You shouldn't be receiving pop ups on the boards. On the website itself, yes, but not on the boards.
As for why I have them, it costs a lot of money to run a site of this magnitude. Did you know that there are over 2,500 pages of recipes ALONE in the cookbook database and over 3,000 pages of content? That doesn't even count the message boards!
Unfortunately, advertisements generate revenues that help absorb the costs I incur each month. The more people that visit, the more bandwidth I use, the more money the server charges me. While I hate pop ups too, they are unfortunately a necessary evil.
Funny thing is, I removed the pop up ads for over 2 months and did not receive one single email from anyone thanking me for taking them down. The only emails I ever get about the pop ups are the complaints. The amount of time that it takes me on a daily basis to go through reports and decline pop up ads that don't pay very much is far too time consuming, especially since they continually add more to the rotation, it's a never ending battle.
So, since the pop ups generate income (small as it may be) and the website is free to all visitors, I have decided that the pop ups are here to stay.
My only other choice would be to make this a "subscription based" website, which would mean it would no longer be free to all, you would have to pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee for your membership.
I do want to take a moment to thank those that have donated funds out of their pocket to help keep this site free like it is. You can see who those generous members are by clicking on the flower below, or if you see a member with a yellow sunflower next to their name, that would indicate that they have donated in the past. Special thanks to
nagymom for her continual support, she donates on a regular basis
If you have any other questions, please ask.
