These always make me laugh. It is also 'terrible' that cars, houses, food and beer all cost money.... but they still do.

Why should it be free? If it wasn't worth paying for, GT wouldn't exist in it's charged membership format... bandwidth costs money - hosting video & mp3 increases that cost.

The guys here ran it as a charity for some time, but as the amount of content increased, so did the cost - and surely it's only fair that the cost be spread across the userbase? The forum is free :D

I don't think $5 a month is unreasonable for the amount on offer. In the UK, that's the cost of a cup of coffee, or 10 cigarettes for example....