Oh no... it's come to this... Ads
I have absolutely loved being a member of this site. The information sharing and passion of the other bakers is fantastic here. The variety of conversations is unparalleled, and the community is very welcoming and supportive. And all of this is free! Well... sort of.
I understand that an undertaking of this nature is not without cost and I greatly appreciate not having to pay anything for my membership in this site. So I understand the need to throw in a little banner here or there from an advertiser to help defray expenses. But I figure I'm like most people who use the internet who tolerate that kind of advertising because if I'm not particularly interested in the ad it's easy to ignore. However, when I logged in tonight the video ads that were running on the home page were a little irritating.
When I'm surfing for comments from some of my favorite posters like MiniOven, or dabrownman, or Txfarmer, the last thing I want is distraction from a video commercial for condoms. Plus, on some of the other sites I frequent the ads have gotten so out of hand they slow down the page-loading speed to an unacceptable rate and I regrettably have stopped visiting them. I hope that doesn't happen here.
If it is at all possible to keep maintaining this site with the old "ignoreable" banner-style ads, my vote is to go back to them. The videos cheapen something that is otherwise very special.
Just my two cents' worth
--Mike