I've spent thirty minutes trying to read the end of a thread and it is still just hanging, I even tried flipping it. I've noticed that there are ads that my iPad doesn't load so it just hangs and I've seen a lot that automatically play, which for me at least makes the site unusable as I just don't have the mobile speed available for such ads and to view the forum.
I understand why ads are necessary but, to be honest, this is a good way to end a site. I helped run a forum, albeit many years ago and, what killed it was over use of ads. Not everyone has wifi or broadband - there are parts of the U.K. where it is limited to what, if any, mobile signal a person can get (I'm lucky if I can get three bars and very rarely I can get 4g 99% of the time it is 3G). Yes you can expect people to pay, we tried that - all it meant was people either left to join other free forums or as we found with subscription comes much higher expectations from staff. Those who don't subscribe, possibly because they want to remain anonymous or can't afford to, end up being bogged down in ads and leave to find sites that are not.
More and more people post about using ad blockers, but that makes the site worse for those of us who cannot do so as more ads are deployed or using the app which some of us don't have the option to do.
People shouldn't have to download additional software to post here, whether it's your app or ad blocker.
There are threads that were popular which are now empty because people cannot get on to use them.
I don't know what the answer is but like I said above I do know overzealous use of ads meant the forum I was a part of died and the reason was ads. My local paper is online and recently they posted on social media about people not using it enough in the printed copy the response has been simply that ads make it unusable due to bandwidth needed.