From the upstream askbot developer:

Btw, on your site - still first thing I'd update it and
implement task queue:

CELERY_ALWAYS_EAGER = False #in settings.py
python manage.py celeryd #options are available on the command - to start
the queue

The task queue will make posts appear without delay
as the time consuming part of sending email alerts will be done
by the queue separately, rather than by the app process.