mybinder.org frequently fails

[awmacpherson]

Describe the bug
The website mybinder.org frequently fails to load the notebook with a message "Too many users on this BinderHub." Or, the website is extremely slow. Or it appears to reach the "launching" phase but then never actually launches.

To Reproduce
The problem is intermittent and cannot be reproduced reliably. If you use mybinder.org often enough you'll see it.

Expected behavior
The notebook can be used 99% of the time.

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• Browser: Firefox
• Version: 113.0 (64-bit)

Additional context
Communicated by @gemmanderson

[awmacpherson]

This is an issue with an external website and not this repo per se, but I'm leaving it open since it affects how the project is consumed. Workarounds include:

• Wait and refresh mybinder.org every 5 minutes until it works.
• Clone and run locally (problematic for the non technically inclined).
• Self-host BinderHub (or possibly vanilla JupyterHub).