?

Will internal searches be adversely-affected, and if emptied would it have any significant effect on database speed (for operations other than searching)? I would like to improve the site performance a bit, but I'm still well within my space limits on the server and the internal search funtion is vital as the forum is unindexed by external sources.

[rogerd]

Hmmm, nobody seems to know... You could always back it up, nuke it, and see what happens... :)