After some repeated incidents of severe chat latency, the chat simply froze this afternoon, so I attempted every conceivable way to get it moving again. One option I tried was to leave the room and go into the forum (planning to return immediately)...but it would not let me get back into the chat room at all, and it even kicked me off the site (I had to log in again).

i think your problem occured around the same time as my own in this post.  my error itself isn't related, but while i was trying my upload, all of bandamp went to hades in a handbasket, and unfortunately for myself, it destroyed my internet connection.  i had to restart my computer in order to regain my browsing ability.  by the time i realized what was happening and did something about it, the problem seems to have been resolved.

is the chat room still acting up by chance?