Bad Blog Trends

I have a couple of peeves that I’d like to throw in:
– Pages that only truly work in one browser (the assumption that the whole world brouses with IE 6 for Windows is maddening),
– Pages that are too image intensive that aren’t art or photography sites,
– The use (abuse) of Serif fonts especially at small sizes,
– A list of links or blogroll that seemingly contains every site the author has ever been to,
– Too many entries on the index page,
– The abuse of webring linklets,
– Random sounds and background music (although I’m happy to see that this is dying out),
– The inability to control page width (left-to-right scrolling),
– Too much or too little whitespace (a matter of taste),
– The newest pic from your cameraphone,
– Flash as an integral part of the layout,
– Tagboards and graffiti walls, and
– Poor grammar and IM/chat shorthand.
These are all above and beyond basic usability issues. I shouldn’t have to resort to reading your blog through an RSS aggregator because I can’t stand your layout or your site is too difficult to read through the nightmarish colors and teesyweensy fonts. I have always felt that the layout should complement the content, not compete with it. Furthermore, I feel that authors don’t take into consideration other platforms and browsers. I don’t claim to have a wonderful blog but I like it and so do my three readers. ??

WOW
I came over here for an education and some quiet post reading and after reading this particular thread I did indeed get one and feel compelled to say something.
Okay so I agree with the post of one MaxT.
I suppose my problem is, I am not GREAT with coding and web design, although I’ve learned a few things in my time online (about five years).
In a few rough weeks, Ive managed to pick up all this PHP, CGI, SQL, LOOPING and other nightmarish stuff (on my own), or whatever you need to get this running on your server, and now there’s this hierarchy with design, validation and now -my blog is better than yours mentality- trend? ~ Okay so I concede to utter dorkhood, I have just escaped from the nasty clutches of Microsoft M$N Spaciness. (egads)
It is a serif font? It matters that much?
I am a photographer, perhaps my priorities are a little different.
My code does not validate because of my gallery and I have been scratching my head trying to figure out why, and suddenly, it does not seem that important to me anymore. Is it that important? Does this make me less of a person? I still feel valid.
Yes, I still use Internet Explorer.
Truth be told, I do think it sucks too, but most of my audience still uses it. Tragic.
Rule number one of customer service (even if you are not in it for the money).
Never force the audience to make changes for you.
Sometimes the wisdom of bricks and mortars establishments can be applied online, much to even my own chagrin.

https://www.photographybysolaria.com/chicago (typo-ed too – work in progress)

Well, look at it this way: the last post BEFORE yours was a year and a half ago approximately. I would imagine things have changed dramatically and materially since then, in theory, practice and performance.

Welcome to the fold, in any case….

Just thought I would stick my 2 cents in .. not that its worth anything..
My biggest pet peeves with websites (This excludes personal sites. Personal sites are jsut that – Personal.):

• Bad Navigation (Personally I like to get to every section from every page)
• Too many graphics and not enough content (Unless the site is designed to show off artwork or photographs)
• Broken Links (Goes without an explanation I think)
• Browser Specific Sites (Sites should work in all browsers, not accommodate just a percentage of the viewers and forget the rest)
• Sites with bad code (Can make them look different in different browsers)
• No contact or email address linked from every page (I don’t want to have to go back through 10 pages to find an email address about a page I am currently on)
• Misleading link titles or "Click here" (I Want to know where I am going if I click the link or hover over it)
• Slow loading sites (I am on 5.o DSL, but if I goto a dial up connection, I want to see it too. Goes back to working for some viewers but forgetting others)

My sites are far from perfect, I know this. What is perfect to one is far from perfect to another. That is a given. To each his / her own. I am not saying anyone’s site in particular, these are just my peeves in general about any site.

I learned a lot (that helped me) from Web Pages That Suck .. it showed me way to do things right by showing me things that I did not like to see in the end. It is also a great site that shows trends from year to year over how the internet developed.

Like I said.. my 2 cents might not be worth anything.. but I just thought I would give my opinon.

Since we have regurgitated a thread thats a year old?!?…none of this matters, does it? My own blog has taken it’s share of pot shots (bad colors, bad content, blah blah blah). Frankly, if you come across a blog or ANY site you dont like, you can opt not to come back, you can not bookmark it, etc. Thats the beauty of the web, there is no template and folks can be as creative, or not, as pleasing to the eye, or not, as on topic, or not, as they wish.

It goes without saying, I think that ppl that blog want thier blogs to be looked at, but at what price? If you change things in an attempt to please the most critical (and who says thats going to garner THEIR their readership trophy anyway), youre apt to alienate someone else.