It certainly is not free. I don't consider looking at ads to be free. Make no mistake; IBB makes lots of money off of us. Whether that comes from charging our credit cards are forcing us to look at ads, they get their money.

And the problem isn't so much that people are complaining and stomping their feet. The problem is that ever since IBB took over this place has gone to the crapper from a technical perspective. When Randy was running things we had glitches, but nothing like inoperable search for months...

Psychologically or spiritually, perhaps not. Financially, if you don't click through to the ads: yes it is. It's as free as FM radio -- or do you consider that listening to the radio costs you money because they play ads every so often?

Wrong. Web hosts can get paid for both click-throughs and views, depending on how they've structured their contract.

Who said anything about money? The FM radio costs time, annoyance, etc.

Not out of your pocket.

What business model for FT would you prefer?

No different business model. I'd just prefer folks don't refer to its use as being "free."

I dont know that I would go that far. There has always been some technical glitches with FT before and after IBB. The change to the search though is a complete embarrassment. Even if it is working it is one of the worst search functions I have ever used. I never thought I would say I liked the old search feature....until we got this one.