Glend our costs have gone up significantly in the last 12 mths for hosting, up by over 25%
As mentioned no we havnt got to working through the guest/member solution fully yet. Running into some permissions issues with forum sections.
Having those square ads on the right hand column simply brings in some extra cash to cover that so its not coming out of my hip pocket. Also having them on the right means you are reading from the left and it doesn't affect the thread viewing.
I would say if its taking up 33% of your screen, that your resolution on your screen is set too low.
Heres my screen, as you can see its actually taking up less than 20% of the screen width.
If changing your screen resolution isn't a solution for you, maybe try installing an ad blocker on your web browser, that way every single advert that appears will not appear for you, thereby making your experience better and taking money away from the site for hosting.
Your call mate.