User blog comment:Brandon Rhea/Making Ads Better: The Basics/@comment-11515627-20170117042842

"Directly sold ads are consistently of higher quality and relevance to Fandom readers and community members ... direct ads create a more pleasant [...] advertising experience."

Sorry, but this is laughable. Ads that take 3/4 of the screen real estate, and are placed at the very top as if they're some sort of landing page for the content I actually want to see, are much more annoying that programmatic ads on the side and out of the way. Especially full background ads which make the whole thing lag.

Having better graphic design with smoother transitions does not automatically make an ad better. The best ads are the smallest ones that load quickly and aren't prone to being accidentally clicked on by loading slowly and popping in, or in the worst case scenario (and the most common scenario with direct ads), sliding/expanding after a delay. (Correction: the best ads are the nonexistent ones!)

Anyway, it is quite disenchanting when I log out and see what non-logged in users have to deal with. I hope that some of this is taken care of, but as the blog stated they're wanting more direct ads, it doesn't seem very hopeful.