I doubt she was using CreateAForum, or any similar site. I think she had a dedicated server, and was running the Simple Machines forum software on it. If you look at the bottom of the page that still show up when you go to the old EHell forum it links to http://www.simplemachines.org. (The CreateAForum boards don’t have that link, not sure if they’re running the same software or just one with a similar look and feel. ) Based on what she’s said over the years, she wasn’t technical enough to truly understand the details of servers and bandwidth, and probably just went with what her hosting company recommended and probably greatly overpaid. Not all hosting companies like hosting forums, they generally need more database capabilities than the standard website.
That's right. It's also why the software behind it was so old. She didn't appear to have the support behind her to upgrade it.