Over the past few weeks the site has experienced several slow-downs. A good part of the blame should probably go the other users of the machine we are on. When their activity spikes, we may also suffer for the next while. However, the chat is also a likely culprit as it's http-based - every user is, in fact, pulling a webpage down from the server every two seconds.
I've been working on a better setup, and I have just switched in a new lightweight webserver that specifically deals with the chat and static files (images, style sheets, etc.) while good old heavyweight Apache serves the rest of the site. Aside from a performance improvement, this also means the amount of resources chat takes from our host is capped and separate from the main site. No matter how busy chat gets, performance would only degrade for the chat (i.e. more lag) and the site would still work normally. Not sure if I explained myself decently, but anyways, that'll have to do.
Due to the new proxying mechanism, you may be asked to log into the site again. Some folks experience this, others don't. If you have trouble logging in, please try clearing your cookies and cache. And of course, a new piece of software often means new glitches and problems. Feel free to share any problem you may be having with the site. Thank you very much for your continued patience and assistance.
