Every so often, the countdown of numbers on the frontpage don't update and I'm stuck looking at the same number until I refresh. I've missed out on Deus Ex 2 because of this. What gives?

Guessing from the forum speed, their servers are getting hammered by this sale (good for them!). I'd go with what you did and manually refresh if you see a slowdown

Having the same problem...

Same thing happened last time.
Nothing much you can do about it, manual refresh also doesn't work very good because the counter will start from the top again and attempt to count down.
And occasionally it starts with the previous game on a refresh.

The sticking bar is happening a lot for me, I didn't realise just how many games I missed until I checked IAmSinistar's tracker - although I think the only one I'm disappointed about is Valdis, but it may well come back around if there are repeats like there were last time.

Anyone figured out if it's a browser or OS specific problem? I'm using Firefox 29 and Linux Mint and seeing the stall often. Just switched to Chrome to see if it works better.

F5 is your friend here

I had this problem earlier in the sale; but it's seemed better more recently. Maybe "they" changed something.

Ctrl + F5 might be even better.

personally use Ctrl + w for better refresh :)

maybe just a coincidence? Chrome seems to be better for me, no sticking as far as I can tell since I switched browser