Cluck: Without knowing what Fencer's aims are, I feel certain that testing the system is not enough reason for having gone to all this trouble and putting up generous prizes.

Stevie Your membership entitles you to many things but there's no reason why it should provide free entry into Fencer's competition. It could but it's not a must. Rather than think of ads as being an insult to your membership rights, see that they are the entry fee to the competition. One which you don't have to pay if you don't want to be in the competition. If Fencer can recoup some of the costs of running these competitions through ad click-throughs that's surely not something you'd begrudge him, is it?