As I think most everyone here knows, 4um is currently on borrowed time. Christine, who founded this site is no longer here, and it's continued existence is by her graces alone, for the time being. At least as far as I know. My understanding is that 4um will be permitted to continue until the Nov election, but soon after that, the plug may be pulled. I expect that would happen with little to no explicit warning, meaning that any of us who wish to stay in contact may permanently lose the opportunity to do so unless alternate contact info is exchanged in advance.
In my last communication with Christine, I offered to take responsibility for 4um until the general election, but with no guarantees that I'd want to continue doing so after that -- maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't -- but I received no response to that limited offer. If I offered to take permanent control of the site and continue it indefinitely, she may well accept that, but I wouldn't know until I made such an offer.
If someone else made a similar serous offer -- someone she is sentimental too -- she may well agree to turn it over to that person.
There is really just one question:
Is it worth it to continuing running 4um?
There are a few costs to consider. One is the hosting fee, which could run from $50-$200 per year, along with the domain name registration fee. If I were to take it, I'd put it on my own server I'm already using for other purposes essentially making the hosting cost zero. I would also want to make the whole site encrypted, just on principle, which would make passwords and pmail really private from prying eyes.
But the other costs involve time and patience for such things as editing articles, changing PW's for people, and deciding who to kick off the site. And then there's the more serious potential issues of dealing with copyright infringement claims. Rare but it can happen.
Factored in is the current volume of posters. Are there enough people here to make it worthwhile to continue the site, or are discussion forums like this one becoming obsolete as people turn to other forms of social media, like FB? Is there any potential for new people to come here and participate, or is this site becoming more and more isolated from public view so as to be destined to become an internet ghost town?
A few notes:
Christine owns the site, but not any of us. So while she has the right to close down the site, it does not mean another successor forum site couldn't be made to replace it by me or anyone else.
She might agree to turn 4um over in it's complete form to someone else. She might agree to turn over the domain name and artwork to someone eles, but insist the entire posting history of 4um be purged. Or she might want the entire site deleted.
If the latter is the case, a new domain could be created that remaining people could migrate too in advance. (Maybe Freedom5um.com, to suggest an amusing name). The time to discuss this is now, if there's to be any discussion at all before the 4um plug gets pulled, just in case it does.
Thoughts?