Blogs I shall Never visit again
I’ll start with a confession: I’m not a model blog visitor in terms of the number of blogs I visit. I do 10-15 blogs a day at the max, other than in April, when I do more than 100 a day while hosting the A to Z Challenge. (If you don’t know about this challenge, I suggest you check it out.)
So for the 15 or so blogs I visit, I expect to be reading and commenting on all without a headache, and preferably within the hour. Not very ambitious, is it?
BUT. But.
I find some blogs that won’t let me do this. Not that anyone should care, but I have a headache from visiting my fair share of *such* blogs today, and I feel like listing out the sort of blogs I’ll never visit again:
1. Blogs with black backgrounds: You know the ones with an inky background, and light grey font? (I know you love Paranormal, but that doesn’t mean you have to torture your readers.) Or the ones with shiny pink or other neon colored fonts and icons on black? Flashy things in the sidebar? Not only would I never follow you, I would blacklist you if I could. I Love My Eyes, and won’t subject them to your blog.
2. Blogs that make me jump through hoops: If I like your post, I want to comment on it. If you make me cross-eyed with word verifications, or with the effort to find how to comment, or sign on to some vague service for the privilege, I’ll Pass. Thank You Very Much. Not following you either.
3. Blogs that do not believe in paragraphing: You might be the biggest Sherlock, Einstein or Dickens, but if you write in a dense chunk of 2000 words, my eyes would glide away after the first few lines. There’s a reason that Return key is there. Use it. I wouldn’t rush to the follow button on this.
4. Blogs written in terrible English: If you don’t have the time to learn the language you want to communicate with the world in, much less to proofread your posts, I don’t have time for you either. A few typos are acceptable (we’re all human), but not an entire glob of gobbledygook I have to try and make sense of. Next.
5. Blogs that thrive on controversy alone: I hate flame wars. Life is too short to indulge in negativity, to get attention or otherwise. Enough said.
Now that I’ve got it off my chest, I have to say that the sort of blogs I list above are in the minority. Or I’ve probably managed to weed them out of my blog circle. Mostly, I’m a happy camper, and I LURVE my blog buddies. Sometimes, they are the only reason I blog.
Are there any blogs you would NEVER visit again? Is there anything on this blog that drives you crazy? Fire away in the comments!
Your blog is fine. I’m with you on most of the other points, although I will probably continue visiting a few blogs that insist on using these techniques.
I do like the controversy blogs when the controversy is something that interests me. I hope I haven’t scared off too many readers by using the word “controversy”. I probably should have used something like “thought-provoking topics” or a similar term. I don’t want any readers to be upset with me.
Worse than controversy for me is mundane. I don’t like reading excessively about peoples’ kids, pets, or what they ate for dinner. A touch of that can be okay, but not all the time. The continual NaNo updates or things like that can also get a bit monotonous. Of course all of these topics also depend on the writer. A good writer can make the mundane tremendously entertaining.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Lee, I don’t like flame wars, and rude language. Some controversy is fine, but not each and every post. I’d like to think there’s a difference between thought-provoking and controversial.
I skip over blogs w/ dark background and white font. If the font is grey, then I can read it, but white makes the words glows and that causes all sorts of pain with my eyes. Certain other colors used I have to skip over as well. It makes me wonder, aren’t those blog owners looking at their blogs at some point and realizing their design is straining eyes?
Patricia, I wonder the same thing too, and I wonder hard. Then I skip those blogs.
I agree about most of your points, too, especially those that are very hard on the eyes; difficult to comment on (sometimes I can’t even find WHERE to comment!); and the word verification that is like a torture chamber. When I have to try three times to get it right, I want to move on.
I don’t like the massive butchering of the English language, either.
Or the rants that go on and on until my eyes glaze over.
I enjoyed your post!
Thanks, Laurel. I used to make an effort before to read most of the above blogs, but nowadays I’ve realized life is finite and each minute online needs to be used well. I don’t like staying online all day want to write my WIP and smell the roses!
Oh yes. You know, sometimes colors on some screens look different on others – and I do worry about that, to be honest. But black…even with white writing…no, I can’t read them either. When I first started writing online I stuck animated gifs all over the place, but I think I’ve grown up since then. Me too – I can’t be bothered with those captchas. The other day I got one wrong though and it still let me in. I told the author of the blog and she didn’t even know she had one in. This might sound awful but I’m tending to skip author interviews. I really just can’t read one more “where do you get your inspiration from”. Is that terrible of me? I also find I’m skipping book reviews
I like your posts!
Susan, I haven’t skipped author interviews, yet. But I’m close to that point. It depends on the questions the author is asked.
I think your blogs are always upbeat and positive. I can’t believe you read so many other blogs per day! I wish I could say the same. I’m lucky if I have time to read 10 to 15 per month. Heck, I’m lucky if I even write once a month. I’ve gotten to the point where I avoid the internet because it keeps me from working on my novel. I need to learn how to do multitasking. You are an inspiration.
You’re doing the right thing by your novel. The internet can wait. I’m taking a hiatus this December too — no guest posts etc. Just a clean internet break for a month.
Well, thanks to your list, I’ve made a change on my blog … I’ve made commenting easier (hopefully). I’ve always used the word verification feature because the one time I removed it, I got hit with a lot of spam. But, I’m going to try it again … hopefully including “author approval” will allow me to eliminate spam while making easier for folks to leave a comment.
I agree with most of your points. I’d also add that I won’t continue to read a blog that uses profanity. In my opinion, it really isn’t necessary and doesn’t add anything to the thoughts being presented. It often feels like it’s simply for the shock value … and I can do without it.
Word verification can be avoided by Akismet on wordpress. Blogger allows comment moderation. I got a few bad links through comments on blogger, but with comment moderation things are going swimmingly. I very much recommend it.
I hear you on the flame wars. I can’t stand controversy for controversy’s sake. There’s enough rudeness out there.
Melissa,
absolutely.
Just discovered you on Twitter and I know exactly what you mean. Would love you to take a look at my blog here: http://tiny.cc/moy7mw see if it passes the litmus test.
I’ll hop across in a bit
I agree. Thoughtful of you to put it out there.
Rick, i just had to get it off my chest. And if one blogger changes the settings/ appearance of their blog because of this, my post has lived to be useful.
My background is black, but my post area is white with black font, so I guess I’m all right.
Excessively negative blogs I skip. (Or offensive.) And if I follow and comment and the blogger reciprocates neither, I cease both. I’m here to interact and one-sided relationships just don’t work.
I meant the post area, Alex. I’ll visit blogs that don’t reciprocate if I like their blogs enough.
I think that the CAPTCHA users are deathly afraid that some unscrupulous individual is going to put an ad for a Canadian pharmacy in the comments, in which case they might consider turning moderation on, or using Akismet. I’ve noticed that there are some Blogger blogs that will not accept my OpenID, and if that’s the case, they’ve been visited by me for the last time. And don’t you just love the artsy types who use a 6-point font in gray on an off-white background?
I’d like to open the eyes to Captcha users to the existence of Comment moderation.
I think I’m safe. At least I don’t make those 4 bunches. There are a few triberr buddies that do especially the flashy thingys
I hate flashy things on blogs. They’re fine in discotheques, open and closing ceremonies of Olympics etc.
I’m with you on all of the above. I once was trying to return the curtesy of commenting when I read their post. Basically boiled down to if you didn’t agree with their controversial point of view they were going to come through the internet and do some damage. I tiptoed away from that blogger! Scary!
Wise decision
I’m with you except for the word verification. I get so many spam comments on my blog without it that I have come to accept it as a necessary evil. Bad grammar and rampant spelling errors really bother me too, as do profanity (develop a better vocabulary, then get back to me) and ads that I can’t distinguish from content. Thanks for this post. I am about to tweet it.
I suggest you let word verification go and switch on comment moderation for a while. In my experience, it works well, and almost nobody minds a blogger moderating comments on his or her own blog.
Gah! Now I’m torn about the black background. I specifically chose the black background on my own blog because it hurt my eyes less, but seeing so many people say otherwise makes me question my sanity.
Hmm… I write in a dimly lit room most of the time. Maybe that’s it…
It is your blog, so the choice to make is yours. Opinions vary on whether ‘white on black’ or ‘grey on black’ is less stressful to the eyes. I try and avoid all black blogs, irrespective of font.
It could be the dimly-lit room, cos my study and bright and well-lit all day and evening 
I would have to add music to your list… even songs I like are annoying on a blog page. And comment moderation is definitely the way to go!
Music? You mean some people still have background music playing on their blogs? Gah!
Yes I have a few and those too just discovered very recently
I am not much fussed as such, I go , Read and if i have something ot say I say it ..
I need ot go back and mark a check-list of the five points you have mentioned , Hope i don’t fall in one of those categories
I didn’t mind before. But now that I’m rationing my online time, it pisses me off that some blogs are so uncooperative with their audience. Welcome to my blog, Bikram. Other than some brushes with controversy, I don’t mind anything about your blog
I agree with every point. I especially can’t stand “captcha”. I’ve had to go through more than 5 letter verifications for one comment before. Crazy. Hope you are having a good week.
Captcha drives me nuts. Sometimes I type in wrong stuff so I can get an easier guess. Who invented Captcha?grrr..
Hey, Damyanti,
The word verification is the thing that drives me bananas. The background/font issue is another challenge.
I’ve been steering clear of both these kinds of blogs for a while!
Whew, glad I don’t make this list Damyanti!
I agree with another commenter about music…can’t believe people still do that and autoplay it! Oh and captchas…nuff said already
I know you don’t. none of my blog-friends are on this list!
Ha! I agree with most of ‘em
Why not all of them ?
I don’t like blogs with dark backgrounds or tiny fonts, but that’s just because I can’t concentrate and squint at the same time. Some people who that visitors only click on the like button in order to lure them over to the clicker’s blog. On the other hand, they are the very people who won’t visit even if you have commented.
Yep, I avoid things that make me squint — squinting gives me wrinkles!
I’m way past that. I just don’t want to add to the collection of wrinkles.
Blogs that don’t offer RSS so that I don’t have to visit them at all. Visiting them disrupts productivity!
Even though I agree with your Blogs I avoid assessment, I have the most disdain for the flashing and rapidly moving backgrounds or pictures on the blog. Since I have just started a first blog recently for fun, thanks for the easy to follow list of what not to do.
Thanks for writing.
Well, first of all, thank you for visiting my blog in-spite of the black background.
There is a story behind why my blog background is black, I have a post dedicated to it. 
Anyways, hope to see you back on my blog again.
I find it annoying when a blog has both word verification and comment moderation set up, I would think twice about commenting on such blogs again. I agree with you on all other aspects you have mentioned.
wow! I started my blogosphere (now this doesn’t count as typo) journey recently and luckily stumbled upon the much needed advice. Thanks a ton.