[appletango]

For the past year we have offered sponsored forum memberships to some small companies that wanted to contribute to our forum. It was something we set out to do to help some of the smaller companies reach our readers without costing thousands of dollars that they would have to spend on advertising elsewhere.

When we first started offering these we did not want to charge anything, but in turn had to do so to eliminate every single company coming here and spamming the board. We charged very little to let a company setup their own forum and chat with the people here as well as showcase products.

As we move towards 2010 THP is making a continued effort to keep the site golf ad free and I have decided to remove this feature and keep this a consumer only forum. We ask companies to come on here every now and then and explain things to readers, but we are still a consumer only forum.

We will offer other ways to get products seen by the THP readers and that is through reviews, profiles, and other avenues we use, and those will as always be completely free of charge. THP Media is growing by leaps and bounds and now have the website, THP TV for unique content, THP Radio launching very very soon, and of course THP: The Magazine.

With these four services we believe that THP can be prepared for the continued growth of the golf business from our side. I believe that remaining golf ad free on our site is something that is a necessity based on our business ethics and has helped grow this business to new levels as our venture moves forward.

These changes do not take place until the end of January and at that time the Sponsored Forums will be closed. We will archive the content however as we do not want to have these companies lose that information as that would not be fair to them or the people that have grown to become their fans over the 2009 year.