The board is fast this morning and there is lots of posting going on. I think this is further evidence that my theory is correct.
It's mostly correct. Even after I removed the IM Translator, the Forum area was slow yesterday--not so today, and I'd attribute that to your theory. The portal issue is somewhat of a stand-alone thing and I do know for a fact that the IM Translator made the portal take almost forever to load. I'm going to leave it off as long as it's not needed, but if the Russians show up again over here, I know I'm going to need it for their convenience.