Do we really need such intrusive ads?

I know the site costs money to run and that someone has to pay for it but the ads are getting crazy. Why do we have to have Mid-Post ads? I mean really? Out of all of the forums I'm on, this one is the most intrusive with ads. Do we really think that big FLASHING ads are going to increase click-through? I feel like I'm browsing the web in the 90's with everything flashing at me like that. I think they can be presented in a much more professional manner.

This just makes me want to block all ads

I 100% agree with all of that. I have run forums myself before so I understand what's involved. I have no issue with the operators of the site being compensated for dollar costs and time that go into a resource such as this. It is a massive undertaking for which I'm sure all of the members here are ever so grateful but at the same time blissfully unaware of the effort it takes like you say.

The only thing I would argue against your comment would be that this is not so much a niche group anymore. Perhaps directly pertaining to motion simulators, but there is a vast amount of members that don't have or want motion sims but benefit greatly from the massive amounts of information here. This leaves the forum open to many more options for targeted advertising, promotions and other affiliations.

Just to be clear, I'm not complaining that there are ads. I just think that when the ads completely detract from the user experience, to the point everyone is just going to block them, makes it counterintuitive. Especially the 'mid post' ads - That's just ridiculous.

I think the forum could easily expand its advertising, to create genuine leads for manufacturers (and therefore income for both parties), but in a way it is not so 'In your face'. IMO, Big, flashing, intrusive ads do not attract customers, they put them off. If the quality of the ads were better (even from existing sponsors), it would probably increase click-through.

I have to say that I actually like ads, at least those that are technically informative. They sometimes inspire me to new ideas or at least I don't have to re-invent the wheel if I see that something is already available at a reasonable price. But ads have to provide honest specifications and must not annoy me. If they are too agressive by flashing or scrolling all the time I click them away very quickly.
So by making the ads too agressive the advertising company gets exactly the opposite of what they originally intended - getting more attention. Second, the ads on this board are always the same: frex, d-mover, DOF reality and the belt tensioner. That's boring. A bit more variety would attract more attention than obnoxious flashing.

That's pretty much my point. They end up having a negative impact. Same as all the midroll ads on youtube. They don't make you want to buy a product but just make you hate the company for having to watch the same ad 10 times while watching a video. The same reason why I prefer not to watch commercial TV.

I would prefer paying a yearly subscription than to view ads, or have it as an option, despite these days, giving more than getting value to/from the forum. At the same time, I'm fine with a few ads here and there, just not shamelessly plastered all over the place flashing like a 90's website.

To loosely quote Lois Rossman - Pay for what you value, block all ads.

I'm not trying to start a revolution as such, and I'm sure there's many people that use this forum that would prefer not to donate/support the site. The internet is inherently expected to be 'free' so there will always be people that don't understand the real costs involved in providing such a resource or don't understand the value it represents and will not pay. Or perhaps might not be overly financial and are looking at the cheapest possible entry point.

Having said that, there are a bunch of people here spending large amounts of money to enjoy this hobby that see value of the content and would happily pay to help support it. I'm sure it would only be a small fraction of their current total investment.

The scope of this forum has gone much past it's original intention of supporting the xsim software. I don't even currently use xsim (but have, and paid for it). I have also engaged with members in private chat and donated/sent items to them to help. I encourage the use of paid software that keeps the developers interested in maintaining and upgrading their offerings for the overall betterment of the community. I have also made several voluntary donations to developers, purely to encourage them to keep up the good work. All related to the sim community. Yeah, I'm tooting my own horn a bit but I genuinely feel that by doing this, it helps everyone. I might be the minority but i feel like I'm doing my part. If all the active members donated a bit to be a part of this community, then it will have an overall positive effect.

I would argue that this is one of the best places for collaborative DIY racing sims and is very well placed in search engine results for such topics.

XenForo supports a subscription based removal of ads and there could still be subtle promotion of sponsors with that (so as not to de-value the ads currently being displayed).

I'm not about to abandon the forum in protest, nor do I want to see all this great content paywalled. I just see this as an opportunity for improvement.

I think it would be great to put this out there to the community as a poll.