Comment by beacon294
6 months ago
It's much more responsible to put this whole thing into some nonprofit trust format and hand it over to someone with the time and energy to handle it. This also would not exclude you from volunteering.
6 months ago
It's much more responsible to put this whole thing into some nonprofit trust format and hand it over to someone with the time and energy to handle it. This also would not exclude you from volunteering.
I can understand them not wanting the due diligence burden (even if only self-imposed rather than required for any official reason) of picking a successor in this way, or the admin burden of setting up “some non-profit trust format”.
Also depending on the terms agreed to when people signed on and started posting, it might be legally or morally difficult because transferring the data to the control of another party could be against the letter or the spirit of the terms users agreed to. Probably not, but I wouldn't want to wave such potential concerns off as “nah, it'll be fine” and hoping for the best.
Even leaving a read-only version up, so a new home could develop with the old content remaining for reference, isn't risk free: the virtual-swatting risk that people are concerned about with this regulation would be an issue for archived content as much as live stuff.
At least people have a full three months notice. Maybe in that time someone can come up with a transfer and continuation plan the current maintainer is happy with, if not the users at least have some time to try to move any social connectivity based around the site elsewhere.
I did say it's more responsible, which I get is a values judgment.