User blog comment:Brandon Rhea/Making Ads Better: The Basics/@comment-1824272-20170117155514/@comment-1824272-20170118054151


 * A visitor might be more inclined to click the sound button to ON when a video auto-plays.

In my experience, a visitor is more inclined to install an adblocker when a video auto-plays.


 * We do have frequency capping, though, so a given user only sees a background takeover a certain amount of times.

That number must be high, because you could have fooled me.


 * Are you referring to ads that expand, or are you saying that you have seen ads where you can't get to the content at all?

Ads that automatically expand. I've already reported one ad in the past for doing this, where, as the anonymous user above me said, the ad expands to the point where only the Fandom header is visible and everything else is one humongous ad and nothing else is visible whatsoever. There is an X button for ads like this, but it's so small you're going to click the ad accidentally, which I'm sure was the intent (this is the same problem as those ads that steal the wiki's background).

I suppose we're going to agree to disagree on whether this stops people from getting to the content, but if I'm loading an article for a character, I want to see that character's infobox in some way, not an ad that makes me think I'm on the wrong site until I see the Fandom header and realize that things have yet to get better.

Usually I only hit these and other problematic ads when I'm logged out, so of course I'll hear the solution is "well then, log in", but here's the thing: if I use an adblocker, and you stop me from accessing the wiki for using an adblocker, I CAN'T LOG IN. Unless one remembers Special:Login—which most new users don't and should not be assumed to—you may as well be kicking anons off the site completely.