There is no way to explain away what is going on, it is obvious.  Yes, it has all been manipulation, including that supposedly "good info" I thought I received by covert means - it was planted for distribution.  The site's workings are very simple:  You put x amount of money in, and you'll be fucking lucky to get 20% out in the end - in the meantime, you are encouraged to keep buying the ever decreasing-in-value khs mhs BShs.  Withdrawals are paid for by deposits and by the sale of phantom hashing power, the extracted wealth of those very people who are in a panic right now.  The reason that everything has slowed down is because the operators themselves are working to get out of this mess, in a way that will make it seem that the user had every opportunity to go but failed to see the obvious downward trends - most obviously the sliding rewards.

But the ops in IRC are doing their best to spin it, with their tired "cheap hashing" happy dance - fucking fools.  One of them is proudly exclaiming that they are making deposits .. buuuulllllllshit!  

The current "design changes" (not that there was any "design" to begin with), is just more manipulation - these fucks want more coin before they disappear, it's as simple as that.