But the problem is that the free alternatives are bad. Bitcointalk has nearly a half a million users, it needs something much more robust. The development hours that Theymos spends creating new features for the forum at the moment is an uphill battle, as he not only has to create the features, but also contend with issues in the current SMF based forum software. I agree $1.5m is a lot of money, but this could potentially become a staple in forum software everywhere. Being able to say that Bitcoin created the world's best forum software would be really cool. The only reason the forum was really holding any money at all, was to create a new forum. If Theymos had only spent $50, the rest of it would just be sitting there. Why not make the best forum software possible, since the entire budget is already allocated just for that purpose. And that doesn't mean spending money frivilously, that means creating the best forum with all of the functionality that will really help everyone out.