Hello all!
I have been with the Classroom longer than any current active member with the exception of our beloved CJR

I have seen this conversation several times before and assure you that no big changes will happen quickly or without the consideration of all our members.
On the topic of more active membership. I will continue with the Genetics forum being closed to Guests for a few weeks. During this time I will monitor new membership and if that new membership posts. If there is no increase in active members I will open the topics to public view again. Next I am working on an email to our membership list. I will make it clear that it is a one time email and we will not continue contacting them. I will offer to help any member who needs help logging back in to their old account. I am sure many have forgotten their log in info.
On the topic of upgrading the board. Even if we keep our current platform, UBB Threads, it needs updated. It is years behind on updates. My concern is not with new features but venerability and obsolete operations. I doubt many of you know that every new registration is approved or declined manually. To the best of my knowledge 99% of those are done by Foehn. We owe her a huge THANK YOU. This is because our automated screening (CAPTCHA) is so out dated that the BOTs and spammers come right through. If not for doing this manually the board would be swamped with spam postings.
How to pay for updates. I really don't know how much we could get for some banner ads. Kaz, I do agree that we would want to keep them simple static ads (no flashy animated things) to not cause problems for those of us with poor internet connections or older computers. Most everything on the internet is paid for through advertisement and not member fees. I would not pay to be here.
On that comment maybe I should explain why I am here

. To some of you I am that guy who comes out from under a rock every now and then

I was asked to be a moderator by Loren and Dr. Bruce Smith (moderator1) many years ago. At that time the board was growing. In time Bruce drifted away but the board was thriving so moderating took much of my time. I slowly posted less and less in the forums as Bill Ludwig. I lost contact with Loren and was left holding the keys to the Coop

. I have brought in several moderators over the years but eventually they move on and it is just me again. Our current moderators have been with us for some time and I thank them for that.
The Classroom is truly unique. Because of who we are I don't know if we can expect many more active members. When members started leaving for other boards I lost many friends. The other boards are full of fluff and nonsense

. Most people do not like being challenged. In the classroom when you post you are expected to back up your claims not pass around myth and rumor. This keeps many people away.
Could the Coop vanish? It could. Many things could happen or not. The software could crash and not be rebuilt, something could happen to Loren and with no directive the Coop could just be turned off. A virus could destroy the data.
If you read all this, Thanks for your time..LOL This is my view point and my opinion. As I have said in the past, I have no authority or ability to make big changes.