Like many bloggers I started out reading other blogs. They are an excellent source for information, personal stories and experiences, humor and most importantly motivation.
Reading personal finance blogs inspired me to start my first one, Bucksome Boomer, and become debt-free. I read health and fitness blogs for that same inspiration on my wellness journey.
But there are some common things I find in blogs that drive me bonkers! Here are my top four blog pet peeves.
1. Video ads that automatically play. I open a lot of bookmarked sites at once and all of sudden I hear an ad for some product. The hard part is figuring out which of the pages is the offender and then stopping it … immediately.
This is so embarrassing at the office where everyone can hear and knows I’m not doing work at that moment! Readers should have the choice of playing that ad and if I don’t you’re off my reading list.
2.Comment Validation and Subscription. Many of us hate CAPTCHA but too many sites still use it. I can’t even read the nonsensical words half the time let alone retype them in the little box. There’s an option if you’re challenged by the visual for audio but the computerized voice is even worse!
The other commenting system I don’t care for is WordPress. When leaving a comment and selecting to be notified of follow-up comments you get an email and have to confirm the subscription. It’s very annoying and discourages ongoing conversation.
If you use either of these commenting options and wonder if it’s impacting the volume of comments the answer is YES. I think twice before responding on blogs with either of these.
3. Dark Backgrounds. Thankfully not too many blogs have this issue. Have you gone to some sites and find it difficult to read the light text on a dark background? Those sites no matter how great the content are off my reader. They’re great for images, but if you actually write and want it read then ditch that black background.
4. Pop-up boxes. Lots of blogs have pop-up boxes encouraging readers to subscribe to their mailing list or download a freebie. This is fine if it’s limited to the first x number of times I visit a site (and it better be less than 10) but please don’t put a big delay on the pop-up. I get very annoyed when I’m reading an article and in the middle of a sentence the box interrupts the flow.
The ranting is over and I do feel better. 🙂 Yes, I’ll drop some blogs that employ these features but if it’s high quality I’ll stick with it through thick and pet peeve. What annoys you when you visit blogs?
I am in total agreement with you on all 4 of these, esp the comment validation! I have turned mine on a few times, only when I was getting spam comments, but I turn it off within a short time because I know how annoying it is from personal experience.
I hope my blog isn’t violating some of these pet peeves… I know it has a ton of clutter and more than anything I want to clean it up and have a very streamlined, clean blog, but I haven’t had the time and/or finances to make this happen yet!
I need to set up time with my blog designer for next month (after her kids head back to school) anyway for some needed changes to my implementation & design, so I’ll add “implement a new comment system” to my list for her. (I hate it when that happens to me and hadn’t even thought about my poor commenters.)
My biggest pet peeve is when there are 25 photos and less than 50 words in a single post. Takes FORever to load and I can’t follow the words with so many pictures to navigate through!
Denise, your blog is one of my exceptions. 🙂 The three comment systems I like are comment luv, Disquis and LiveFyre. They’re all free.
I think once you get up to more than 10 pictures it’s time for a gallery or slide slow. Of course, I violated my own rule with recent blog conference posts, but I wrote way more than 50 words!
Total agreement with all four of these. Videos and/or auto-play music, ugh!
Pop-up/side boxes that also encourage Twitter following/ etc. that block text makes me want to UNFollow people.
Adding to this list light colored in-text links. I particularly loathe yellow, but am not a fan of light blue, green, gray, etc. either.
Second link peeve is links that don’t open in a new window. I may click a link while reading because I think I want to check it out when I’m done and don’t want to search for it later, and then I’m at a whole new page?! Ugh.
Beverly, you added two I missed but drive me batty as well. I wonder if people even read their own blogs when they use light colored text links. I read somewhere that it’s advised to open pages in the same window, but I don’t like it so I don’t.
I might fail at blog design but like you I want it there for when I’m done reading the current page.
I agree with everything you said. I hate captcha with a fiery passion, and I hate automatic noisemakers even worse.
Elizabeth, I agree with your ranking there. It’s invasive to automatically play sound when someone opens your page.
I agree with you on all four pet peeves. Here’s one of mine: no sharing buttons. It’s rare, but there are some blogs that don’t have a way for you to share the great content.
Romina, if only they knew the love they’re missing out on by not having share buttons.