I received an email from a member who is also a card checker informing me that the web site has been very slow also. He said that a DXCC application got stuck in limbo with proxy error messages several times.

- Bill

I received a note from a rather irate friend who complained he was gave up trying to place an order through the ARRL online store because the system was running so very slowly. Being a good DXer, he tied this experience in with recent (as well as earlier) difficulty with LOTW.

My Question: Was the store running slowly within the past 48 hours or so? If so, why? If there was a problem is it fixed permanently?

This experience to me reminds me of an admonition my mother gave me many years ago -- i.e. "It takes a long time to develop a good reputation after a bad impression has been made. Between the bad impression made through the then-new web site and the repeated bad impressions made with LOTW, it seems imperative to me that we pull out all the stops to avoid putting the League in a bad light with the amateur radio public for at least many years to come. How many times must we shoot ourselves in the foot before we learn the lesson?