They’re around – they help check the spamcatcher for example – but their time and energy goes to FB nowadays, mostly.
The cost isn’t an issue (I’ve been paying the cost, or helping with it, for years; as have other ad/mods) – although the cost to pay someone to migrate us to another forum engine is three to six times what we pay a year for ‘rent’. (I’ve forgotten exactly how much but over a thousand dollars.) So rather than pay that we’re doing the migration ourselves.
We can’t promise that the new system will be such as to allow all members to create new threads (although comment function should easily continue), so that’s why we’re pointing to FB group communities (starting with the one first created by administrators some time ago, but that will lead to other ones), just to be safe. Pseudonyms work fine there for those who want them, and you aren’t required to fill in a bunch of true personal information for public (or even private) consumption. I assure you, the CIA and the NSA (and apparently the Chinese, and the Commonwealth side of the Five Eyes team ), are going to track what you’re saying and doing, even if you’re posting here or at the new forum/blog/whatever.
Please note: WE AREN’T SIMPLY NUKING THE SITE! The landlord is going to knock down the house to build a new one, so we’re looking for a new house and trying to figure out what to pack and what not.
Since it’s possible our plans will fail, we’re giving an early alert for anyone wanting to make sure whatever material they care about is archived.