We have removed the AdSense ads from the site. This decision was made because they were just adding clutter to the site and bringing in very little revenue so their existence was not worth it.
We have also removed the discount code for www.folgertech.com because without warning, they have suspended the affiliate program. This was the main source of income that payed for the site hosting and URL.
Our only source of revenue is currently from Patreon. Due to the gracious support of a handful of our members, a chunk of the monthly costs are now being covered. We have been fortunate enough to have support from our community over the years to get us through some tough months. Being in the situation we are in now, we appreciate the support even more than ever!
We know the forum needs updating. We have left it alone because it is still working fine as it is. Due to the EU site requirements dealing with SSL validity and encryption, browsers like Chrome mark the site as not secure. We assure you, nothing has changed from when the site was created. It's built on Discourse which is very secure from bots and scripts. This is why you very rarely see any spam on here. It's automatically blocked, flagged, and sent to us for approval before anyone even sees it. Due to how the forum software is setup, the only way to upgrade the SSL is to create a new site then export all of the data from this one over. This is a very scary thought for us as there is a risk of lost data. A lot of data on this forum can not be found anywhere else. It would take a huge effort to manually go through and make sure nothing got lost after the backup and recovery to the new site.
There are no plans to take this forum down. We will do everything in our power before that happens. There is a ton of traffic to the site you never see in the posts. It's used as a source of info for people all over the world.
We want to think our community from the bottom of our hearts for all of the effort and time they have put in to make this forum what it is today.
You may have noticed over the years, some members have received titles next to their names. This is how we recognize members who have proven to be a good source of information, has been here for awhile, and who can be trusted. We want to thank all of those with a title for their dedication to the forum. Without you, the forum would not have survived.
Take care and we hope your family is safe and healthy during this worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Thank you.
