Adding to what was said and done there I deleted my personal config files in /home/user/ from tty1 using
rm -rf .cache .config .local
thinking that any bugs in my files would not be reduplicated this way whereas they may if I just clicked delete from caja, the file manager. Apparently it didn’t make any difference. The panel still wont autohide. BTW creating a new user worked for awhile but it too was a failure; reading through these forums (and those at MATE) leads me to believe it’s not happening to anyone else or if it is I surely don’t know about it. While not a deal breaker it is annoying. Is there someone here who may offer some assistance? It’d be appreciated.
EDIT - I just (noon local time) installed openSUSE Tumbleweed* snapshot 20141120, with MATE basis setup in VirtualBox like I’m using on my HDD and noticed a difference between mate-panel version number on my 13.1 install vs. my Tumbleweed install:
Apparently my 13.1 install has a newer version of mate-panel than my Tumbleweed, or rolling release, has. Actually it makes little difference because guess what? Right. MATE Panel won’t Autohide! http://forums.mate-desktop.org/images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
I understand your puzzlement, sir, but it is what it is. mate-panel will autohide for a second, a minute, and hour. Who knows?! :\ Then it stays visible until I kill it. Believe me, this is the first time in three years that my openSUSE install wasn’t perfect out-of-the-box and I’ve grown weary with what otherwise is a great interface to a great distro.
Apparently the upgrade to Tumbleweed during first week of December fixed the complaint. What it was I don’t know. How it got fixed I don’t know.
I spent the past couple weeks searching, reading and searching some more only to come away with the conclusion that this was unique to me and my laptop because I found no one with the identical problem and nothing to help me other than the kind words of nrickert when they were needed most. I won’t forget that… and unless something horrible happens later today let’s all consider this one solved.
BTW creating a new user worked for awhile but it too was a failure; reading through these forums (and those at MATE) leads me to believe it’s not happening to anyone else or if it is I surely don’t know about it. While not a deal breaker it is annoying. Is there someone here who may offer some assistance? It’d be appreciated. 
