TBH, I don't understand what's going on here.
I still operate three BBC B micros myself and there is a reasonable community at the 8 Bit Acorn Webring - http://8bs.com/cgi-bin/webring/webring.cgi?5&next - except you might have to manually manipulate the number as I think site 3 is dead.
They can be maintained by anyone reasonably competent with a soldering iron ... with the exception of the most commonly failing component, the power supply, as there are three capacitors which have a tendency to blow. Personally, however, I'm a bit shy around mains components so I pay someone else to do it. I do the rest myself, though, with reference to the StarDot people, who have forgotten more about the BBC Micro than I'll ever know.
The 6502 processors can't readily be replaced as the modern versions have clocks which I have been told are way too fast to work in the BBC B, so when they're gone .. they're gone.
Emulators for the BBC are actually very good, so programming is more easily taught on them, as they have far superior cut and paste options than actually using a physical BBC Micro ... you can trust me on that!
So I don't really understand why they are calling for volunteers under the circumstances cited here, and also on the BBC News pages. On the face of it, this does sound like a publicity stunt. I have to admit to scratching my head about this volunteer call.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
