I'm in.
what are the hosting requirements?
space, platform, bandwidth, etc?
I think Habs would have all of the info needed on specs as he maintains the site now. I went to the vBulletin site
https://www.vbulletin.com/ and noted that the software is $249.00. Then you have to get a domain name and pay a monthly fee for hosting. Domain names are around $10 and hosting can run $6.00 to $10 a month depending on what you need. vBulletin will only allow one license so whoever purchases the product controls the site. Habs said the the files are not compatible with the Bradley forum so I would think that most likely one would have to use the same platform that the site is now on which is vBulletin.
The way I see it is there are several options.
1. See if Olds will sell the site to someone else and have them maintain it. Not sure if the license is transferable. Then that person has control of the site and can at some point decide to shut it down.
2. Purchase a new license and have someone maintain it. Who ever does this can decide to shut it down at any time and it is back to square one again. What type of legal liability is involved for copying a site that is going to be shut down? I don't know!
3. See if another forum owner will host the recipe site and transfer the recipes to that site. Lot of work to transfer it if the files are not upload compatible. What legal liability is involved if the owner of the current site does not grant permission to use the existing files? That site can also be shut down.
4. If you want the information that is on the site do a download of them using Golden Rule reader and then you have them on your computer.
5. Do nothing and the site goes down and the information is gone except for those that downloaded the files.
Perhaps there are more options but I think that is about the size of it. There are many BBQ sites that have linked to the recipe site and I agree that losing it would be sad.
I thank Olds for hosting the site for all of these years and thank Habs for maintaining it. They both put a lot of work into the site. Hopefully a solution will be found and the information contained on the site will be around for many many years.