Ok here's how I see it.
Take money + Provide service = Company
I and many others pay this company a fee per year to host business on here. The company is failing to provide the service that has been paid for. The company responds that they will fix it when they get round to it, the reason for the delay is that they haven't correctly assigned thier resources to provide the service promised.
No, apologies but will have to decline, I personally will not pay you to fix this issue as the net benefits to me alone would not cover this cost. The forum currently uses money from traders and other sources to pay for web hosting, domain names, bbq's, cups of tea, flyers, name badges + all sorts of other things. If the forum decides to utilise its funds to pay you then that is a possible course of action to remedy the problem.
On the note of a thread detailing down time.
-thread starts
-people agree
-problem is being fixed
-people wait
-people get frustrated
-thread is continued
You asked us to wait while it was sorted, that seems a fairly obvious reason for the thread to stay quiet.
If you think the downtime doesnt exist then run a poll and find out.