I've been informed by our host that there are network performance issues on our node they're trying to resolve, which was the cause for the downtime today. In the meantime I've removed the shoutbox on index pages to help with forum speed. I'll monitor it over the next couple of days, if all is well the shoutbox will go back, in the mean time you can click on the shoutbox link above to use it.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Server Problems.
Moderators: GreyWizzard, pilonv1