None of us knows Malcolm's personal circumstances and he may simply not want the income from people paying or the extra responsibility that running a paid service brings. However, even if no charge is made needing a credit card to register might be worth thinking about - it at least gives some comfort of knowing peoples' real identity. Even this though might open another can of worms with data protection and needing a secure element of the site to take such details.

I have moderated forums before - it is a thankless task and I found it very time consuming. Would I do it again? Well probably yes I would if it were the difference between losing the forum or not but I wouldn't be at the front of the queue wanting to do it.