If I am logged into SP, the various pages appear clean, but if I view the same page when not logged into SP, the page includes ads along the border, tucked into odd places such as within the gray summary block where the mountain stats are listed, and many of the words within the body are hyperlinked to reveal call-out windows.

I understand the need to monetize such a large site in some way, so I don't object to the idea of ads in general. If that money helps keep the site active, fine with me. What I would ask is to keep in mind the ways that ads are placed. Too many, and the page's appearance declines. Maybe it's just me, but I have always objected to those hyperlinked word ads.

I agree. The in-line hypertext ads in particular flat out ruin our content for the public. It's like one of those failing newspaper sites now. At least registered members don't have to deal with it.

That's great news!

I'm not sure if this issue is related, but I have noticed an increase in the amount of annoying ads over the last 3-6 months. The in-text thing was absurd, but even worse, random pages are now redirecting me off-site when I am not logged in. This gives SP the appearance of being hacked.

So my question is, A) Who is responsible for this? or B) if no member is responsible, how can we fix the hack? If you need an example, just look at my page without being logged in. Sadly, this is not a rare case. I have encountered it on many other pages. It leads me to believe that the quality of the SP experience is being diminished for someones personal gain. If that is the case, it's shameful affair.

I am all for advertising so this site makes money to keep it going.......but the recent addition of the video ads stinks!

What I've noticed in general on the internet lately is the proliferation of ads and click bait which I can only assume means they're less effective so more are being placed to get more clicks. I guess it's all about the clicks and a click is worth a lot less than it used to be.

Advertising is more important to the internet than people like to give credit, and without it most of the sites you love would be subscription based pieces of crap with only a fraction the user base and content. The layout of the ads on summitpost (with the exception of in-text ads) is perfectly fine in my opinion.
But since it was brought up - clicks are really not the main objective of high volume, low cost ads that most people are complaining about. When an ad is shown, you are cookied and all of your web activity will be tracked after you leave the page; if you then later go to the brand's site and make a purchase the ad gets credit for driving that sale, regardless of if you even saw the ad. This motivates ad agencies to buy as many ads as possible for their budget, and they spray millions of ads across the internet. The price for these ads continues to be driven down as websites add more and more banners to their page trying to make up for lost revenue, and the cycle continues until some pages have dozens of ads buried at the bottom of the page (or worse, stacked on top of each other so they aren't even visible!)
As bad as this is for the user experience, it is not anywhere near as bad as when clicks were the objective - remember the flashing 'punch the monkey' ads at the top of every website 10 years ago?