It’s Tuesday and I am beginning my mini-vacation. I don’t return back to work until Sunday. I plan on getting a lot a few things done around the house, Plus, I was hoping to finish setting up the meme and award portion of my own site as well catching up on a few of my favorite blogs. I still haven’t uploaded my doodles for Doodle Week!1
Anyway, as I was surfing the web today, I found myself getting cranky which only means it’s time for me to go down the dreaded, yet pretty simple list, of my blogging pet peeves. If I offend you, sorry, but my usual blog surfing has gone from pleasurable to being rather annoying. And I really don’t like being annoyed.2
With that said, let’s get started.
I Do Not Want To Hear Your Music
I really like discovering new blogs. I enjoy reading what you have to say and share.3 However, if you opt to have auto-play music on your blog any slight possibility of us being friends will come to a screeching halt. I know we all would love to share our new favorite song with the world, but you don’t have to force it down my throat. Direct my attention to it, and then allow me the freedom to CHOOSE to play it if I want to hear it.
Not Everyone Uses Blogger
The world wide web is a big big big place. I mean it’s huge… and I know this might shock some people, but not everyone uses google’s version of a blog. I personally use Wordpress. I know there are people who use Diaryland, GoDaddy’s Quick Blogcast, Typepad, Joomla and well you get the point. So, knowing this, why would you set your comments to only allow people who use blogger? Is that fair? I know we all want to avoid spam and other crazy nonsense, but I am sure you want to have people coming to your blog and commenting right? Otherwise, what is the point? I’ve been nice and leaving comments anyway but I won’t any more. If you won’t take 2 minutes4 of your time to make it so I can comment without using some made up google blog then I figure you don’t want my comments anyway.
Oh Yah! I Get To Spend 5 Hours Searching Your Site!
If you use Entrecard, and actually drop your card on blogs, then you might be able to relate to this.
I do not want to spend my life looking for the Ecard widget on your blog. If you can not find a spot near the top or on the absolute bottom then I’m not dropping on you anymore. Wait… I’m going to make an exception and say that I will drop on you if it’s in the middle… but not if its surrounded by a ton of useless links, pictures, advertisements, garbage, and badges. The days where I enjoyed playing “Where’s Waldo” have surpassed, so I don’t want to play it on your blog with your Entecard. I could be mean and pinpoint the specific blogs I am referring to, but I won’t.5
In Conclusion
- Please stop forcing your music down my throat.
- Enable ALL forms of comments on your blog… It will exapnd your readership, and I bet you will get even more comments.
- Put your Entrecard somewhere where its easy to be seen and quick to click.
Thank you, and I really hope we don’t have to have this little chat again for at least a year.
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL!! Nice, real nice!
I have that same issue with the music and the hidden ecards!
I think the music thing is just rude! I opted to have a music player that you click on if you choose to and I have 2 different play lists and My ecard is right near the top! Some people just don’t get it!!
Blessings!
reginas last blog post..Sunday Inspiration: Dry Bones Live Again!
I have to agree with all your points. But…the one about the entrecard widget really is my pet peeve. I get tired of playing “cat and mouse” while searching for widgets and have gotten to the point where I’m going to stop dropping on those sites.
Well said!!
Kims last blog post..I guess I’m going to have to dye my hair!
I hate the music thing too. I’m slightly tolerable of looking for your EC widget, but it better not be too far down, I’ll still look for it, but I’ll be mad about doing it.
Enjoy your time off. I’m not at work today myself. I kind of feel like quitting, but I need my electricity so I can blog.
I could live at the library.
Naturals last blog post..Advertising: Information or Manipulation
I can’t get away from a site fast enough if it has music playing. Not that I don’t like it, I usually have my own playing, so I don’t want to hear two songs at once.
I don’t know about the comment thing. I had all forms enabled on my site but got too much spam. I hate having to do that verifying thing but it does help control the spam.
DineometerDebs last blog post..There was a contest?
@ Regina, Kim and Natural – I don’t know someone would sign up for Entrecard and purposely through their card in the middle of a ton of junk. It drives me insane!
@ Deb – I don’t mind having to enter verification codes… that’s not my issue. My issue is people with Blogger blogs who only allow comments from other people with Blogger. Allowing the simple option for Name/URL just opens the door for more people to comment.
I love the writing rules poster. It is now my desktop wallpaper. I hope you get some writing done on this stay-at-home vacation.
As for your pet peeves — AMEN!
haleyhughess last blog post..We have a winner
Every point you mentioned is exactly how I feel. I hate music and I hate searching for EC’s. If I cant find it in the first few seconds I close the tab and move on.
I hear you! I just wrote a similar post about my blog pet peeves a few days ago. Music on auto play, buried ECs, blogs COVERED with ads, all of those things drive me bonkers.
I love the writing poster, too. I need to print it out so I will see it every day. LOL
Peace & Love!
Original Grits (Barb)s last blog post..Better Off Dead?
heh. I don’t mind scrolling down to get to the widget, I just don’t like when it’s camouflaged and surrounded by a bunch of colorful sparkley things. What i hate even more are the mouseover popups that cover the Entrecard widget when you try to drop on it. It’s like you go to click on “drop” and out of nowhere this window pops up. WTF. Then you try navigating to the drop zone from 4 different directions until you finally get there without interference.
hpariss last blog post..Need Motivation To Get Out And Walk? Join The Alzheimer’s Memory Walk
And how about the sites where you have to register and log in and jump through hoops while holding your breath just to leave a comment. Come on! Either you want me to leave you a comment or you don’t. And if I do happen to be a bit of spam, can you slap me on some bread and delete me? It’s not nearly as difficult to do as giving you all my demographic data just to say, “Nice post” forcryingoutstinkin’loud!!!
Oh. My. Whew. I’m feeling much better now. I think I’ll go drop a few cards or something.
What I don’t get is this: I’ve seen so many of these lists online, yet there are *still* so many people still have music or videos on autoplay. Honestly. The EC card, meh… doesn’t annoy me as much because as Trench said, if I don’t find it right away and there’s nothing else on your site keeping me there (so, content) then I close the tab and move on; I have things to do.
Enjoy your stay-cation hun
fragilehearts last blog post..All I’m going to say is, “Pencil.”
@ Haley – I love the poster too
@ trench – The nicer side of me insists on taking the extra time to find it, but not any more.
@ Original Grits – OMG, I hate those blogs smothered in crap-ass ads. Grrrrrrrr!!
@ hparis – Today was the first day (after I wrote this post) that I encountered the deadly twister entrecard game. It pissed me off so bad I just closed the window.
@ Carol – Don’t even get me started on those sites. All I want to do is leave you a COMMENT and I have to register??? The other day I went to a site, and because I really wanted to leave a comment so I decided to register. Ten minutes later, the thing pops up and tells me there is already a user by that name. So I tried again. Same message. Needless to say, they got no comment.
@ Fragile – Tell me about it. Maybe the people who play music don’t read these kinds of posts. Maybe I need to leave them friendly messages ON their blogs to tell them to turn it off!!!
How happy I am not to have music and allow anyone to comment and you are still visiting my blog and even comment from time to time
Have some great off days!
Anas last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: Cats need Attention
Amen.
nice post you got here monique. it`s straightforward! i agree about the entrecard widget. people should place them where it`s easily seen. have a nice day!
double ditto!! well said!
chat blancs last blog post..Adventures in housecleaning
Hahaha, if only we didn’t love EC so much…
I agree with hparis, my pet peeve are those ads that pop-up when you hover over their EC widget. Soo annoying!
Flishas last blog post..Notice Anything Different in The Address Bar?
i think i’m not one of the culprits ‘coz you still dropped EC on my page. hehe. thanks a lot!!! happy blogging!
jenns last blog post..Luxury beds at Bedroom Space
I agree to all three. I have one more to add.
Occasionally someone from EntreCard WILL NOT DISPLAY A WIDGET on his or her OWN blog.
Yet this person feels the need to drop a card on me at my site. So as I respond via my drops inbox I invariably run into that person (who I can never remember, so it happens frequently) who does NOT have the widget on the site.
So I spend a lot of time scouring the freakin’ site, looking for the widget. That is. Not. There.
Grrrr!
p.s. When I dropping I keep the mute button on.
cardiogirls last blog post..I was spouting opinions way back in college, I tell ya
What’s wrong? Don’t you like the Blogger -elite sites? LOL I try to do whatever I can to make encourage my readers to leave a comment. And I hate it when people have music that not only auto-plays but blasts out of my speakers and scares the daylights out of me.
sHaE-sHaEs last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: Children’s Museums
Hey GF — I am with you all the way on these rules and MORE! No one page “click to close” ads — that gets your blog skipped entirely, thank you very much.
I will comment on the “blogger elites” but hate doing it as my blogger id doesn’t point to any live blog anymore. And what is with the capchas lately??? I can half read them and end up entering it several times before I finally hit it right. Guess these old eyes are getting old.
Have a great day off — mine will be Friday! W00T!
Margarets last blog post..Procrastination vs Motivation
@ Ana – lol, most definitely. And if you did I’d really miss seeing your cat tales.
@ Brandi –
@ kikamz – I fixed your comment
I am Monique, not Regina.
@ chic blanc – Thank you!
@Flisha – and of course once she mentions it, I now encounter too many of them.
@ jenn – You are 100% correct.
@ cardiogirl – omg yes! I have some bobo who drops on my site EVERYDAY and I never once found his e-card. People even leave messages asking him where it is, and he never replies.
@ Shae – lol. I tend to play music also, and I’ll be going along and get blasted with some words or loud ass music which always scares the living daylights out of me. Damn people.
@ Margaret – Any page with a click to close ad will get closed and ignored. And I just don’t see the point of commenting on a blog that forces me to point my name and info to someplace I don’t exist. It’s just rude. Oh, it’s not just your eyes. I have to do capchas 847837 times as well.
Oh yeah. All of the above. Plus my latest… posts that are written with the Basket Shake method. Take a bunch of words (mostly English, but toss in a few other-language-of-your-choice words for flavor), toss them in a basket, mix well and dump them on the table. Copy to your blog verbatim.
More and more lately while doing my dropping and reading posts, I’m screaming, “WTF are you talking about???” In my head, of course, because Mr. Aerten is still sleeping.
Sigh. I knew it was a bad idea to major in English. I’m scarred for life.
Kellys last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: On the Wing
Okay missy…I tried commenting yesterday but it wouldn’t let me. hmmm…I sense a conspiracy. *grin*
The reason why I haven’t changed my comments is because I DON’T KNOW HOW!!!
I’m lame and pathetic and I know it. I have my comments enabled but even that took me some time to figure out. I used to moderate them because I was getting a ridiculous number of spams (considering my minuscule size) until I realized that I can actually delete comments after they are posted. But it took me over a year to figure that out.
I hope you will still visit me even though I am lame and pathetic. =)
castocreationss last blog post..Hire Me or I’ll Sue
You think silly bloggers will ever get the picture? Also, don’t spend all your time being a “power dropper” when you haven’t posted on your blog in over 2 weeks… Some of us actually read the post when we swing by to drop on you and well, 2 weeks of the same shit is BORING.
Don’t have a blog if you can’t make time to write in it!
Okay, rant over… Sorry.
DirtyLaundryDivas last blog post..BridezillaBlondie makes all women look bad.
Yes Ma’am! I hear you on the music bit, it is very annoying, and could understand if it were a music site and hate when I am scared half out of my skin when I visit a site and have music blaring over my speakers.
Adas last blog post..Love
You stole my post!
How I hate it when I open a blog and music blasts out of my speakers. Especially at 2am, which is usually when I’m doing my EC drops. I open a row at a time, so it’s ages before I can find which one it is! I really am going to stop dropping on those, along with the ‘hunt the thimble’ blogs.
I understand where you’re coming from, many new users of blogger don’t seem to understand those simple basics. Someone’s gotta school them, guess it’s you!
Agree with the music thing.
It slows down the page loading time. And then i would still have to find which site has music since i usually open few sites at once.
I also hate sites that have way too many sparkling thing. I just hate it
dinis last blog post..Lizard
“Not everyone uses Blogger.”
That irritates me to ne end! Thanks for telling the rest of the folks. I, too, use Wordpress, and I get sooo frustrated.
First timer, but, I will return. Peace.
freedoms last blog post..Old School Flava: 7/23/2008
this is nice! im gonna abide by this! (hopefully)
i found your site on entrecard. i’m an entrecard blogger too.
http://www.deariago.blogspot.com
http://www.nobe112681.blogspot.com
All excellent points, especially the Entrecard one. Pet peeve of mine, looking for the card sometimes. Add to that a slow page download, and I am tweaked…hope you find my ecard easilly…and enjoy my blog like I enjoy yours.
peace,
mike
livelife365
Mike Fosters last blog post..The Collector
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