For what it's worth, the paid option I'm considering is to have a version of the site with minimal advertising (and possibly some new features) for those who wish to pay an optional fee. That would supplement CFS's income, since the sites are losing money and it's problematic if we can stay online. This was an issue even several years ago when Keith was still with us. Obviously massive upgrades are needed, but I'm hindered both by time and budget.
With this model, the CFS site would still available for free, albeit with lots of advertising, for those who don't want to pay.
Obviously this model has its weaknesses. It's used by
FetLife and a few other sites in this market space. It's also used by a number of newspaper sites, such as the Hearst Newspapers including the Houston Chronicle that I read most days. Hearst is adjusting it, and recently sent me a survey which implied they were considering changes to their pricing model.
As for CFS, I don't know when I'll be able to try this, but it certainly would be no earlier than sometime in 2016.
And the Spartacus site is back online, too. Wish I had time to look at it today!
~ Bob