Funding is definitely a big issue - and one reason that a small server like this one that is not focussed on growth is important. The costs of aussie zone are pretty sustainable (check in the Meta community if you want to know what it is costing), and the growth is limited by having restricted communities and being focussed on a limited population. The other server I have an account on is a lot more chaotic, had unconstrained growth and I would consider much less likely to survive long term. But it is also interesting because the person who started it is trying a participatory democracy style of running the site, which could either end up in disaster or working really well with a group of people who take ownership of what they are creating together. I predict the former but hope for the latter!

Edit: I think you only posted once, but the same thing happened to me - I thought I typed out a long post and that it had disapeared.