At the end of the day you have to do what is right for you. I for one think this is a great site, and would definitely miss the WordPress Weekly pod casts if they ever stopped - there has been some fantastic shows in the past.

Personally I would be happy to subscribe to the forum (I am not just talking about the now defunct VIP section). How about offering different tiers of subscription (bronze, silver, and gold), which is purely optional.

If a forum user decided to take out a subscription then, on their posts on the left hand side, they get displayed a nice shiny badge icon proudly stating 'WP Tavern Contributor', or something similar! I have seen this method used on on other sites, usually on an open source type projects.

Perhaps you should consider this Jeff, you may be surprised how many supporters you have out there! :) Worth a shot in any case IMO. Nothing to lose?