Wat at the WatNet IRC Network has canceled his Greenbay, WI server which effectively killed our shell; worse part is we werne't told about it and had to find out on our own...

Moral of the story: If you agree to exchange web design services for a shell ensure they'll be around and not cancel you without warning...

Is that why I couldnt log on a couple of days ago?
Or is that because of something completly different. Its just that I got asked to agree to some site rules after I logged in and it froze in that page.

No, IRC5 being down has nothing to do with having to re-agree to the rules.