A Business Problem - keeping Boards alive.

Same thinking as you, Gloomster. In one word, attitude. I didn't pay because Board is demanding a bail-out, not for help, and threatening to close if the funds sought are not ponied up. The €100k sum requested is petty cash, an insignificant amount to Boards’ key shareholder. They have not provided any information, not said how or why or where the new cash will be spent, how long it will last, or if/when more will be sought. So, why should it be supported? ( I don't know anyone in Boards, but know a few Mods.)

For a business to prepare for and survive any ‘crisis’ it must be operationally resilient. The three pillars of operational resilience are (i) Identify and Prepare, (ii) Respond and Adapt, and (iii) Recover and Learn. Boards supervisory management (owners/paid employees) has failed on most of these. Several pro bono Mods were allowed over a protracted period to ruin and destroy active Forums – the History forum for e.g. was a great place but some time ago a bad Mod drove informed posters away; this Business forum is another example, a past Mod there allowed and supported rubbish business ideas (e.g. cupcakes), disliked any negative criticism of an idea  and handed out bans like snuff at a wake. Boards was told but did nothing for too long. Result? The better posters left for good. In History Mod Manach inherited a tomb and in Business you got an empty ‘office’. Same Boards attitude to the changeover of the platform, a classic example of how to mishandle a migration, ignoring user-identified problems, ignoring customer care and making no visible effort at crisis management. (Telling customers “It would be worse if we did not make the change!” is not an appropriate response.) Management failure was again repeated with the (mis)handling of AI / bot traffic when that commenced. All these problems were identified, but Boards did not respond, or adapt, or prepare, or learn. The attitude seemed to be “It’s free, we’ll do it our way, if you don’t like it, leave”. Well, lots did, that’s why Boards is in the present predicament.

Despite their massive ineptitude, Boards now wants us to Subsidise? Pay for? the losses, without providing any concrete information (other than “Give us cash or we’re taking our ball home”). No suggestion that our €100k would be matched by a cash injection from the shareholders, no explanation whatsoever. It's no wonder attaining the investment target is far off. Two thirds of the target sum has to be raised in a month

So no, I don’t see why I should back a lame management. It’s not the money - a €50 sub is a piddling sum, but paying it means I’d be accepting a pi$$-poor campaign and a lazy, arrogant approach. If Boards closes, I might miss it for a few days, but it will soon be forgotten, a memory like “Do you remember the Dandelion Market?”. The ‘After Hours’ ranters will rant elsewhere, the key posters on forums such Genealogy, History, Sailing, Business provide rather than look for help, so generally have nothing to lose, it is Boards loss. Many know each other and will remain in contact and will re-appear elsewhere.

There you have it, sorry for long post no time to shorten it / make it more concise.

I'm on LinkedIn for professional reasons/research; I don't use it for anything else; much of the stuff I see posted is crap, trite self-agrandissement.