www.rafcommands.com For Sale

[Steve Smith]

Gents,

You can count me in.

Regards

Steve

[dennis_burke]

I could fess up that much at least, what else will I do with my limited free time.

[CZ_RAF]

Gents,

You can count me in too.

Pavel

[bruce dennis]

I keep thinking about the good work done by Henk.
I am one of (I suspect) many who have spoken to Ross about the sale and, frankly, I don't care to have the sole responsibility for maintaining such a valuable resource. I don't have the expertise to make the basic decisions concerning the hosting and security. My thoughts were to partner with a technical guru, enlist a couple of moderators in different time zones and seek a small subscription fee to keep ahead of the expenses. Any surplus income could go to a chosen good cause such as, for example, the Guinea Pig Club.

We, between us, have a formidable amount of knowledge and resources and the only reason we are able to use this to good effect is because Ross took the plunge and provided the soapbox.

Henk proved how it can be used, and now Alex and others are using the tool as it was intended. The forum is welcoming to the general public seeking help and has allowed a few members to 'blossom' into productive researchers.

There is a need for the forum and I am willing to do what it takes to keep it going. It will require, as Scott pointed out, one person to take the lead. I will support whoever rises to the lead, or will take a more proactive role if called upon.

Bruce

[Scott McIntosh]

I think and this is purely me thinking that the person who is going to be the forum technical guide should be the person who is named as the forum operative/owner. Simply so they are the one to bring up the subject of renewals etc and to advise on the forum running/hosting/advertising/upgrading etc etc side of things. Everything would need to be discussed between the forum owners before a decision is made. Majority vote rules no matter how narrow a margin it happened to be.

Is there someone who would be willing to take the lead on this and happens to have the technical knowledge to run this forum.

I think everyone now has the general idea.

We may even end up with several people with varying degrees of technical abilities.

[Errol Martyn]

I, too, would be happy to chip in with a donation/subscription if someone with the technical expertise who is willing to run the site can be found to take it on.

Errol

[David Layne]

I count 7 people so far who have offered finiancial support already before and after my post above so far.

Another 13 depending on the level of financial support given and we could still have a forum.

Make that eight. I will be "out of town" for a week but will willingly contribute to a consortium to maintain the website. Keep me posted.

D.

[HughAHalliday]

This site is quite complex, given other sections like the POW list. I assume, however, that the Forum is the most difficult, given the matter of updating, policing (lest people be abusive) and dealing with unwelcome intrusions (remember the smut that troubled the site two years ago). That given, of anyone succeeds Ross with this task, he needs (1) expertise (2) time and (3) money.

If anyone possessing (1) and (2) is prepared to buy the domain and maintain it, I am prepared to put up some of the third element, to a maximum of 120 pounds (about $ 200 Canadian). Could some agreement be reached as to who is going to do it and who is prepared to help financially - with hard figures attached ?

I would hope that those with special expertise would continue to contribute their knowledge - including Ross who knows so much about Coastal Command.

[David Wallace]

I would also be willing to put some money towards supporting the site.

[Jagan]

I am glad so many of the forum members are stepping up to the plate and offering to help. With sufficient members offering to dip in to their wallets I think sufficient funds can be raised to meet the target from Ross. leaving only one thing to worry about - Technical Knowhow (Which in itself is no big deal, but the initial days may be a struggle for some).

FWIW, what I offered Ross was a partial amount of what he was asking for (as the full amount was beyond my means). I had technical expertise to run/maintain it, and I had a couple of websites of my own so the yearly recurring fees for hosting and bandwidth were next to zero for me. BUT.. a big BUT... I WOULD have taken help of Google Adsense to put some ads to help offset my initial costs. (I know this is Undesirable for many and not the ideal solution).. There is also the danger of 'one man' being responsible for such a large effort. (consider what happened to the cfww2 forum) What I proposed to Ross was a solution with the second worst outcome (next to the site turning 'read only')

The Best solution is to have enough members coming together to chip in, both for initial and yearly expenses, as well as with technical and moderation efforts. Distributing the load ensures no one gets burned out. Best of all, when members get overwhelmed or feel the need to carry on , they can easily step aside and let others take up the mantle. I would still advise to go with some kind of Ads - to offset yearly running costs. KeyForums does it without being too obnoxious about it!