As far as I can tell, ads are displayed on some sites in the Stack Exchange network. (At least for users below some reputation threshold.) But I saw some contradictory information concerning the question whether there are ads on this site.
Some places which say we do not have ads:
- These posts have lists of sites the where ads are enabled: We're enabling display ads on select Stack Exchange sites (current revision) and What sites have advertisements enabled? (current revision). The lists do not include Mathematics. (A test of running ads on all sites is mentioned, but the edit from June 2019 says that it is only for the following 6 months, until the end of that calendar year.)
- Answer on this meta which also says there are no ads on this site: Where does math stackexchange get its money for hosting servers?
Some places mentioning (showing) ads on Mathematics or with unclear information:
- A bug report on this meta which explicitly says that this site does have ads: Privilege page on reduced ads doesn't show on this site, even though there are now advertisements. (Since the two posts were posted on the same day, it seems quite likely that this bug report was posted as a reaction to the question mentioned in the next bullet point.)
- A post on Meta Stack Exchange which shows a screenshot on this site with ads: Ads appearing before (on top of) questions? (For a user with one reputation point.) The answers posted to this question claim that it is well-known fact that ads are shown to users below 200 reputation points.
- Searching in the help center shows: "Privilege: reduce ads - Some ads are now automatically disabled". But when I actually click on the link returned by that search, I am only redirected to the list of privileges. (I can see such privileges on some other sites, such as: Stack Overflow, Meta Stack Exchange, Cross Validated.)
- On some sites I can also see an option to display more ads - but not on Mathematics. For example, this is what I get on Meta Stack Exchange:
Thanks to Calvin Khor, who mentioned to me some of these links in chat.
Main question. Are ads supposed to be displayed on Mathematics Stack Exchange? If they are displayed, is it to users below 200 reputation points (as on other sites)?
- If not, was the instance in the linked Meta Stack Exchange question (which has screenshots of ads) simply a bug?
- If yes, shouldn't the information in various places be updated to reflect his information? (Such as the help center on this site, the users' preferences or the list of the sites which have ads.)
To clarify, I do not mean community ads. I am aware that they exist on this site for about a decade now.
