John - I waited to see if anyone else was going to post before I added my 2 cents worth. It appears that everyone is too bashful or as you say John, "It's been a good run".

I don't understand the rush to drop the Forums since we still have money to support the Forums through the end of this year and there might be a way to continue the funding for an additional 2 years after this.

I also don't understand what is meant by "It might be possible to preserve the messages here for searching -- while not permitting new members, new posts, comments or questions." Either we shut down the Forums and stop paying the monthly fee OR we keep the Forums alive and pay the fee. Why would we pay to keep the history and not allow, even the few members that post, to not be able to post? I have monitored daily and have seen an average of 8-10 members visiting over a 24 hour period and an average of 300 non-members, or members not logging in, over the same 24 hour period. Right now, as I write this post, there are 10 members that visited in the last 24 hours based on the times they activated some post. They may not have posted but they were active in some way.

Now, let's look at the non-member and their reason for visiting. They are STILL interested enough in the Forums to visit and that should be enough reason right there to continue on until we run out of funds even though you say "They contribute nothing to the CF." Additionally, the new members that register only to sell their collection is another reason to keep the Forums alive as long as we can. I know of one new member, even though he may have never posted, that has taken advantage of the Trading Post to add over a 100 lighthouses to his growing collection.

Even though the Facebook group has left the Forums, there are still some old and new members alike that have an aversion to posting on Facebook and still feel comfortable with the Forums. I, of course, am one of them, and there are others maybe to bashful to post. There are other members that don't check or post daily but still want to feel the feeling that all is well when they log on and visit for the first time in days, weeks or months.

I think giving a month to respond is sufficient time to respond, both in the positive and negative, BUT I still ask what the rush is as long as we still have money to continue, whether it be for a month, 6 months or a couple of years?