Red Shirt,
If you left, I would hate to see you go, but I think you underestimate the cost of the site. Of course you can find a cheap ISP to set you up with a board. But as your site grows both in terms of members and the size of the database, so do the costs - exponentially.
The Boards are run on 5 dedicated servers - not one - and the size of the database is enormous. We also have two people who administer the boards. One manages the servers and the database. The other manages the code. We have folks who market the site. And two people who provide customer service.
There is NO fitness related topic that you will not be able to find in the search archive. After all, this is the largest repository of bodybuilding information that has ever existed. You can go to another site, but you will not find the history of information there. The serious athletes who are also Platinum Members understand the value of this resource.
Try going Platinum for just a month. It costs less than two cups of Starbucks. I promise you that you will be pleased with your decision and will not want to go back.