Theory to anyone interested:
1) An unexpected fault (over use or or otherwise) causes the main server to crash, leaving the secondary server which holds the PM and the threads themselves (they are huge
).. (plus various adds & ends llike sigs and avatars) In an effort to keep the servers running (bringing down the network for a short while), staff have ceased all active monitoring of people's posts from the main server. This leads to no pop-up alerts for new PMs, no updating post numbers, and no updating in the main sections.
This is not a complete crash, but it'll have to do for a while until they figure out a solution.
Since they've already ceased user tracking and various other bells and whistles a month ago or something... i'm oakay w/ it.
I remember tactic has already transferred the forums to this secondary server a few days ago, that's all I know for the moment.
2) The people who provided the servers have shut boredofstudies main server down because to excessive traffic flow in the main server.
3) Terrorist attack.
edit: update, saladsugery's posts were the last ones, and some indicate times beyond this theoretical crash time. (1.27pm) The server could possibly be running somehow...