When you see an extra increase in the clicks, you must send an e-mail to adsense support (or smt like that), stating this sudden increase. That will help avoiding you from banning

You'd think so.

Not so in my case. I got back from visiting relatives to find that it had happened a few days prior. Too late I guess.

Yes, I am sorry for that.
But possible future bannings might be avoided like that. Just in case, you should immediately report the sudden increase in your adsense clicks, including that you have no idea about that. Before getting banned.
And about the subject of this thread, I used to have adsense in my forum but now I removed them. Cos I am running a Turkish language information security forum, and everybody uses adblockers. And Turkish language doesnt make much money in adsense. I used adsense for 7-8 months and never saw more than 1 cent per click. So I removed them.

I have ads in a few places. I use a plugin for ads in randoms spots between posts. Nobody has complained yet. It more than pays for my dedicated server expense.

Most of my adsense clicks come from an adsense leaderboard centered under the navbar viewable to guests only. My adsense revenue more than doubled after I added it.

Got banned from google, becuase they said I submitted my forum to some sought of websurfing service. I didn't know what they were on about. So I said oh well. :D

no, it annoys me. I dont use things that I generally hate on other sites.

i have them on my site in the footer. but its not bringing in any money i think i made a whole 2.00 im going to give it a few more weeks if the money hasnt increased then im taking mine down again

Using it. Making enough money to cover my server expenses. Might aswell think about going dedicated if things continue like this. :)

I use them in a few different spots on my forums... showthread, forum home and forumdisplay (towards the bottom on all of them). It doesn't bring in much, but it brings in a few bucks here and there that goes towards helping me pay for hosting. I have them set up so only guests and nonpaid members see them. Membership on the forums is $20 a year and buys you ad-free plus several other perks. :) I do try to make the ads as least obtrusive as possible. I have found that putting them towards the bottom of the thread by quick reply helps a good bit. People see it when they reply and it's relevant to the thread content. :)

Yup, I've got it and have been using it for a long time. Very good if you have lots of traffic and need to generate revenue.