Also I'll add that it annoys me when sites have "paid premium" memberships that are add free--just bugs the heck out of me..
-kunkel321
I always thought that was fair enough...
-tomos
Same here, fair enough. But non-supporting members may see it differently :-)
How about a small refinement: when someone registers (and you must register to post), they initially don't see ads - maybe for a month. A trial period, as it were. After a month (or whatever length of time), they start seeing ads unless they have donated. That way everyone can experience the ad-less site and make their choice.
That leaves out only unregistered visitors, who require a separate decision.
Potential problem with this solution is people complaining that
OMG, DonationCoder has gone evil with ads! after they've been registered a month, just because they didn't read the ad policy when registering. That could be alleviated by injecting a short reminder on their login and posting screens, such as "You registered n days ago. In m days, dc will start showing ads on some of the pages you visit. Click here to learn why."