Hi - assuming that I accurately recognise your avatar, then a big hi!
this thread may help: (link to page 3 & relevant post)
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2&start=20basic answer though is:
- I had a conversation with Mr C-W regarding our disquiet about the commercial purchase of the old forum.
- As I (in my work) run a web company and have my own hosting servers & a certain amount of coding skill - I offered to set up a new forum.
- Last Sunday I bought a domain (having done a search for something fairly generic), added the hosting to one of my servers
- added PHPBB 3.1 (new version to be responsive) as it carried over familiarity
- threw open the doors and waited to see what might happen!
- I am funding this as I have the hosting and own many domains, so the cost is cheaper for me - should it get enormous, we may have to look at alternatives, but for now there are no issues
- I have made a committment that it should not be owned by a commercial organisation in this sector (technically my company owns the hosting etc. but we are a web company and there is no conflict!)
- I also believe that it should be independent of other organisations (e.g. IAM / RoSPA / etc.)
As we have seen it is remarkably easy for a community to up sticks and move, so there is no huge commercial value in having the 'ownership' of a forum as such there is little incentive to try and build something to sell... instead it is about building it for the value of the community and AD
At a personal level I love creating organisations and seeing them grow - that is what I do professionally in web & business consultancy, and I have a track record in businesses and setting up charities - including the umbrella charity for 4x4 Response (
http://www.4x4response.info/) which I set up in 2008 and then stepped down as a trustee once it was up and running c. 18 months later. So, no commercial interest for me, I just want to see the same atmosphere we had at ADUK - a free, independent space to discuss AD...
Team is simple, Mr C-W / Jont- / me
If we get larger it might have to grow, but as the philosophy is a light-handed approach, hopefully not an issue
happy to answer any questions...
Alasdair