If reference to funding and the fiscal state of Satelliteguys, here is my 2 cents-
First- I have always been against the concept of a lifetime membership. It has permitted many ( not all) to make a relatively small donation and then use the service for free the rest of the life of the forums. This falls in that category of short term gain- long term pain. I do recognize that a few here donate from time to time even with the lifetime banner. But considering the numbers of members you all are an extremely small bunch of generous people.
Second- While Satelliteguys was born from a need for satellite TV services support for enthusiasts it has evolved quickly to offer a wide range of technical and non-technical subject matter. Some of the non-technical sub forums have active members who never even bother with the core purpose of Satelliteguys or non -technical areas. Therefore I would like to suggest that these unrelated and non-technical sections be like the plugin$- an added charge. I'm not going to suggest how much but the amount should be related to the cost of hosting these unrelated forums based on post numbers.
I understand that some of the income for running the forum is advertising related. Would there be a way to increase the revenue from ads if they were added back to the most popular forums for all members and leave the Pub remain ad free? This is my least favorite suggestion as I love to skip ads on TV and pay a premium for subscription TV to avoid ads. But, maybe it would be possible to end the free membership and make it a very small fee to have an account and then an ad free ( pub membership ).
Look, nobody likes to pay more for less, but unless you have more money than brains, the more affluent members here shouldn't be expected to pay for the free loaders either. Save that for your favorite charity. Satelliteguys is a business, not a charity, so it's time for all with a log in account to pay for the service it renders.