Bad Blog Trends

I really dislike (too mild a word) “No right click” to no end. It’s totally useless, infact it’s inconvenient and encredibly pretentious…
Oh and I like that someone brought this discussion up – we don’t necessarily have to agree with each other but surely we’ve all stumpled upon a blog that makes us cringe… Even IF it’s just because it’s our personal taste against the (we)blog-owners. I’m interested in what others hate for no other reason than I’d like to know…

I dont really have anything else to say besides what has already been said.
I will say this though, I havent yet come across a single weblog that I have been genuinely interested in reading and re-visiting, I think that says it all?
Even the really popular weblogs suck, they are as boring as hell… why the hell do I care what someone did today? If they didnt get get pulled out of the matrix, or mugged by frodo, it just wont interest me.
This has been said previously, but I just HATE the LONG list of links on peoples weblogs… blogs that they CLAIM to read regularly.

I’m, too, am surprised at what weblogs often top the lists. Are most people *really* that into ‘Dive Into Mark’? Or reading about some teenage girl’s dating life? (OK, I admit I’d read about the latter ?? ).
I’m more interested in writing about topics that we all can relate to, such as politics, tech, movies, etc… But I think that has a downside as well. Certainly, we have a TON of political weblogs out there. Most are obvious in their leanings. I know I don’t add much to the conversation, but a) I generally post my ideas and not just links to articles and b) it’s satisfying to have a forum to express yourself.
The best webblogs are the ones that produce original, funny content. 8BitJoystick and BoingBoing are two good ones. And PennyArcade…jesus, that is the best written website out there. I am amazed at how well written it is day after day.
I’ve tried the irreverant approach, with some success (i.e., articles on great/bad heavy metal album art, 80’s music essentials, cheesy zombie movies, etc…). It’s fun to write about and I get lots of hits. But what I really want to do is get more comments. Perhaps I will ask this question is another thead.
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SpaceRook

“topics that we all can relate to, such as politics” – HAHAHA!
– Sorry. ??
Actually I love Dive Into Mark, I think it’s one of the best out there. I’m suprised how well I relate with both him and Meyer. The one weblogger I don’t get is Kottke. To me he’s incredibly boring.
About the blogrolls: there is an amazing amount of content in those links. A weblog is a personal website, and those links often times are a more honest representation of the author than the content itself. When somebody links to someone, they’re saying “hey, this is important.” When someone blogrolls someone, it’s even more important.

I blog for myself. No one else. I use it as a way of storing thoughts and memories that I can look back on later. If someone happens across it and enjoys reading it, great. If someone happens across it and finds it annoying, that’s ok too. As far as the blogrolls, I like them. I have found so many websites I really like via links from other websites.

Bad trends in content? Spelling is the worst by far.
Anyone unable to differentiate between “their,” “there” and “they’re,” “its” and “it’s,” or “then” and “than,” has no business running a weblog.
I would rank grammar as a second. It amazes me when someone purchases a domain name and spends sickening time on a layout just to say, “well i got up today and went to school and did shit then someone told a joke and i loled and went home to eat sum food.”
Proper use of punctuation seems to plague a pretty preposterous quantity of weblogs too.
A third annoyance returns to spelling — specifically of foreign words. Not that I would ever expect to see intelligent content coming from people who “blog” about cartoons, but they tend to mutilate languages they lust after. A favorite example would be “otakus,” which is just wrong — “otaku” itself already is a plural form.
As far as design, nothing annoys me more than people transforming all menu text to lower case. This probably ties back into the grammar gripe, but it should be “Bob Smith,” not “bob smith.”

ah… where to start?
it annoys me to no avail when people complain about others’ creative work and then have horrendous sites themselves. there are several cliche terms i can think of– beauty is in the eye of the beholder… hello pot? kettle? etc, etc. nothing is going to appeal to everyone’s “astute” design sense and there’s no such thing as original design; everyone copies everyone else’s sites. Either in the basic concept, the images, or the outright site itself. if the site appeals to the creator, who the fuck cares if some little punk raver likes it? more often than not, design (if they know what they’re doing) reveals more about the author than the blog itself.
with that being said, i feel like addressing some things–
podz — they’re called “badges” and personally i’d rather see them than a hundred different sized images links with no color unity. i hate header images that take up a 3rd of the page and forces me to scroll to actually get to the content.
mpt — oh.. yay. basically, you don’t like anything creative or interesting. that’s very evident from the lackluster design of YOUR site. blue header, a cliche site title, and boring font selection throughout the site. and speaking of “as if we care”, how ’bout post word-counts? do i really care if a post has 151 words? and you should make up your mind, either you want comments to open in a new window or you want them to open in the same window, you can’t have any other option sweetie.
willm — where’s your site? i believe that anyone offering criticism of other’s work should at least have the balls to put theirs on the chopping block too.
anonymous post #18 — its literary allusions, not illusions.
mage111 — again, where’s your site?
skippy — lists of links are usually friends’ sites, or sites the author likes. so if you’re reading the author’s daily journal, then you seem to have some interest in them… or at least what they’re saying. so i’d think that you’d learn even more about the person by visiting their friends’ sites. actually, all of your comments are just plain dumb. previous posts by date… if you’re a regular visitor to the site, and remember you didn’t get to look at the site for two weeks, then the calendar, previous posts by date, post frequency, most popular posts… are useful tools. i doubt very seriously that you use the telnet feature built into windows, but its there just in case you might. actually, by looking at your site, i’d bet you probably use your own homespun version of linux, because everyone who’s remotely intelliget knows that microsoft spies on us.
so there… i’m finished, and i feel better. You can check out my site if you’d like and bitch all you want about too much blue, the pixel people, and all lower case menu. i’ve been using wordpress for about two weeks and am just now learning css and the like. i use some popups, and i haven’t implemented the style-switcher yet. but at least it follows good design principle.

Thanks for the insults, danes75! I do so enjoy respectful conversation with intellectuals. Pity you couldn’t follow your own advice re: pot and kettle, beauty in the eye of the beholder, etc.
This thread has been an interesting read, up until your post. People have politely and reasonably shared their opinions, and left the insults and high horses at home. I have been genuinely interested in what “features” people like, and why.

Some posters missed the point of this thread.
This isn’t a bitchfest where you’re invited to target specific people, and nothing said here should be taken personally.
“I don’t like dotted borders.
– What? I use dotted borders, did you just call me a moron?”
This is bordering on ridiculous.
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So this takes me to a bad blog trend: taking things personally.
If someone says he didn’t like the first Matrix, and you loved that movie, that doesn’t entitle you to react violently with “you suck”, high and mighty with “you have no taste for movies”, or my favorite, the anti-critics “where’s your movie, uh? can’t criticize!”.

I dislike persons who point out obvious typos with a great flourish.

I also dislike blogs with long lists of links and no a. visited in the css.

So I get to be high and mighty AND an anti-critic? YippieHorray!

email links…interesting…i never thought anybody would actually want to email me…hmmm
about (we)bloglinks, well some of us don’t really use bookmarks and that’s just a good place to store some…

Interesting thread. Interesting viewpoints. Cool thing is that nobody is absolutely right, though I usually get pretty close ??
A lot of good layout and design depends the purpose of the weblog. Do you want that many and strange (unknown) people read it, is it just something for your family and friends, is it even just for your own needs and other happen to find and browse it by chance?
Taste and trend are one thing. Making it difficult for the reader another (in my opinion). Weblogs with thousands of things and links on the first page without emphasis on importancies (i.e. nothing guides your eye), making it difficult finding ones way – this I think the worst of all because it defeats the basic purpose: inviting to linger and read.

There are some folks who say that the most important features for any site are differentiation and focus. And it is probably what is missing from most blogs. I know my favourite blogs are all about one subject. Like the Democratic Veteran. It is all about one thing. But probably unique. And probably the best. Anywhere. Me and my room mates shower curtain (I am not kidding) may not do it; in what is after all a crowded “market”. Just my two cents.