65,000 EUR per month for Go development (down by ~10%)
5,000 EUR per month for Python development (down by ~50%)
13,000 EUR per month for IT, hosting, maintaining build servers, release coordination, etc (down by ~35% with more cuts likely coming soon)
6,000 EUR per month for communications (down by ~85%)
20,000 EUR per month for research (roughly unchanged)
40,000 EUR per month for top-level administrative and executive staff, accounting, office management, legal and other expenses (down by ~50% with more cuts likely coming soon)
( Taken from the latest blog post https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/01/07/2394/ )
..It is impossible that they are shutting the forums down due to financial reasons. Certainly not because of a pissy $300 a month.
There is obviously more to it. Just don't know what..
..
ps.. That is some serious cash they are burning through..
That is serious cash they are burning. It's a bit like what went on in the dot com era when start-up capital was burned through extravagantly and then they all crashed and burned when the money ran out. I wonder if the real cost of the forum was the 13000 EUR listed for "IT hosting" etc - in other words they are paying over the odds for someone to manage the forum.