I used to help on the forum, sad to see it go though.
To be honest, if you are starting a forum and don't have any money, don't go with a forum host. Go with a free web host and free co.cc domain (if your host doesn't offer one). It is safer, and really, all forum hosts are crap. Stripped versions of control panels, limited activity, ads, ect.
We don't really encourage topics about other sites like this. It's a shame that it happened to Joel, but it really doesn't have anything to do with forum managing or any topic here at FP. Thanks.