10 Website Peeves
Here are some website no-no's that just annoy me.
1. Squished CSS I hate when I visit someones site, and they have such squished CSS. What I mean is, their headers are super squished and their text is who knows how small. I find it really annoying. It just reminds me of those really bad myspace sites. People like, readable text and they like it in a neutral color. I hate sites that have such bright and blaring colors. Right when I see a site like that, I leave. I can't handle it at all. Stay with some nice bold, but not blaring colors. If you do want to use some bright colors in your layout, try it on a dark grey background. It makes everything more pleasurable for the eyes.
2. Comment Beggers Comment beggers are people who beg for comments. People who like ask people to comment every possible way they can. They write on people's website "Hey nice site, comment back on mine?" or who spam twitter every 10 minutes saying "Please comment! Only 2 comments so far! ):" If you really want comments, just comment back on other people sites, but actually talk about what they write. No one likes it when they just skip to the questions or they don't even talk about the blog. Us bloggers spend a lot of time writing our blogs, and most of the time, it is personal. Many times we want opinions and we don't get that if you just forget about the blog.
3. Stupid Popups I hate when I enter a site, and those little popups appear saying "Welcome to the site! Be sure to comment!" I mean, those just annoy me, especially when I'm in a rush to get to a certain page. If you really want to welcome your visitors, just write a welcome message on the side, or on your index. Oh, and don't do those lame clicking games where its like, keep clicking ok until you get to 0 ! Those just waste our time.
4. No dates I hate when I visit a site and the person's blog does not include dates. I have come across this many times. How am I supposed to know when you wrote it? How active you are? This is especially important when I am reviewing hosting applications. I find it very annoying. Just write a simple date, that's all I ask.
5. Music I absolutely hate when sites have music players. I mean seriously? If you REALLY want music to play on your site, make sure it isn't on autoplay. Whenever I stumble upon a site that has a music player, I automatically turn my volume on to mute. If you don't have to have a music player, don't. You can lose a lot of visitors from a music player.
6. Unused Domains You know, domains cost money? And why do I say that? I hate when people buy domains, and they never use them. I mean, don't waste a perfectly good domain name when you know you aren't going to use it. Buying domains is a big thing. Don't waste you money on it if you know you can't handle it. I was very hesitant to buy my second domain, but I can handle it, and now I have three. Use your domains, if not, maybe link it to your current site until you do plan on using them. At least the domain would lead you to somewhere, other then "Coming Soon" sign that has been up for 3 months.
7. Random Bling I hate sites that have random little bling things around it. I mean really? They rae out of place and serve no purpose. Especially when they are in the corner of your page! I find them pretty useless. Simple thing, if you want to make/collect them, make a page specially to show all of your little bling graphic things. Not around your layout.
8. Splash This is a big no-no! Do not add splash pages. They waste time and space. No one wants a sign saying "Click to enter my site!" If they typed in your site, chances are, they are going to enter your site anyways. They also take up space, depending on the size of the image. Who wants to waste valuable space? I sure don't. But what if you uploaded it to an image site like Tinypic or Photobucket? Still, it takes up time load, and also, I hate when a site like that goes "This image has been removed" or "Bandwidth exceeded". Those things make it bad to upload all of your image to an image provider. Those things make your splash page look like you don't take care of your site. So eliminate them overall.
9. Hit Counters I know I use to have one for who knows how long. But now I regret it. Most of the time, they don't count correctly. And why show how many visitors you get? You want to show off? No, that's not the way to go. If you really want to know how many visitors you get, get a private one. No one wants to know how many visitors you get per day or how little you get. It also makes things tense. How say? Well say your friend has a hit counter. They get lots of visitors per day, while you only get a few. Don't you want as many visitors as your friend? I mean, you're web-design levels are about the same, yet they get more. That's where envy goes and tension build between the people.
10. STEALING/COPYING The worse of them all. Stealing. Do NOT steal or copy people's work. They spend a lot of time on it and you shouldn't take them and call them your own. If you do use it, credit. And editing doesn't make it yours by the way. If you copy them, credit them. "Inspired by:" is always nice. But if you do get inspired by them, don't make it look the same. Make it original. Not the same, but different color or different model. Both of these, though, should be avoided, at all costs. Oh and if you DO steal/copy, don't be going around saying "Don't copy my work!" or "Don't Steal!" Because, dude, you do it too.
This whole article is my opinion. Do not get offended by any of it. (:
