You may have noticed the notice at the bottom of the forum, and that the adverts (which were mixed with pages from the site) have all been removed from the forum pages.

Revenue from automated adverts has been falling sharply over the last couple of years, even though internet traffic / costs is increasing. This is partly due to changes in online habits, ad-blocking etc. Almost all advertising growth has gone to Facebook and Google; even Twitter is seeing advert revenues fall.

We’ve also seen a sharper fall since we took the decision to not share user browsing data with Google or other advertising networks. This became possible at the time of the GDPR changes; we decided Walkhighlands would opt-out of any sharing any user data with ad vendors to to better protect your privacy.

The forum has never carried much advertising, and that which we did have was no longer making any worthwhile contribution towards the costs of hosting it. With the adverts gone the forum should now run faster and is completely clean.

Instead we’ve made it possible for users to set up a monthly direct debit donation to help support the site.

This is entirely optional and completely down to your individual discretion.

We will not be introducing any charges to use or access the Walkhighlands community. Nor will donating lead to any different service – your site experience will be the same regardless of whether you are a donor. Basically if you feel that the forum is worth something to you, it gives you a chance to contribute to the costs.

There will still be adverts on the editorial / non-user contributed parts of Walkhighlands; money from these also helps support the forum and will continue to do so.

Thanks in advance for your support.

Interesting approach….

Hopefully works out for them.

Do they value your privacy? If so I hope they let you know.

Sounds like a good plan.  Id contribute directly if the ads went and the forum worked.

It works fine. It even has a “View Unread Posts” option.

Its a walking forum though, they probably wouldn’t like cheeky rides.

I’m happy to throw a few quid in – walkhighlands is great for route planning and inspiring.

It’s a very useful site, I use it for downloading gps routes and printing maps. I assume they make a bit of money off the advertisers in the accommodation and holiday directories but will sling them a few quid via paypal here and there.

Id contribute directly if the ads went

That’s a fantastic idea, I’m amazed no-one at STW ever considered any sort of advert-free monthly subscription model for the site.

That’s a fantastic idea, I’m amazed no-one at STW ever considered any sort of advert-free monthly subscription model for the site.

You deliberately missed the second part of that post didn’t you? You after a job at the Whitehouse?

It works fine. It even has a “View Unread Posts” option.

Witchcraft.

You deliberately missed the second part of that post didn’t you?

Yup.  I was replying to the first bit, can’t really argue with the second.

Cougar wrote

Id contribute directly if the ads went

That’s a fantastic idea, I’m amazed no-one at STW ever considered any sort of advert-free monthly subscription model for the site.

Ad free you say, when is that being implemented?  🤔

The grauniad rather than going behind a paywall asked for voluntary contributions  now has a million people sending them money.  Thats far greater than the print circulation ever was IIRC

I merely mention this to show that alternative funding models are still being developed and can be successful