It's that time of the year, where my DA subscription has run out. Normally I wouldn’t hesitate in renewing this baby. The other day I accessed DA without being logged in (so as a normal visitor). And all I saw were Ads.

There has been considerable discussion about the Ads policy in DA. It has been concluded by the upper powers, that Ads are essential for DA to survive, given the high cost of maintenance.

And I partially agree.

But what some people don't realize is that accessing a page full of ads is an unprofessional experience for the visitor. Most other Gallery sites (pBase, Smugmug) have no ads because the member pays for the service itself of photo sharing. Visitors have a pleasant and ad-free experience over there.

Why should visitors be drowned in Ads when the member is paying already?? So only the member gets an Ad-free experience?? This philosophy is upside down.

I appreciate the DA community and am aware of the advantages DA has over other photo-sharing sites. But there must be a way to make DA more user-friendly for the random user. It isn’t very professional to send a link with your work to a friend, only to have him open a page full of ads.

=VALOR=