Suggestion: Server status


Not a good idea...then you would have thousands doing a continuous ping to the server(s), which will make a bad situation even worse.

yeah! Too much pinging can bring the server down.
Chess.com can put up some sort of server load indicator on the live chess page (that should be only by SSI or similar safe technology - under no circumstances should anything about the server be revealed on the webpage itself) - that would be safe and less harmful.