Well I feel better I wasn't the only one upset about people making private stores just to stay logged in:
09-25-09 02:56:32
views 39774 We are bringing the servers down at 6:00AM PST (more), September 25th, for maintenance. The purpose of this downtime is to tweak the way Private Stores work. A timer of 30 minutes will be implemented to prevent these shops from being abused as a means to prevent disconnection and alleviate queues.
The maintenance is expected to run no longer than 1 hour.
Thank you for your patience!