I thought that after the recent outage it might be a good idea to have a bit of a discussion about this place.
I really enjoy the forums here, I think the tone is friendly and respectful, even when we disagree, and as such I think it is worth doing everything I can to keep it going.
However it is clear that the current situation regarding forum software, and hosting solution is precarious at best.
I am happy to muddle on as best we can and hope for the best, or we can look at maybe switching to a more robust solution. The only issue with that is that there will likely be a financial cost involved. So I guess I have a couple of questions.
Firstly, do you want this place to keep going?
Secondly if so woud you be willing to donate a few pounds to a fund to help buy some better software like Xenforo or similar?
Some of the forums I have used before have had an option for people to become supporters by paying an annual donation of their choice towards the running of the place. Would that be something anyone would consider?
Alternatively I could possibly step up the ads, or use an ad provide other than Google to get a better level of income from them?
I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts...