I don't know what the long term business plan (if any) is. It is an entrepreneurial effort bankrolled by one person AFAIK.

I would guess the dream is to monetize the dating aspect of the site but it would have to reach a critical mass that we seem to be nowhere near, judging from what people using the site for that purpose report.

I don't have all my eggs in this particular basket, even for conversational purposes. I frequent three other sites. This hasn't been my primary site ever since the debacle a few months ago where they unilaterally pulled the general forums and hastily restored them after widespread protest. There's a bit of a transparency deficit here at times, that's insufficiently inclusive of members as part of the process.

Back around 2009 I used to be on a site called tbd.com which is now defunct. It was specifically for people 40 and older, and had many sub-forums by topic and was fantastic in terms of participation quality and loyalty, but like here, there was no coherent business plan and they closed up with almost no notice. There used to be an excellent atheism discussion forum on Seth Andrew's site, the Thinking Atheist, but he (again, unilaterally, with nearly zero notice and certainly no regard for the community that had built itself there) decided to shut down the forums.

I still miss those places, but have not allowed myself to rely on any online property to that extent, ever since these events. The TTA forum resurfaced at atheistdiscussion.org, through the kind generosity of a member in the UK, but tbd is no more.

It is obvious I was too lazy to research the site before posting this question. Thanks to everyone for pointing me in the right direction. My bad, please forgive.

Depending on the size of the data base,number of free tees and the cost of the forum software, I'm guessing our benefactor is probably out about 1K annually. I hope it is all tax deductible for him/her and they are aware that I appreciate their efforts to enlarge our community.

“Agnostic is a non-profit organization that doesn’t charge anything for the use of the site nor do we take donations. Our funding comes from private individuals who want to promote a positive image of atheists, agnostics, humanists and other secular views.“
[agnostic.com]

@admin did post something about writing a book having to do with social issues and polarization (my recollection of his words, its in a post somewhere). Im sure its not the reason the site exists, but it might tie in with other research or data gathering. Yes conspiracy theories abound.

@Admin says he funds the site through money made from "other projects", which seems believable as a site such as this probably doesn't cost an enormous amount to run. There have, of course, been various conspiracy theories put forward.

I often wondered that, either Admin or some other person is very generous with sponsorship, or there is some sort of data sales.

That is a very good question, I am sure someone must know!