I suspect that the current committee do not feel at all comfortable with computers - I have had discussion with a few of them re making better use of the web, e-publishing etc but one common reply is that at present the majority (possibly 80%+) of members do not have web access. For those in the USA it should be pointed out that the charging policy of Manx/UK/European ISPs can make access significantly more expensive especially for the small time user - likewise computer systems are effectively some 50% more expensive outside of US (we do however win out in many more important aspects of life though !) - most come to genealogy late in life and do not feel as comfortable as the average 5 year old with keyboards mice etc.
I would like to see the society's publications on CD-ROM (and have offered whatever help I can) - not only would it make searching trivial but postage/printing costs absorb a high % of the price to members (and though microfilm is also cheap to post it is a real pain to use once you have become used to instant searches of e-media) but of course copying now also becomes trivial and the society's income stream might decrease, though in practice I think most people would willingly buy say a $50 CD ROM (of which $45 is direct 'profit' to the society) than paper which I suspect barely covers the handling costs.
The free hosting of the B/B was of course due to Mike Caine, associated with the previous owners of the site and relied (and in part still does) on his freely given time. Until some form of economic, cents per page, charging mechanism for the Internet can be established (a long term goal I think) the only alternative I can see is that adopted by for example the professional Computing society which charges a fixed annual sum (in their case $90 = average membership cost) for unlimited access via password-protection, to back issues and other publications - in the future it may be possible to commute one's paper copy for this e-copy. Any other scheme eg buying lookups at $1 a request is not really economic as the collection costs of small sums wipes out any income. The password protected pages were those set up by Mike - I think using scanned copies of the paper versions and provide just a small section of Society publications.
Others have suggested that the Society set up a clearing house for registration of all Manx related genealogical sites - I would be in favour but whilst easy to set up in the initial enthusiasm it can absorb significant person-power to maintain it, given the current churn in ISP and site names.
One catch anyone who volunteers look-up time soon finds (and I note that some have explicitly stated they have no interest/time to help others) is that it is a very one-way traffic - anyone on Island will soon amass many requests from the Manx Disapora for help at Manx Museum/Gen Reg etc but of course they get little in return except a warm glow.