I am not removing my ad blocker for one website because it's a hassle. If I remove the ad blocker unilaterally, then I get junk when I look at other websites. I appreciate that chess.com wants to advertize and I don't mind seeing ads. I never click on ads anyways. But to ask people to reconfigure their browser so ads aren't blocked on chess.com probably isn't going to happen for most of us. I avoid new sites where they gray out the screen and you have to remove your ad blocker to read the news. Maybe if chess.com made their annual report available, showing a profit and loss statement, who is running the company, and what the prospects for growth are next year, I would be more inclined to upgrade my account.
You don't have to "unilaterally" turn off the blocker. You could whitelist the sites you allow to display ads. Surely you know that.
What does their profit and loss statement have to do with whether or not you comply with their request? Publishing prospects for growth and financial statements in an annual report is the law for a public company trying to sell stock. They are not trying to sell stock. They don't have to publish anything.
If you knew they were losing millions every year, you would allow ads? You would pay? I doubt it.
You have played 6,000 games here. Have you ever paid a cent?
At any rate, they have been clear about who is running the company. You can read Erik's blog. Just last month, he published a blog detailing what all the staff were working on that week.
I personally think that they would fix things a lot faster if more people allowed ads and or subscribed and they could afford to pay for enough staff to fix things and monitor the site. It seems like a pretty bare bones operation to me,
I am not removing my ad blocker for one website because it's a hassle. If I remove the ad blocker unilaterally, then I get junk when I look at other websites. I appreciate that chess.com wants to advertize and I don't mind seeing ads. I never click on ads anyways. But to ask people to reconfigure their browser so ads aren't blocked on chess.com probably isn't going to happen for most of us. I avoid new sites where they gray out the screen and you have to remove your ad blocker to read the news. Maybe if chess.com made their annual report available, showing a profit and loss statement, who is running the company, and what the prospects for growth are next year, I would be more inclined to upgrade my account.