This feels wrong. I created a niche sub that currently has ~10k users, but I consider the members of the community to be as much the "owners" of it as I am. Just as I work to keep spammers and self-promoters at bay, I'd find it pretty scummy to form a startup around the sub and make money out of the contributions of thousands of community members. Separately, I like that at Reddit I know what I get now and very likel…
> Just as I work to keep spammers and self-promoters at bay, I'd find it pretty scummy to form a startup around the sub and make money out of the contributions of thousands of community members.
Exactly. As you said, you may have created a community and technically own the forum, but you're not the community. The community is its own thing, and the founder demanding it move somewhere else so they can monetize it would be no different than an invasion of spammers - just another attempt at profiting off the community.