Cryptomasters right now says "Cryptomasters.net VTC/MON Merged Mining STRATUM IS OFFLINE. THERE IS SOME KIND OF BUG IN THE PAYMENT WHICH EMPTIES THE WALLETS ON THE SERVER" ... Not encouraging!

soun.se is working for me... I see balances building, too early for payments.

Is there a reason why both those pools only seem to show three connected (the fastest?) users on the regular p2p stats page?  

hashharder's 2% fee is kind of high... especially if payments are buggy.