I'm sorry you and others have been experiencing this type of thing lately, I understand it can become frustrating at times.
The server is actually going to be upgraded sometime today, which should help with the lag and random disconnects.

I think with the amount of people online recently, the server has just been struggling to keep up.
If this issue persists I will look further into it, but again, hopefully this upgrade does the trick.

The links in the merchandise tab of the shop dont seem to be working

Apparently the work from my RedBubble was removed.. I'll be looking into this soon.

Hey guys, we're having a sale in the donation store, every package is 50% off! Just head over to the "Sale!" tab and check out the offers.

Enjoy!

It's very strange this is still happening, and I hope someone isn't doing it intentionally out of spite.
I will look into this for you first thing tomorrow. I'll let you know via PM what I find, and I'd also recommend PM'ing me for the time being.

Indeed the server has crashed about 4 times today and will bring itself up automatically only to keep happening. I've kept it down manually to avoid further issues and will investigate.
Sorry for the downtime!

Edit: There was an issue with the RAM allocation, so I take it the server was working too hard to keep up. Should be all good now.

Hey guys,

To show our thanks for the many donations we have received, I'd like to introduce a new feature for donators here on the forums.
For any past and future donations you give towards the server, you will receive a special badge displayed next to your posts and on your forum profile.

As of now, there are 7 badges to be earned from donating, they include:

Cookie - Donated $5 towards the server.
Redstone - Donated $10 towards the server.
Lapis Lazuli - Donated $20 towards the server.
Gold - Donated $30 towards the server.
Emerald - Donated $50 towards the server.
Diamond - Donated $100 towards the server.
Nether Star - Donated $150 towards the server.

Due to the overwhelming amount of donations we've received thus far, it would be hard for me to add all the badges at once.
Because of this, if you have donated to the server and would like your badge added, please either create a support thread or send me a PM with your Minecraft name you've donated with. If you've donated with multiple Minecraft names, please instead provide the email address you've used to donate with.

Thank you for your continued support, and I hope you enjoy this new feature!

That's not broken, as again it comes back to the point Lissy made. If you're willing to take the extra steps towards something (in this case obtaining slime balls from another source and crafting sticky pistons yourself), then you're going to find it much cheaper to do so.

On the old map they used to be way cheaper and i would like to see the current protection stones getting cheaper.

The protection stone you speak of was the sponge protection which protected a 13x13x13 area and was around $6000 if I recall correctly, maybe even less towards the end of its use. In that respect, I think the current prices are more than fine.