Future of SaabWorld and automotive forums in general
We are pretty small when it comes to automotive forums. I have read a few comments about how these forums seem to develop through the years.
1) One enthusiast or a very small group starts forum
2) Forum becomes successful
3) As traffic and membership grows, site becomes valuable, both in content and financial revenue and worth
4) Original owner looses interest, moves on in life and sells forum
5) New owner buys forum for commercial business purposes
6) Members move on, forum slowly dies and becomes useless
7) Cycle starts again with step 1
I have no commercial plans for this site but my life can change in the future. People do move on. And at that point, what if some company offers me a crazy number? Should that be shared with the moderators and members?
Perhaps we can be the open-source of Saab forums and eventually set it up as non-profit organization? So no matter who runs it, nobody really owns it and can never be sold.
The Mozilla Mission
Quote:
As a
non-profit organization, we define success in terms of building communities and enriching people’s lives instead of benefiting shareholders. We believe in the power and potential of the Internet and want to see it thrive for everyone, everywhere.
Nonprofit organization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quote:
Ownership is the quantitative difference between for- and not-for-profit organizations. For-profit organizations can be privately owned and may re-distribute taxable wealth to
employees and
shareholders. By contrast, not-for-profit organizations do not have private owners. They have controlling members or boards, but these people cannot sell their shares to others or personally benefit in any taxable way.
While they are able to earn a profit, more accurately called a surplus, such earnings must be retained by the organization for its self-preservation, expansion and future plans. Earnings may not benefit individuals or stake-holders.
[3] While some nonprofit organizations put substantial funds into hiring and rewarding their internal corporate leadership, middle-management personnel and workers, others employ unpaid volunteers and even executives may work for no compensation.
Does anyone really care about this and am I thinking more about this than I should? We are far away from setting this up legally and I wouldn't really know where to start with this. And at this point, that's probably not even important yet.
Just some thoughts open for discussion. :)