Why is this in read only mode? Is this a shadowban?
No, it’s not a shadowban.
It’s a feature of the Discourse system that is triggered automatically to ensure database consistency when they are backing up the forum database, or upgrading the forum system software.
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OK. Do you have the banner too?
Yes, but it comes and goes - just saw it a minute ago, but now, it’s gone again. They must be doing something behind the scenes.
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Thanks. When I kept seeing the banner and noticed other people were posting and replying I wondered if it was just me.
Seems kind of odd that the banner states that replying is disabled for now, and yet we (the Community) keep replying to messages as they appear. What’s the use of a banner then ?
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It’s just an automatic way to let users know why they can’t perform certain actions at that particular moment, so that they don’t think there is something wrong. The Discourse system has to disable database writes while doing back-ups, or certain updates, but they don’t want to leave us in the dark about what’s happening.
Since the banner was appearing sporadically, we were able to post our replies in between its appearances. 
Except I was able to post with it up so it’s not a particular good design.
Okay, thanks for the info.
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That’s interesting, maybe there’s a bug in the system, because I wasn’t able to post a reply or log-in when the banner was visible.
But you’re right, it’s not a good design. The banner behaves strangely - it appeared spontaneously while I was composing a reply, but it didn’t disappear spontaneously. I had to refresh the page to get it to disappear, before it would let me post a reply.
You’re welcome.