I feel attacked by this website

[Crossbreed]

Also, if I come here before my browser [Firefox] is done initializing,the ads will sneak in, because the ad-blocker wasn't fully "awake," yet.

I just close the tab for this site and wait for a few minutes before trying again.

 

[oregano]

When I first started posting here regularly (2018 ) I decided against getting the lifetime membership because I realize that running a web site costs money, with stuff like server/data hosting fees and connections to the main internet costing lots of money, and I like this site, so I decided to just put up with the ads.

Which I did until several months ago, when the ads got to the point that I would have up to THREE video ads playing in a loop on the same page, page after page, making the site so slow as to be unusable. I would type and then have to wait a couple minutes for the few words I typed to get through, one painstaking letter at a time, because of all the bandwidth clogging video ads.

When I complained on the site help forum, I was gifted a membership by a member who according to her posts here has less money than I do. Then it took 44 days for my VIP membership to be acknowledged and my account upgraded.

Look, I know that a website costs money, but I would be happy to have ads if they were just static images, not huge videos, three to a page, that play in a loop. Not everybody has unlimited broadband cable internet for dogsakes! Even if one does, there is still the factor of home LANs and such that throttle speed.

 

[Streetwise]

All of the ads on this website are extremely intrusive. It wouldn't be so bad if it was one ad, but there are numerous ads per page.

The ads on this website directly trigger my ASD and make it harder for me to function (socialize with others here). On a website regarding any other topic I would simply never visit this website again. However because this website is specifically for autistic people, I feel like we are being taken advantage of.

I realize that running websites costs a bit of money. However I know it is a very small amount of money. Even though I barely survive on a disability pension, I would pay a very small amount of money to remove the ads (because webhosting is so cheap.), but not $10/yr.

Sure, I can cut $10/yr out of my "below minimum wage" budget, but because I feel attacked, and I know how much I'm being overcharged, I do not want to do so.

For reference: I run my own webserver out of my office, it costs me about $2/mo. in electricity usage.

I'm sick to the teeth of money grabbers ,I live in the UK and it's not cheap, so I'm definitely not giving online advertising any more money.