Make one post that hangs and hangs and hangs, try to open another thread that hangs and hangs and hangs, close the browser window and open a new one to check one more thread that hangs and hangs and hangs, close it again and repeat repeat repeat. Don’t act like it’s my system because it doesn’t matter what browser I use and it happens from multiple computers. I thought we were done with this shit when we started paying.
I seriously doubt that anyone is going to say that it is your computer, since it has been happening to everyone for at least a week now.
It’s so bad that I, for one, am starting to wonder if the boards are under some kind of denial of service attack, if that’s the right name for it. How about it, mods/admins? Is there any way to tell if this is just a suspiciously sudden jump in traffic, or something more sinister? If it is an attack, they’re doing a great job. 
On Sunday, the board was so slow that “denial of service” is exactly what I was thinking.
As of now: we don’t know. When the tech folks took a look (which wasn’t until Monday morning), behavior seemed back to normal.
Ain’t that the way? Damn thing doesn’t work, until you bring it in for repair and want to show the repair-guy what’s wrong. Happens to my car alla time, too.
Monday evening here in the UK I tried to navigate around the boards and found it too slow to enjoy, with constant “operation has timed out” messages. The previous evening(Sunday) I couldn’t access the site at all.
I’m still having problems getting on today. Do we know what’s going on, or if it’s going to get better?
Yeah, it’s been pretty bad for a week or so. Very spotty. Sometimes it’s smoothe, other times it’s just awful.
In fact, I almost never come into this forum, but it’s been so slow today I thought I’d see if others were noticing it.
From the thread:
Is something wrong with the boards tonight?
>http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=303854
From Ed Zotti, administrator:
Board traffic has increased steadily over the past year and we have once again maxed out our server. As of January, page views for the Straight Dope website as a whole were almost 10 million per month, an increase of 58% over the previous year. About two-thirds of the website page views were generated by the SDMB, where traffic has increased 72% over the past year. The server is now housed offsite and my understanding is that the size of the data pipe is no longer a constraint, but you can only cram so much processing power into the box we’ve got and Jerry informs me that we’re pretty much red line for a good part of the day.
Lest you conclude that this is another sign of the Reader’s shameful neglect of the SDMB and so on, I need to point out that the company has made substantial investments in the board up to this point, and while I’m not in a position to make any promises, my guess is it will continue to do so. The slowdown is fairly recent; for most of the year the board ran OK. We’ve just begun planning for subscription renewal season and I think I can safely predict that capital investment needs will come up for discussion. That said, what with one thing or another we’ve got pretty full plates at the moment, so please be patient; we’ll get to this by and by.
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Hope this explains the situation. As long the demand for the Straight Dope outstrips the supply, this will continue to be a problem.
The staff apologizes for your inconvenience, it affects all equally. Moderators and administrators are also having a tough time getting around.
your humble TubaDiva
Would this explain why, when I click on the forum jump at the bottom of a page, it is telling me more and more frequently that I have not specified a valid forum?
Anything is possible; when the server (literally) throws up its hands and collapses under the demand that it cannot fulfill, it also loses track of things, temporarily. (I’m sure the techically-minded among you are shuddering in horror to read this explanation, but that’s how it was explained to me.)
The board software will get an upgrade in the next few weeks. Hopefully when this happens, board functionality will improve.
your humble TubaDiva
We appreciate all that, but it doesn’t explain why the board is so much slower this week than it was last week. I mean, the board didn’t get slower by gradual stages – it’s really been an abrupt and drastic change. I think something has gone wrong that the techs haven’t caught yet.
I think this is unlikely. 
–Cliffy
We noticed a slowdown as well this past weekend. However, we noticed a slowdown literally all over. However, upon checking the Internet Traffic Report there were a number of servers around the country operating at less than 50 percent (one is still dead in the water).
This might have accounted for some of the problems.
Yesterday and today seemed fine - today was actually faster than usual.
Definitely having problems tonight. As for the suddenness of it, ever heard of the straw that broke the camel’s back?