Absolutely. A lot of sites have been bought up by marketing companies that have no interest or knowledge about whatever the site is about and the site goes downhill.

There's a reason for that. Of course that's why it annoys most people. There's a few ways to get paid for advertising. The standard way is either to get paid by click or by view. By view is about worthless as it's easily manipulated. To get clicks most forums will set it up for in post ads as it makes it more likely to get clicks as you scroll.

Smaller sites are better off getting direct sponsorships where it's just a flat fee per month or year or sell subscription

It totally ruined the "Michigan Sportsman" site, along with the sister sites in Wisconsin, Ohio. Nothing but adds and popups. I rarely visit those sites.

Thanks Boss, this place is amazing. When other sites or slow to load, this one practically JUMPS out and loads quickly. Now that I'm a little more educated, I'm amazed this site lets us join for free and there is so little advertising.
The good lord smiled down on the trapping community when Paul Dobbins, and whoever else, got this website going!

Haha

Lots of truth right there. Remember back when the AK outdoors site was pretty popular ? Some guy that used to be on there tipped me off to Trapperman. Used to be some good stuff over there especially on the shooting forum, but it went downhill and a lot of guys just left.