I suppose my only surprise is that....people are surprised

was there really that kind of naivity around that folk thought the place would plod on forever without a commercial gain being made or being sought?....surely not.
Like everyone else I can only guess at events, but if you guess at a site starting out in a small way, with the owners not really knowing how it would grow and form itself, but then finding perhaps to thier surprise that the time and effort and I will also guess at a bit of cost as well, has made it grow into something that is much bigger than they envisaged and into something that now has a workload thats seriously impinging on life and a commercial value that can't be ignored, what would you do?...yep sell it! and why not. What the hell is so wrong about realising a worth on something you own and deciding to take that worth to provide for you and your own, cos I'm buggered if I can find fault in that.
So now there are new owners and those owners are going to try and make a shilling or two with thier new purchase. They have made thier initial announcement and already a few sticks and stones have been chucked over the walls at em. commercialism, greed, scammers, blah, blah, blah, well so what, someone sees an opening, sees an oppurtunity to add to thier existing business does the leg work splashes out the dosh and thats ohhh so wrong?....eerm no it isnt, its real life, you might not like it but thats pretty much how the world works, someone puts in the work, some starting capital and a business is born and on the back of that with a bit of luck comes a copper or two, ohhh and that terrible word as well....shall I say it?...shall I? ..go on then say it.....PROFIT.
Change can often be unpallatable, we all like the comfort of what we know, but change is ineviatable in nearly everything we do, touch and get involved in, sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse, but as sure as eggs are eggs it is with us all.
I ain't trying to piss on peoples concerns, but thus far its been said that the existing membership is gonna be uneffected, sort of tuped over and thats fine by me and if the time comes that the place changes into something that I don't like, or into something I can't afford, then I will open that same door that I opened when I walked into the place...the one marked 'free' and gently shut it behind me.
Best of luck to the old owners and best of luck to the new.