Hi,
I recall seeing that once the paid subscriptions to the website had expired, there were 2 options. One to continue free but the site would contain advertising, and the other to pay for a renewal in which case the renewal fee would have to be paid.
Is this still the case? Has anyone tried the free with ads option?

Back in 2013, when the "free with ads" option was introduced, Brad Switzer mentioned in a forum post that if your subscription expires you can 1. renew it; 2. keep the site indefinitely free with ads; or 3. opt to let your site go. I don't believe anything has changed.

One of our sister classes lets its site expire and has continued on seamlessly with the "free with ads" option.

When we migrated from a single year site, we pretty much just abandoned the original and manually moved everything to a multi-year site.

The old site is now full of ads. Nuisance ads.
Even thou we have advised classmates to use only the new multi-year site, they still use the ad infested old site.

We just let it run because it is FREE. I do not even read any alerts or comments, no update any information.

I think we paid $700 for a ten year license. Well worth it.