If you don't mind, I'll stop following the discussion here, but let me repeat this again:
AS is not-for-profit Project. We never try to make a profit off AS. AS is a community project, as such, it is designed to be as opened as possible.
With that said, words like "paywalls", "VIP access" and "Premier Member" is not a part of the project. I've said it before but I'm saying it again: We treat every visitors as a VIP, and we try our best to maintain the service as good as possible, within our capability and limited budget, it's our core value when we design AS.
Additionally, the AS Network is not just this AS forum, AS hosts various sites on its infrastructure such as Yande.re, The Anime-Sharing lossless to name a few. All of the sites are fully opened without the need of "premium access" which, again, reflects our core value.
AS use 300TB of bandwidth every month, and that didn't even account for various thing we bought per month, ranging from eroge, dakimakura, artbooks, music cds, and much more. All of which were ripped, scanned, released to visitors and members alike -again- without requiring anyone to pay for "premium access" (choice of XDCC, torrents or cyberlocker site).
Finally, while AS are non-profit, AS doesn't ask for donation (like some other 9001 sites). It is grossly against our moral to demand a monthly donation from the members.
I hope this answers all the questions you might have regarding AS.
