Thanks for the input so far.... It would really help if everyone would vote the way they feel because several people who've posted their view have not reflected this in the poll.

I certainly value the opinions of those who've been around this forum longer (and its predecessor, certainly before I came to this forum). If you feel that not having adverts is a USP of Zerogain and something that is part of the nature of the forum that should be preserved then I'm conscious of not spoiling that.

The thing that makes this forum is the people, obviously. That's the very reason that I've posted this thread rather than just going ahead with adverts.

I don't know what the exact cost is at the moment. It's much higher than a typical hosting package because it is a dedicated server and we're pushing higher bandwidths. However, we're currently investigating a move of hosts because the market has improved significantly since the enscape server was originally set up.

If there's enough people prepared to make donations then I'm happy to go that route. It's probably best to set up a target number for donations to reach. I'll discuss things with the rest of the admin and see where we want to go.

I will just re-iterate the point that any advertising on this forum would not be for profit nor would it indicate any affiliation to the advertisers.