Here's an attempt at a pattern, it's a genuine expression of lived experience and I'm a little proud:
I think there are some aspects of running these things that are completely generic and could be purchased, such as physical hardware to run virtual machines that maintain a web presence. But I think a lot of it has to be by people who are non-exchangeable, who create systems that are an extension of their way of doing things so that a replacement would have to re-do a lot from scratch. Putting a dollar value on this is meaningless except by way of apology, and might even be insulting. Clearly these people exist, and they are willing to work just for the love of it so long as it doesn't become to onerous. Maybe we should worry more about keeping the load light, providing helpers and resources, so that they stick around.
Lazy web: Surely there's been manuals addressing this sort of problem written by I don't know... Sci-Fi convention organizers, maybe. Please tell me about any you know of.