When I began this blog just over a year ago now, I thought I’d understood that since I couldn’t run ads on my site, neither would anyone else! But there it is, way down at the bottom of their features page: WordPress will “occasionally…very rarely” run ads on their “free” blogging platform. In the excitement and learning curve of blogging, I guess that sentence just didn’t sink in. These ads, of course, never show up on my own visits here, so I blithely assumed they weren’t appearing when others opened “Borrowing Bones.”

In the last while, however, I’ve been alerted, via a number of casual conversations, that ads do show up. Discreet, perhaps, but ads nevertheless. It was the one reported to be something about brides/women from the Ukraine that really got to me! So I’ve been digging into this, and that’s when I comprehended that last sentence on the features page.

Since I’d decided from the get-go that I wouldn’t blog for revenue, I want to assure you:
1. I’ve received no monies from these ads; WordPress has.
2. I have had no control over their content, and apologize to any who may have been surprised or offended at what may have appeared.
3. Since I have no idea what WordPress’ definition of “occasionally” is, and since blog authors are not given any control or notification over what ads may appear, I have opted to pay a yearly fee to entirely eliminate the use of ads at this site.
4. Which means that the free platform isn’t actually free (either there’s revenue for the company from ads, or the blog author pays), but I still like WordPress and also understand that there are costs and staff to pay to run the supports. The trade-off seems fair enough.

If any of you still see ads on my blog after today, please let me know; you can use the address at “About” or the comment feature. Thanks!