it would just be a matter of finding a willing host that is capable of meeting this forum's needs - unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and the option to directly host images on the board.
Has financing been taken care of? Who will pay for the hosting? Will there be ads on the site? I already own the domain name. I would be happy to own and pay for the hosting account as well.
In order to assure that the forums continue to exist even if one or more of the owners die or encounter other difficulties, I recommend putting the board itself either into an existing business, or setting up a new business (a multi-member LLC would be preferable). We could then support it through a platform such as Patreon.
People that want things to stand the test of time set them up in a legal structure. The difficulty would be in making sure that everyone fully understands the working of the business itself, and that enough trusted people are involved in said business.
We're in COMPLETELY different territory than we were before. We need to prepare and set things up properly. In the past we were supported by Invision. Even if some of the admins died or stopped being part of the board, the board would still always exist. Now that we no longer have the protection and stability of another company, we have to obtain that stability ourselves.
Basically it's renting vs. owning. We were renting the board. Renting a home is a LOT less work and worry. Owning a home is totally different. There's legal BS to deal with (taxes, insurance, etc.), and if something goes wrong, YOU have to fix it yourself. And if only one person owns the home and either dies or walks away from it, it's taken by the state (or in this case, taken by the web host and the site is erased).
If we don't set this up properly, we'll be in an even more unstable and dangerous position than we were with Invision. It's too dangerous for only one person to own the board. It should be owned by a company that has equal members, and supported financially by the members (through Patreon or another source). If all else fails, the members of the company (most likely the admins) will agree to shoulder the burden of financing the hosting costs.
I own several businesses and I have contacts with an excellent accountant, financial adviser, and asset protection lawyer. I've been down this road MANY times. It's not fun, but I'm happy to offer any help I can. The business needs a bank account, tax ID number, it will need to have its own tax return. It may seem silly to do all this for a small board like this, but if we want GOF to exist for many years in the future, it MUST be set up properly so that its continued existence isn't dependent on only one or two people. I know it's tempting to just pawn it off to someone like me or BadPointer that knows web design/development, but I fear this board won't be around a few years from now if things aren't set up properly.
I don't know if I've really said this on the forums here (I try to keep this to myself for the most part), but I'm a pretty wealthy guy. I own three businesses and several rental properties. If the board needs financing, I'd be happy to provide it.
