Topic: Why all the ads? Why subscriptions?

[Brian Skalinder]

A word from Bri, the founder of TS.com, regarding subscriptions and ads:

Hey Everybody and Happy 2007!

Hope you had a Happy Holiday and a great New Year! Wow, 2007 and almost 1,000,000 posts! Holy smokes! I want to thank you guys and gals for making this the great place that it is and will continue to be, and send a super thank you to the Site Supporters for the financial support that keeps this place online. The biggest thank you from me goes to the mod team, Moke, BSkal and Damon, the guys that truly keep this place humming along. Please +T them and send them thanks for everything they do, they are doing an amazing job.

I have gotten a few PM's asking what we have done with donations, and here's the story....

Month to month I collect donations to help pay for the server costs, but unfortunately (for me) it rarely exceeds the actual cost, so I would just pay it out of pocket. I worked with the moderators on devising a solution that we believe will work, or at least be more effective than the current situation. Here's what we are planning...

•There will be "Google AdWords" on every page (ugh) at the top only.  Having never worked with AdWords, I do not know if they actually have any potential, I guess time will tell.

•Site Supportership will be a subscription based membership. We are still working on what the rates will be, but Site Supporters will be exempt from seeing the ads, have their own forum and still get their cool badge and most importantly, the feeling of knowing they are doing something good

Thank you for understanding and for all the interest in helping keep this site alive, I am looking forward to the 10M post mark! If you have any questions or concerns, please PM them to me directly and I will discuss it with the Mods!

Cheers!
Bri