I like that as well.
The days of the "free" internet are fading. There are two money issues with running a forum.
Hosting service and software.
Good, stable, reliable hosting costs money. The free hosting services (and many of the paid hosts) are pretty poor. The Old Willys Forum just ditched Network Solutions because of poor, lame service. The new host is more expensive.
We are also ditching the free forum software (phpBB) and paying money for better software (vBulletin).
I rarely post here as I own a 3B and a Wagon, but I still find the forum beneficial. So much so that I would happily chip in to buy the forum and also pay an annual fee. �On the OWF, we have a [Donate] button for random donations and we also have a Premium membership that has a few perks. One is 5% to 10% discounts from sponsoring vendors like Walck's, Kaiser Willys, Flat Out Glass and others.
I'm also a member of the JK-Forum which was just purchased by a commercial, media company (Internet Brands, Inc.). We'll see how that works out. So far the ads haven't increased. A few unobtrusive ads wouldn't bother me much, though if we could do it ad-free (except for sponsoring vendors) I'd be happier.