I belong to a different forum on scale models. The free version is available to all, but you can also sponsor the site for just £10 a year. There are a good few hundred users who do just that, and it more than pays hosting fees etc.
Is that a way to go?I t's less than a kilo of boilies to keep the forum going all year. Of course you'd want reassurance that the issues would be resolved, but it's an idea anyway.