Thanks for the suggestion Einstein.
I had a look at Discourse and it looks to be a subscription based forum like Facebook with a monthly fee and just not feasible to keep nipate secure and free of censorship.
The open source php platform in this forum uses code I helped developed over 20 years ago. I was one of the first in the world to run a forum that uses php with help from its creators. I've developed and ran a few forums previous to this one since the 90s so I have a fond history with php.
I absolutely agree though on improving the user experience and welcome suggestions. I apologise to those who've made wonderful suggestions which I've made note of and will endeavour to add this year.
Law school and starting my own law firm has been keeping me quite occupied the last couple years but once that's up and running I'll be focusing on investing on nipate, likely will develop a coin like shib so members can profit.