The other old timers can correct me on any of this. It's been a long, long time.
Robert set all this up in 2002 and participated for a few years. After the upgrade in 2005 to this current forum software from software he'd written from scratch, the d-bags became too much to deal with and he became less and less active. I think the final nail in the coffin was a paint and bodywork deal with a member that went bad. Ultimately he decided that his (rather busy) business and growing family were more important that the BS that comes with running a forum like this. It's too bad that for him at least, the d-bags outweighed the good people.
He always promised to keep the site going, hosting it on his company's servers. Efforts to acquire this site from him have been continuously rebuffed. Out of the group of moderators Phil was named admin and has also succumbed to the pressure and went the way of the Dodo bird. Occasionally he pops up to upload a new avatar.
Robert pays for all the bandwidth, which I'm sure is not an inconsequential amount. People occasionally donate to the "Future Fund" which was originally set up in 2004 (can't remember who suggested it originally, maybe Phil, maybe Dwight, I dunno) was initially used for donations to cover the software, bigger hard drives and if any was left over, the bandwidth costs. I'm sure any and all money ran out a long time ago and Robert has just been covering us.
But other involvement by Robert? Fixing Photopost? Sending Patches? Other broken pages off the homepage? Don't hold your breath.
So before anyone considers bad mouthing our absent benefactor, realize he HAS done a lot for us. Try to focus on the good rather than the bad.
P.S. And before one of you suggests ever so helpfully that Robert and Phil should grow thicker skins, I guarantee that you haven't had to deal with the constant stream of crap generated from bad apples, secure in their online anonymity, who don't care that something like this great resource is being provided for free.
