I realise I don’t fulfill the ‘Opinions’ part of my tagline very often, so without further ado:
- People setting their ‘Blogger’ blogs to ‘No anonymous comments’ which actually means ‘No comments from people without a Blogger account’. I don’t blame the bloggers themselves, and I wonder how many realise how many comments they lose?
- Comment Spam. Am I ever likely to allow a comment with 250 hyperlinks, child sex, incest, race hate or any other lovely subject onto my blog? No, so stop making me have to go through Akismet lists for innocent comments, wasting hours of my life I’ll never get back.
- People who click on the links promising v1agr@, teen sex etc. It’s you who encourage the assholes in ‘2′.
- Bloggers who never respond to any comments. If you’re in love with the sound of your own voice that much, switch the comments off. If they’re on, we expect interaction.
- People I’ve never heard of in my life asking for a link-exchange. Hello? Why? Make some useful comments on my blog, write good stuff on your blog, then ask me.
- People slavishly copying other bloggers without a hint of originality. John Chow offers a linkback for a review of his blog, so now everyone does! JC is successful, because he’s original, not by copying everything everyone else has ever done. Installing a plugin on a tip is one thing, just substituting your URL for someone elses is just plain dull.
- People who criticise ‘Mommy Bloggers’. Fuck you, you precious little geeks and the pollution of your blogosphere. It’s one of the beauties of the modern internet, that anyone can get on it and have a say. Yep, I’ve seen some truly horrible mommy blogs, with dreadful graphics and hideous music you can’t shut off, but good for them for having their say, and I hope they enjoy it.
- Trolls. Particularly those that go after people and try to hurt them. Nobody cares about you, or the fact that you’re never going to get laid in the whole of your sad, empty, oxygen thieving existence. Get over it.
- Word verification or ‘Captchas’. Enable comment moderation, no spam reaches your blog. Enable word verification, fewer genuine comments reach your blog. If you’re not under a bot attack, you really don’t need.
- Top 10 lists. Oh bugger.
Any I’ve missed?





26 users commented in " Blogging Irritants "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackback#1 on your list doesn’t make me angry, it just makes me wonder what people are thinking. I’ve found places I would like to have left a comment, but even though I have a Blogger account, I don’t want to leave a link to my old, never-updated blog.
However, I hadn’t realized I was being impolite in not responding to comments left on my blog. If someone leaves a comment requiring a response, I respond. But if it is a generic comment, I don’t. Does this make me a bad person?
God no Edward, not at all. I’m talking about people who NEVER respond, even to a direct question.
It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally I’ve come across an interesting blog, read & visited for a few weeks, and not once gotten a response or return visit.
Now, no-one should do anything they don’t want to do, but blogging is 2 way IF you choose it to be. If you leave comments open, you should interact.
But, equally good, is a blog like Violent Acres, where V does not have comments on, makes it quite clear she’s not interested in anything you have to say & just goes for it.
I know I have not been visiting enough people recently, I just haven’t had the time, and I feel crap about it, but hopefully things will quieten down soon. Sometimes real life gets in the way!
I know this is a serious list but several of them made me laugh, especially #8.
And now I better get my lazy butt in gear and answer comments on my blog. (hee hee!)
Blog-Op
Rank: 14,986 (464 links from 240 blogs)
Blog About Your Blog
Rank: 14,880 (749 links from 242 blogs)
we are almost technorati twins lol
Nothing I do is ever that serious Polli….
No.11 People bragging that they are ahead of you in the Technorati rankings.
Number Four is good - people should respond, I do on my tiny, meaningless Blog. What I hate is people asking a question ‘How do I do such and such”, I answer but get no reply whether I have helped them or not. Oh well!
cheers,
http://goldcoaster.wordpress.com
lol not bragging, we are close
I think that the “Mommy Bloggers” point might be a bit of a circular arguement, Chris. If they are free to blog about what they want, aren’t others free to blog about not liking them? I mean, it would be mean and inappropriate to leave a comment on their blog that says “I hate Mommy blogs, and youshould go gas yourself for writing one”, but suggest that other bloggers refrain from critising them seems wrong, don’t you think?
I’m with ya on #9 - I hate those “Captcha” verification scheme things. Although to give credit where it’s due, I sure appreciate the sites that offer an audible version of the “Captchas” as a backup.
Post that could qualify as novels is one of my main irritants. Unless it is a good blogging friend, I just don’t have the time to read a 10000 word essay that could (and should) be broken up into 4 of 5 separate posts.
lol man you sound really angry there but you have some valid points.Good one
I saw the title “Blogging Irritants” and assumed it was all about me… but only some of these really apply….
Where’s that darned winky thing when I’m looking for it?
Good list, but I’m guilty of number 10 once or twice or thrice or whatever.
Only kidding Matthew
You’re right Bob, I phrased my point poorly - what I should have said is people using ‘mommy bloggers’ as a derogatory term. Yes, there are some godawful mommy blogs, but that’s poor design or content, NOT the fact that they are a mommy blog.
I agree Kai, my attention span doesn’t last that long in front of a PC.
I was a little tetchy Ashish
You’re beginning to like emoticons Curmudgeon?
Hey, me too RT. In fact I’m guilty of a few at various times, but they still annoy me on other poeples blogs
Hey RT and Chris, you need to post your top ten times you used Number 10
http://goldcoaster.wordpress.com
Right on Kai - I so dislike those on-line novels! One of my favorite reads “Wide Lawns & Narrow Minds” does the novel thing alot of the time. While she is a great writer and makes me laugh, I sometimes have to skim her work.
WORD VERIFICATION: boo, hiss - can hardly read that mumbo jumbo.
Chris: I like this post so much, I am going to reference it in a post.
I really don’t like people who ask someone to review their blog for a linkback. It’s selfish and silly.
Other bloggers will take the time to write a nice review of your blog while giving you a fat and juicy in-content anchor text link and you return it by placing their link among other links with no comment at all. Even worse when we dictate what specific anchor text people should use.
I’ve never written a review to get a link back from anyone and probably will never do it nor hold such silly contests.
Wow. That’s a whole lot of list that irritate you! Yea, even if it’s a linkback, the minimum had got to be a link exchange. That’s only fair.
Hi! I came over from Nomas blog.
Great list. #8 trolls. I esp. hate trolls
& #11 the long wordy blog. I too will skip over long blogs, unless they can grab my attention right off.(like break it up with pictures, anything!)
I like to acknowledge when my blogging buddies put time & effort into their blogs by leaving a comment, it’s encouraging. & yes, #4 people who don’t respond…ARRRGH!
You have covered all the points man .
I agree with all of these 10 irritants, I’m still working on number #4 but getting better at it. And hey, Some of the best bloggers are older mommys, wouldn’t want to forget about us.
Momtheminx
I agree with all but #10
I’ll have to give my opinions more often
Maki, you make some excellent points, as ever. I did review JC’s blog early on, and it seemed like a good idea at the time, but you’re right, the main benefit is felt by the blog getting reviewed.
No.10 is obviously tongue in cheek - I don’t mind Top 10’s or any other kind of list as long as they show a spark of originality, or open up unseen facets of the bloggers personality.
Agree with the overly wordy blog posts. Both Maki and BAYB have made good points about using graphics and headings to break up long posts.
Hey! I love this list. Thanks for defending the Mommy Bloggers. Some of us are genuinely just trying to learn something new. You know, we get criticized for not being in-the-know with current technology trends and then we get criticized when we try. I’ve seen plenty of hideous “professional” blogs too. Bad spelling, terrible content, boring topics. You know what I do? I just don’t go back.
Anyway, thanks for defending us. I’ll certainly be back to this blog!
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