And now for a short story...
In the beginning there was online advertising and this allowed Web sites to bring you all kinds of cool tools and distractions to fritter away the day, and all at no cost to you.
Then came the bad actors, the evil ones --- hellbent on getting their piece of the profits --- who loaded their pages up with so many ads that the once-great internet experience seemed to be crumbling before your eyes. Pages took forever to load and some browsers even locked up under the load. Even the most astute reader often couldn't decipher where the ads left off and the content began.
But, alas, the white hats stepped in and created ad blockers to remove that evil curse of online advertising. Unfortunately, lost in their zeal, they didn't consider, or care, that the good content providers have thus been stripped of their daily wages. The Kings of Content put up paywalls because their information was valuable to many and people would pay. Others put up polite notes to those using ad blockers and asked for due consideration. Some closed up shop, unable to pay the bills. And, of course, the international Goliaths chugged on, powered by their legions of users who would sooner chop off a finger than be without the service.
Ad blockers certainly have their appeal and just about every browser on the market today has one built in. However, we have always strived to keep our ad usage and placement reasonable and respectful to both the advertiser and the readers. If you do use an ad blocker, please consider disabling it for *.somd.com sites, If you prefer to continue to use the blocker and would still like to help support us, we have added a few monthly subscription Account Upgrades to the forums.
In addition to the annual Premium Membership, we have added two monthly subscriptions: Ad Free Experience and Patron.
Ad Free Experience: This will remove all Display Ads from the Forums (while you are logged into your user account). While we realize that you could simply use an ad-blocker, that deprives us of revenue which allows us to live and support this site. This is a monthly recurring payment until you cancel it.
Patron: Support the continued operation of the forums with a recurring monthly contribution. You will also display a red "Patron" badge under your name in all posts. This is a monthly recurring payment until you cancel it.
You can purchase any combination of the 3 subscriptions. Usage requires both an account on the forums and a PayPal account. Once you have your forums account and are logged in, just go to the Account Upgrades page to purchase: https://forums.somd.com/account/upgrades
Thank you, as always, for your continued support.
In the beginning there was online advertising and this allowed Web sites to bring you all kinds of cool tools and distractions to fritter away the day, and all at no cost to you.
Then came the bad actors, the evil ones --- hellbent on getting their piece of the profits --- who loaded their pages up with so many ads that the once-great internet experience seemed to be crumbling before your eyes. Pages took forever to load and some browsers even locked up under the load. Even the most astute reader often couldn't decipher where the ads left off and the content began.
But, alas, the white hats stepped in and created ad blockers to remove that evil curse of online advertising. Unfortunately, lost in their zeal, they didn't consider, or care, that the good content providers have thus been stripped of their daily wages. The Kings of Content put up paywalls because their information was valuable to many and people would pay. Others put up polite notes to those using ad blockers and asked for due consideration. Some closed up shop, unable to pay the bills. And, of course, the international Goliaths chugged on, powered by their legions of users who would sooner chop off a finger than be without the service.
Ad blockers certainly have their appeal and just about every browser on the market today has one built in. However, we have always strived to keep our ad usage and placement reasonable and respectful to both the advertiser and the readers. If you do use an ad blocker, please consider disabling it for *.somd.com sites, If you prefer to continue to use the blocker and would still like to help support us, we have added a few monthly subscription Account Upgrades to the forums.
In addition to the annual Premium Membership, we have added two monthly subscriptions: Ad Free Experience and Patron.
Ad Free Experience: This will remove all Display Ads from the Forums (while you are logged into your user account). While we realize that you could simply use an ad-blocker, that deprives us of revenue which allows us to live and support this site. This is a monthly recurring payment until you cancel it.
Patron: Support the continued operation of the forums with a recurring monthly contribution. You will also display a red "Patron" badge under your name in all posts. This is a monthly recurring payment until you cancel it.
You can purchase any combination of the 3 subscriptions. Usage requires both an account on the forums and a PayPal account. Once you have your forums account and are logged in, just go to the Account Upgrades page to purchase: https://forums.somd.com/account/upgrades
Thank you, as always, for your continued support.
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