I've known Keith for about a decade now. I've shared a meal or two with him, been to various meetups where he was there, he's been in my shop multiple times over the years, and we've had a number of discussions over the years.
Not one single time has he ever said a single word about the difference between Members and Contributors. Not once. I can't speak FOR him, but I can speak ABOUT him. He's one of the most honest people I've known, and all I've ever heard him talk about is trying to do the things that keep SMC running. I know he and Jackie have spent 100's and 100's of hours courting advertisers to try and make this place work. They work their butts off and get little to no credit for anything.
If there is a belief that Members and Contributors are different classes of people, then it's certainly not coming from the top. I can promise that. I know I don't believe that, and I know our Moderator team doesn't believe that. So let's just squash that right now.
There are Members and Contributors that have provided years of quality advice on this forum. Period. Full stop.
However, it's not free to host this website and maintain it. This isn't a $4.95 a month hosting plan that your family puts up for 30 people to see, it's a massive site with a huge amount of data moving back and forth that hosts over 1,000,000 visits a month. That costs money. If the belief is that everything should be ad free and free of charge, then I'm afraid that's probably not going to work. The revenue HAS to come from somewhere to keep the lights on. Two choices. Members or Advertisers. If Members turn off the ads and don't use the Advertisers, then the money has to come from somewhere. Honestly, I had turned the ads off myself. About 2 months ago, I turned them back on and I've now bought several things from ads I have seen on SMC. If everyone would do that simple thing, then it would help solve the issue. It would show value to the advertisers that their ad money isn't wasted, and give Jackie and Keith a leg to stand on when talking to new advertisers.
None of my comments have been discussed with Keith, I'm not doing this on "his behalf", but I wanted to correct some of the issues I have read that are just factually inaccurate. He also might come on here and tell you that I'm completely wrong. But that's my read on what's going on.
There is no "Us against Them" mentality here. It's "We" and what "We" need to do to keep the lights on. Easy fix, turn the ads on, click on the ones that interest you, and buy the things you need from clicking on those links.
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Real name Steve but that name was taken on the forum. Used Middle name. Call me Steve or Scott, doesn't matter.