I Do understand that the forum sponsors pay a fee and am thankful to them for supporting the service. I don't have any problem with them advertising, I'm just curious what the actual rules are here. If Alan does reply today, I'm sorry to be a bother as I understand it's his birthday today.
Edit: as posted at the same time, Thank you, Carl. Will do if I don't get an answer here. I tend to look at contacting the webmaster as "official business" where this is more of a general inquiry.