As I understand it from an old thread on the topic, those links are essential to keeping the site running. Apparently advertisers want engagement buttons. We’ve been asking for them to cut back on predatory ads, these buttons, etc. for years with some sort of subscription/patreonish option but the powers that boing don’t think that’s enough to pay for the site.
ETA: After rob’s post I got curious about my memory. I couldn’t find the thread I was looking for, but I found another. Per orenwolf (RSS: Suddenly Snippets! - #21 by wazroth)
The most successful patreons apparently don’t make enough cover BB’s costs (?!?!?!). They’ve been looking into bespoke options but nothing that would work has appeared yet.
