Damn damn damn.
I had a massive post typed out and clicked back in Firefox..and its lost it....grrrrrr
Anyway the jist of it was..I love you all, and thankyou for all your kind words and comments.
We always said we wanted TP to be a free resource to all, which is why we were so reluctant to implement the donations system at first.
The problem we face is that any avenue we take has to be first and foremost acceptable to the site users, and as a user myself I'd rather sell my children than have anything like popups or popunders, or very intrusive advertising.
The avenues we are thinking of are clickable ads for the non-logged in (ie once you log in, they disappear), or maybe sponsored logos at the top or very bottom of the forum (eg opposite the TP logo).
Also maybe joining a few affiliate schemes so we earn via clickthroughs from the forums.
What I personally wouldn't like to see is ads breaking up threads and posts etc, and also any that become intrusive to you lot, so don't worry about that. Any avenue we take, we're always going to listen to the members and make sure it's all acceptable.
We don't mind paying for as much as we can out of our own pocket. We do this for the love of providing a community for others to relax and chat in. That's why it gives us immense pride when people give us a compliment about how nice it is here, or how friendly....It makes it extra specially nice, because we do it FOR you, not as an extension to an ego or anything.
Like I say though, we don't mind paying for it ourselves where we can, but as we grow, that cost can easily become quite restrictive (anyone remember what ocuk is claimed to cost out of the owners pocket?

..lol), and for that reason, we would be stupid to become 'martyrs' and say "Nope...no other means of funding except our own pockets". We're proud...but we're not stupid ...lol