Those of you who have been around this message board for a few years will recall the time before we purchased Gold Community status. Without that status, we received advertisements while viewing messages, and although I never experienced this myself, some reported even getting pornographic ads (although EZBoard denies that, I suspect they sold ad space that was then resold to disreputable groups). At the time, Gold Community status was about $60/year IIRC. Through the largesse of several of our posters we have been ad-free for a few years now, but that status runs out in May of next year. I checked the cost of renewal, and it has skyrocketed to $271 for six months (I checked earlier this week, and it was $239, so I'm guessing the rate is tied to the amount of traffic; when we actually renew next May it might be lower). I assume the rate increase is to defray the expense of the network upgrade put in place following the recent cyber-attack on the boards.

Even at the highest rate we are talking about less than one dollar per year per member (we have over 750 members), or less than $5/year if only 20% of our membership chips in. If you feel it is worth paying to not be bothered by advertisements, please click on the 'Make a Contribution' link on the main board page and kick in what you can. If we have raised enough by next May to purchase a full year, we will do so. If not, we will endure the ads until the start of the season and then buy whatever we have funds for.

Please note that every penny raised to purchase Gold Community status goes to EZBoard, none of it goes to me.