Lots of long load times, 500s and 503 Errors

Hi,

I've been here a couple of days and I've noticed that there have been a lot of long load times, 500 and 503 errors. Is this typical or is this a relatively new phenomenon with the recent surge of growth and/or lots of visitor activity.

I've been having a lot of fun checking out the posts but it is a little frustrating when you can't reach the server for X amount of time.

Cheers,

Mark