I wouldn't care to guess how many hundreds of dollars it costs each month to pay for the server space that we get to use for [u]free![/u]
I sometimes get frustrated about not being able to include schematic drawings or pictures to clarify some of my technical explanations. Then I think about how much server space we'd bloat to if we were posting graphics.
I enjoy the inherent democracy of this site. There's no exclusionary membership fee to keep out contributors who don't happen to have coin laying around. A few pop-ups is a small price to pay.
Think of those pop-ups as a free video game! How fast can you zap 'em?