I doubt those making these proposals upthread want these consequences. For whatever reason people really don’t think their proposals through. (Not referring to you)
The club being liable is no different from an individual being liable, which is the current situation, other than that the club has the ability to dissolve. Again, if libel law is broken, fix it. Somehow your alternative to the unthinkable outcome of only the rich being able to speak is to exclusively immunize the rich from the consequences of speech that they have direct and complete control over.
But imagine a form for them exclusively rich people. They have all taken out and Schoenes that will cover lawsuits of indefinite liability. Millions or billions. And if you find anything suitable on anywhere in the form you are guaranteed by the structure of the club that someone will make good to pay it if you win.
That’s the structure that you were arguing for. It’s a strange structure.
But I am not arguing that only the rich can speak. Regular users don’t face any real risk of libel for Internet comments.
The risk would arise for the private club because it has a target on his back: the money is here.
As a reminder the reason regular people couldn’t speak under your proposal is that in normal cases of form would itself be liable for our comments. So it would be uneconomical to run a forum due to the legal risk
If they only let rich people into the club it might work. The club could require members to agree to contracts that require the member to indemnify the club for any costs and damages associated with any lawsuits against the club over that member's posts.
Technically, that doesn't really shift liability to the member but if the member is going to pay the club's damages and the club's legal costs it's almost as good. That only works if the member can actually pay, hence the "only let rich people" in part.