Many Thanks to Admin who have been working on resolving this and keeping us in the loop.
Latest update from Chris:
In addition to what Steve noted regarding options to regaining access, the underlying issues have been worked on and things should start returning back to normal and hopefully will no longer be a problem going forward.
That said, anyone that is currently still stuck (and doesn’t want or can’t use the alternative methods Steve mentioned) just needs to wait a little bit longer. The blocking has a time limit on it varying upon when you were blocked and it will expire, as we’ve seen with accounts previously blocked now once again regaining access. With the underlying issues addressed, most should expire in the next 24 hours if not expired already.
I apologize for the issues this has caused, but it was an unintended consequence of doing something for the greater good.
The interim options from Steve he refers to:
If you're blocked, it's due to your IP address, so if restarting your modem/router will assign a different IP address, please try that.
If you have a VPN, using that will also circumvent these issues.
Hope this helps
Mel