It's run by the people that are making Lemmy. They're very busy improving the code, which we already benefit from on our server, but I understand they don't also have the time to update lemmy.ml with every change in code. I think a lot will improve as soon as 0.18.1 is released and am sure they will update lemmy.ml as well.

Usually no. The problem is, that lemmy.ml is hosted on a too underpowered server or has a too slow data connection to handle the amount of users. In the last 2-3 weeks user count skyrocketed due to Reddit fuckups.

Instances with servers capable of handling the amount of users/requests will run better.

Instead of pointing users directly to lemmy.ml it would help mentioning https://join-lemmy.org/ instead so the load spreads over multiple instances. Also disabling registration on here might help in long-term.

So, everyone: Advertise Lemmy! But don't advertise lemmy.ml! 😀

it's running the 0.18.0 version which has some SQL problems that were fixed in recent 0.18.1 rc's

(unless the devs here are using a custom build)

Slow, no, but there’s definitely some bugs and weird little quirks. We’re not even at a version 1 release yet.