Sadly the advertising banners are back....
However if you have sent a donation via PayPal in most cases I've managed to put you into the Donating members group. The donating members group is excluded from seeing advertising. So just another reason to chip in a few dollars.
At some point I may trial showing ads to guests only. To see if just having guests see them is enough to generate revenue.
*Edit just to add 1 more thing, I believe the software may provide an option so that PayPal donations automatically place members into donating members group. (right now I do this manually), I'll have to set this up at some point to make life easier.
At the moment once you make a donation you are a donating member indefinitely (since I'm too lazy to remove folks manually after a certain time period - too much admin for 1 person). However the software may provide an auto expire so a donation gives you say 12 months without advertising, but after that period you'll need to give a top up to stay in the group.
I really appreciate the donations and find it very flattering that folks get that much use out of the site, enough to justify sending money towards the cause. So giving you an advertising free experience is 1 way to give something back.