FYI, I guess when they did maintenance on the web server early yesterday AM (1/23/14) either php on the server was upgraded or it somehow changed the php version to a newer version of php that our bulletin board software does not like. That was the cause of the 500 Internal Server Error we all got yesterday. Now we've been getting that error randomly for a while, and usually refreshing the page does the trick, I don't know what's causing that.
Meanwhile, while the site was down, and I still had access to the FTP, I decided that it was a good time to update the Portal page (front page with TS viewer, calendar, and whatnot), as it was a version behind and needed to be done for security patches and compatibility and such. Well, that's been done, but for whatever reason, it doesn't show as the default home page. So, simple fix I changed some redirects. You must use http://www.factor8guild.com or portal.php to start at the Portal, or if you prefer the forum index, use http://www.factor8guild.com/phpBB3/ to start. Basically, update your bookmarks to your preference, because I've already spent more time working on that particular problem than I care to, and that's the easiest solution.
Thanks for bearing with it!