I notice there are advertisements on this board–and to my surprise, you have to pay to subscribe here.
Why does the board need both subscription AND advertisement revenue? Never seen that before, on an internet forum.
We’re in the process of moving from a subscription based income generation scheme to one that is ad-based. At the moment you need to pay to post (after your guest membership is over), soon (how soon is not yet clear) you will need to pay to go ads-free.
Grim
(there’s a thread somewhere with all the details in it, but I can’t find it at the moment…)
We’re special.
If you join, it eliminates all the ads except the Google ads at the bottom under the current system. The current system is expected to change in the next few months. (maybe)
We have been told that once the board returns to free posting (and I imagine searching) that we can choose to pay to avoid the ads. (Again, except the Google ads from what I understand). Otherwise the SDMB will be free but you will need to put up with the ads.
Two threads starter by Ed Zotti that address this issue are:
Jim
Ed’s last update that I can find:
It does happen in other places too, for example: Fark and SomethingAwful