Also the fact that Formiculture is owned by a hobbyist, not a company trying to sell you its product. I love the neutral and unbiased atmosphere on this forum.
Totally agree with you. It's fresh to see no ads. I bet this is the only forum on the web dedicated to pets that's ad free and not with any company. Of course, all this hard work and money taken to set up this forum is donated by Drew, and the other admin. We need to respect that.
Definitely. Though unobtrusive banner ads aren't too bad and I understand running sites isn't free. Though ads bring in the question of bias and potential conflict too (what if there's an ad for Foogoo's Amazing Man Bra here and a thread trashing it? If Drew comes to my Man Bra's defense, is he defending the product or the revenue stream?). If it comes to it, I think a membership plan would work, something that gives members added benefits without discouraging newbies from joining. I've seen members being allowed avatars and Marketplace selling as common incentives.
I briefly visited another, newer forum and it's just an eyesore. Maybe it's the color scheme but also the layout, or maybe I'm getting old and the font is too small. But it just seems cluttered. I haven't been back.
Given that money can buy slick software and smart people to run it, maybe don't draw too much attention to these facts when you're referring to a certain someone with deep pockets.
True, but there's still the basic fact of hobbyist vs. vendor run. I'm also referring generally to some other less popular boards I've visited, similar issues that bug me.
This site's layout is sorta similar to Antdude's (at least it reminds me of it just a bit in that its nice and easy to find everything), but I like it a lot more. And I'm here cause everyone I knew on Antdude's forum pretty much went here lol. To be honest, I'd have gone wherever the majority went or where the people I talked to the most went to. Its like if facebook died and all my friends/family left, I'd just go to wherever everyone was using. Not so much to be "in" or "cool", just cause I'm not interested in being part of a dead forum where no one I know is there to talk to lol. That and I want to go where my friends/family go.
Its why when something gets popular, it tends to have a snowball effect 
Look at World of Warcraft when it peaked, pretty much "every" (not so literally) gamer was playing that so kept getting more and more popular as peoples friends were playing it and they wanted in too. Its still popular, but not as much as it used to be. Same thing with facebook. Though that was also partly cause myspace had other issues.
I actually despise the Yuku board - not standalone and disorganized. But that's just my opinion. 
(Did I forget a comma somewhere?)
Camponotus vicinus, Crematogaster 1, Crematogaster 2, Formica francoeuri, *, *, Myrmecocystus testaceus, Novomessor cockerelli, Pheidole hyatti, Pogonomyrmex californicus, Pogonomyrmex rugosus, Solenopsis invicta
