Or did I imagine it?

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/suggestions/chess-changes

post 12

As our site continues to grow, the database grows and grows, and the queries for those stats have gotten more and more expensive. Those kinds of queries were what were causing all of the recent site problems. We have temporarily removed them while we architect new solutions for them. Sorry to disappoint - we just need some time to fix it. Having the site be stable is the top priority.

Fair enough - but a warning might be nice when something you've paid for is diminished.

Unfortunately thats not always possible if we don't expect something to break  :(

I understand that. But we pay for a service. If part of it is withdrawn, a message explaining why wouldn't hurt. After all, we get plenty of messages about upgrades.

 Yes, great, just noticed it. Well done staff, obviously whatever the hurdle was you got over it.

I was rather hoping mine would be better... ;-)