To my (untrained) eye, it seems that Codeforces servers are unable to handle the traffic that comes with a regular Codeforces round. If this is indeed so, a possible solution to alleviate the server load would be to simply limit the number of participants in any given contest: only allowing a fixed number of people to register for the contest — first come, first serve. A limited-access contest is better than "no" contest at all.

Should Codeforces do this? Discuss.

(of course if the issues originate elsewhere then don't mind this)