Swift has it right -- I just went to archive.org and copied the list of the "biggest" forums (because there were so many and my time is a little limited), and their descriptions, and created BT2 from that. I admit I didn't read the descriptions in many cases, but will go back and edit anything inappropriate or inaccurate.

As for my purpose, it is as others have suspected... I have a *lot* of respect for online communities and have learned a lot from running them for the past 11 years. One of the things I've learned is that many, many people rely on them as literal lifelines to the outside world. You take away one of the only or few lifelines of a person and you can cause a lot of emotional pain.

As a psychologist, I can't help but look for ways to help people reduce their pain.

So when I see a community seemingly abandoned, with little regard for the daily support so many people appreciated and needed, and I can take some positive action to help, then I'll do it. It's just my nature.

John