Do Contributing members get ad-free browsing??

yeah, I do feel lately there's too many advertising on the site.  with the new layout they seem more prominent...

I really don't like the gear list on my homepage, feels like i am on amazon or something. and also the featured review. I wish we could customize those sections on our homepage to things we like. 

There was a level of Contributing Membership in the old system that allowed most ads to be removed.  It was called the Ad-Lite style, and it was available to those who were Contributing Member 3 or Contributing Member 4 (assuming you were familiar with the fact that there were four levels).

Those who were still within their Contributing Member 3 and Contributing Member 4 subscriptions at the time of the transfer have that option available.

Over the next couple of days, I'll be deciding on what subscription(s) will be available here.

In the future, for feedback and bugs, please use the Feedback & Bug Reports Forum.

Got to admit I'm not a fan of the new layout. Like said, the adverts are too prominent and I@m really not interested in the latest reviews or "what users want"... I understand whoever runs the forum has costs to cover, etc, and I don't mind a few adverts here and there but as it stands with the new layout the right-hand side third of the browser is useless. All my post are crammed into 2/3rd's the usual space and it  also doesn't help that the Avatar/username section is massive, bigger than the actual post content most of the time.

That right column is awful big.