Saturday, September 13, 2008

Ten Pet Peeves based on reading blogs

Now that I am reading more blogs due to being a member of Entrecard I am having some issues. Here is a list I have compiled and may add to as more things appear to me.

1. Music on pages - this is irritating, loud, and with my computer in the kitchen and the bedroom on the other side it could easily wake up my child. Plus this slows down my computer and many times freezes it up so I have to reboot, losing time from what I was initially doing.

2. Spottt - I am not posting a link to this site as they do not need or warrant more free publicity from me. I signed up with them weeks ago and had the widget on both blogs. I noticed this same ad all over the web. Finally the other day I got emails stating my autism blog had been rejected as it was posted too far down my page. It was the fourth item on my page. This blog was approved, it was listed second. I noticed ads being shown on the widget, yet when I clicked them on I was still taken to Spottt website.

Last nite I noticed a site while doing some entrecard visiting, that had a Spottt advertisement (non Spottt related) and was located way down past the middle of the page. How was this possible, is it because it was a high traffic tech blog? I do not know, but did leave comments for a few blogs that had the same Spottt ad for Spottt, but way down on their blog page. I let them know they would probably be rejected.

Today I decided to view this blog and see what the advertisement was. It was a silver type flashing dating site with bikini clad women on the widget. I did not click to see if it took me to the dating site or to Spottt. I went to Spottt and sent an email complaining about the reject and seeing the other one not rejected and the dating site on my blog. I then deleted the code from both blogs.

Do not waste your time with them. If you are waiting to get approved check out sites that have ads and see what they are of and click on link to see where it takes you and then decide.

3. Strike Outs - I am not really sure what the point of these are, but I find it annoying and distracting to read a website or blog and then see a word lined out and another one replacing it. What is this I am reading, a draft? It makes no sense to me and seems sloppy and lazy. I want to read a polished article.

4. Paragraph or a few sentences - I come across these more from Twitter and at first I could not figure out where the blog/article was that I clicked on to read. I would click on a link that someone posted about a new blog and then be shocked to see not even a paragraph. I do not get it, call me clueless, maybe it has something to do with page views for their advertising. You will not see google adsense here at my blog. That is not an article, it is a sentence that is best as an email or tweet on twitter.

5. Book Reviews - I write book reviews on epinions, amazon and at the autism site I write at. I have seen some book or product reviews that seem to be for free products that people write they received and it is basically two paragraphs. Is that really considered a review? I am expecting more and left wondering what I just read. I prefer amazon reviews over these.

6. Lingo - I would expect not to see LOL or LMAO in an article, but they are there. I find that a turn off and will not read further.

7. Spam codes - I cannot read these little letters and post it into the box most times. I give up after two tries. There is a way to stop these in blogger, not sure about other blog sites. I wonder how many comments are gone because of these imaged text to copy and decipher.

8. Time Zones - I am in California on pacific time, which is three hours behind eastern time zone. Entrecard seems to go back and forth between 9 and 10 PM for when they change the date for drops. I would really like it to be midnight and follow each time zone the correct way. So give me from midnight to midnight. I have sitemeter listed as pacific time zone yet at night time it is showing me visiting from NY at 9 AM the following day.

9. Mommies - I find this so insulting to read articles at sites that are supposedly "Professional", and they use this child-like term to describe career women once they have children. The correct word to use should be Mother. We are now Parents and not all career woman went on to become parents, so lumping them together is wrong as well. You want to be taken seriously and then you use this word to describe someone who has children. I will not continue reading an article after coming across the word Mommies.

10. Paid Post - I see this at the bottom of a post and sometimes when I have tried to leave a comment it asks me if I want to be paid for my comment or something. I find these confusing. Is it really worth having this publicized on each post on a blog, what is the payout on these? Who pays for posts, is this for advertising or writing about products? I find it distracting me from reading the actual content, and I leave with more questions than when I arrived at the blog or site.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate music on blogs, too. As for the short blogs, I often do post just links to articles on my site because that's what a tumblr is for. I don't see the need to rehash what the article already says so clearly. Tumblr is for micro-blogging. I'm new to it, so I might be doing it wrong! Thanks for the fun read! You rock. :-)

Krista Long said...

I can see those pet peeves. You will even see some of those o my bog, mainly because I treat it not as a place for polished articles, but for journaling. Yes, I am journaling publicly, and I know I have an audience, but it is still there mainly for me.
The strikethroughs I use for two purposes. The first is to cross items off lists. The second is as a comedic device. I will say something bluntly, strike it out, and reframe it.
I appreciate the list. It is something to think about :)

AC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AC said...

I don't like music on blogs either however, there are a couple of blogs that I like that DO have music on it. I actually enjoy the strike out formatting. It is usually supposed to be funny comments - you gotta 'read between the lines' girl!

Hope you are having a good weekend Bonnie! Good post on blog peeves!

From Crazy Jugs http://crazyjugs.blogspot.com

Lilly said...

This is a really good list and I ahd to think whether I do any of them too! Hate the music too. But the cross outs can be quite funny if used the way it is intended.

Elizabeth Channel said...

I completely agree on the music!

I fear I'm guilty of referring to myself or someone else as "mommies." I never thought about that being troubling, but I'm starting to see your point!

Now I've got to think about that.

There you go, Bonnie, always forcing me to think, think, think!

A Valdese Blogger said...

Hello. For some reason I'm in a commenting mood this evening. So here goes.

1. Music - I agree 100%. I turn my volume off, but I'm sure sometimes my computer slows down because of it.
2. Spottt - to be honest, never heard of it. But then my blog's just for fun, just a blog about nothing.
3. Strike out's - usually there's some humor or sarcasm involved. They can be quite funny, like "ac" said, gotta read between the lines.
4. Paragraphs or a few sentences - I think I always write something.
5. Book reviews. I sometimes write about books I've read, but not on a regular basis, and I dont actually feel the need to have read them completely to form an opinion, sometimes. I dont think it would qualify as a book review.
6. Lingo - I dont mind lol or stuff like that. I have problems with all the codes for smiling, crying, wink, ect. I can never remember them.
7. Spam codes - I dont get many comments, so I dont have much experience with this.
8. Time Zones - I agree, midnight to midnight.
9. Mommies? I don't really have an opinion on that one.
10. Paid Posts. I never ever intended to make money with my blog so I have no paid posts. You couldnt pay me to have a paid post. Also I usually stop reading as soon as I realize a post is an advertisment. My pet peeve I guess.

This is without question the longest comment I've ever left anywhere. I apologize for the wordiness.

Unbalanced Libra said...

Wow, you sure have a lot of pet peeves! Blogging is journaling to me - not a polished article. if I want to read articles, I can go to ezine or something similar!

Catherine James said...

I too am not a fan of music, on the site. But I really relieve that person chooses what's important to them and why they have their website.

When I find sites that have things that hit my Pet Peeve button, I just leave the site and don't look any further.

Anonymous said...

Hi Bonnie - I found your blog through Entrecard. Many of those things bug me too - especially the music one.

And paid reviews suck. I get heaps of people asking me to do them on my business blog and I find it insulting. I didn't spend over a year and a half building up my readership to turn them off with some crappy review.

Unknown said...

I hate music on blogs too.

Sometimes it freaks me out, because I don't realise my speakers are on.

I'm sorry, but I use LOL.
It's funny that it means Laughing out Loud, and that the word lol means in my own language that it's a funny way of saying something.

To me it's a way of conveying the intention of the words, and to say that I'm smiling indeed.

Sorry that it bothers you and you won't read any further.

Hope you're having a great weekend.

Anonymous said...

A good list, some bother me less than others.
Just to comment on a few of them:
I can live with LOL/LMAO - it's like text language, short and not so sweet, but you know what it means.
Paid posts - arrgghhh! - I think they are awful and hopefully there will be a backlash against them. I know that it is a way for people to earn money. I know that for some people it is how they feed their children but...I still hate them and it actually puts me off reading blogs that do have them. The real shame is there are a number of bloggers who do have paid posts and have brilliant content but somehow they manage to demean their blogs.
Music? It depends. Mostly I would say it is not a good idea. There was a blog I read regularly that had a radio streaming audio on in the background and I really enjoyed it. I would leave it on whilst surfing. If in doubt - no music, i think it can put too many people off.
Book Reviews? Better than a film review. I'm not a lover of films and couldn't tell you anything about the current blockbusters, but books are important and if someone chooses to write a good summary of a book then I think that's interesting.
Just my opinions.
Good post!
Zee

MommaDJane said...

Well first I want to say thank you for finding my blog and deciding to follow me!

I am a bit confused based on your pet peeves as to why you would want to follow me b/c I do almost all of those ten things.

I don't like music on websites either but I keep my computer muted so never notice. Since some people like it and it is their webpage I just mute my speakers to avoid it. I have not been paid to write a blog post yet I am about to do a review next week for a children's item just for fun and give one away just b/c I was given the items brand new, not for money. I do use LOL in some of my posts but then again my blog is a personal journal, not polished articles also I use strikethrough as part of the humor in some of my posts to tell people what my first feeling or thought was and then clean it up to be nice. Not sure what Spott is and do have google ads in my sidebar. I am a wahm with three kids so the extra little cash will help, if I get any.

I am honored you decided to follow and hope you drop by to say hi sometime.