TV's Frink wrote: There's no way I'm paying a single cent to join an online community.

You don't have to, I provided a second option for contacting this individual. If necessary do a whois on the domain, to get a contact e-mail address. (hint:psittig@calpoly.edu)

If Jay couldn't pay the bills for this place would you help keep it functioning?
Metafilter works in this fashion, and the side benefit is the fee keeps out nutjobs for the most part. Not saying this will work for all forums, but metafilter's post quality show that it works for them.