Portrait Submissions - On Hold Until Further Notice
That is a very good stopgap, though unfortunately not one that works with my brain (I view the site with portraits off because a static best-fit image doesn't fit with my highly visual imagination and is irritating to me, but I have a player with hypophantasia - where you don't really "see" pictures when you read, making a lack of portraits a hindrance to distinguishing NPCs if anyone shares a voice colour). Also, as RosstoFalstaff mentions, if we can't upload new persons or creatures then it discourages diversity through difficulty of access, which lowers the quality of the gaming environment in general. I'm not going to make a profile for my half-Evenki PC's mother until there's a prospect of her getting her own picture, but it makes me sad that his father's had one for a long time now, as though he's less of a background NPC/more important.
In short: I really was posting in hopes of an update on what steps are being taken to fix this when, e.g. "we need to get the servers stable and will look at this after that in a few months, maybe remind us", rather than advice - even good advice - on what to do while it's not fixed.