I think the forum needs some TLC

The forum has been under a sustained attack for a bit over a day (not "more than a week", as the post above indicates). We're doing what we can to mitigate the attack. Please try to be patient as we work to keep the forum available. We're not going to disclose the nature of the attack nor the mitigation measures we're taking, so please don't ask about that.
Thanks.

For what it's worth, I've been trying to get a forum page to load from Wednesday morning until this evening.

I don't mean to downplay your experience - I believe you. The forum has been slow for quite a while, but usually works eventually, It got a lot worse yesterday morning when the current attack began in earnest.
Things seem to be better now, but are not optimal or even acceptable.
We'll continue to work on keeping the forum running reliably.
Thanks!

Last two days it's been much better, thank you SGD.