Proposal: remove advertising

[orudge]

Hi all,

As I'm sure many of you know, TT-Forums has shown advertising for almost two decades now, which has been helpful for covering the hosting costs (which is then supplemented by the annual fundraiser, and by a few recurring donations that some kind individuals have set up). Unfortunately, in recent years, the advertising has become somewhat more obtrusive and sometimes inappropriate, and I know a number of users have found it to be rather annoying and even off-putting. At the same time, the amount of income from the adverts has decreased.

I therefore would propose increasing the fundraising target to £700, and if we're able to reach that, we could then remove the advertising from the forums. This poll is to get an idea of whether there's support for that. I suspect the "removing advertising" part of it will be extremely popular, but it would rely on your continued generosity.

I'll run the poll for a month, and make a decision from there, but any comments or thoughts are appreciated.

Cheers,

[jfs]

It's been some years since I last donated, although I will admit to still reading the forums with an ad-blocker. Last I viewed the forums without blocking ads, I recall them being horribly intrusive, even getting in the way.

[Chrill]

I confess I have used Adblock for a while, just because they are quite intrusive. For this reason, in addition to my time moderating, I happily contribute every year. I would be keen to continue doing so if ads were removed.

[Redirect Left]

I would vote for removal of adverts, and I would definitely donate if it was to keep the adverts not here.
They're rather intrusive, rarely of any interest (this may be me specifically that they're targeting badly though), and at worst sometimes stop functionality of the forums like overlapping the mark all read button.

[bjgttd]

I'd vote for "What advertisements?", but it's not in the list.