It seems all is back to normal! Thanks 123-reg for sorting out it quickly although nobody emailed me or updated the support ticket, but stellar support nonetheless.
If you want a domain name host, then I can happily recommend 123-reg after this experience.
**Update 2014-08-12 11:14**
I've been in touch with 123-reg and was told the following:
This domain has entered in a renewal phase at the registry, it will be completed on the 15-Aug-2014, during this phase you cannot make any DNS changes.
I asked if it would return to as-was once this is phase is completed and if they could do anything to speed it up, response:
Yes, they will return to the original ones, we have encountered these situations before and we can speed up the renewal process.
I will need to escalate this chat to a support ticket to have my colleagues assist you further, is that ok?
So it is being escalated. I'll keep this post updated.
**Original Post**
I'm not sure (as I've not heard from anybody, really) of the exact extent of the freegamedev.net outage (especially the forums which projects/people depend upon) but it is currently down for me and others if isup.me is to be believed.
I forgot to renew the domain. I would cite lots of excuses but I don't have any!
Don't panic! It is now renewed, but perhaps because I renewed it after it expired (on the 9th - I noticed the forums down this morning which is the 10th) it seems I don't have access to the admin tools and it hasn't recovered yet. They have taken my money though so I expect normal service to resume soon and my provider (123-reg) says the 16th at the latest.
To everybody that this impacts, I am sorry. It'll be back soon. Also, it should auto-renew next year.
- Charlie