Drawar

I agree with the snap.com links. If I visit a site that uses them, I just simply don't go back. That's how annoyed I get by them.

It also bothers me when there's a crapload of links in sidebars. I can see a small blog roll, but when you put a link to every site that you visit, it gets annoying.

Another thing that bothers me: really long sidebars. If a sidebar is loaded down with content that isn't necessary, but people put there just to put it there.

Bad color schemes: I'm talking godawful white-on-black type (I cannot read it no matter how hard I try. It's like a Magic Eye making me see into the 6th dimension.), horrible combinations like red on purple on orange (sorry if those are your colors), and colors lacking enough contrast to be readable.

No About Page: If I'm taking enough time to stop by your blog and read your thoughts, there had better be a big, honking, easily found About Me page. And "About This Blog" doesn't count. I want to know what to call you (I don't care if it's a pseudonym, please just give me a name to identify you), why you choose to spend so much of your time writing on this blog, and maybe a few fun facts about you. This is especially important if it's a personal/commentary blog.

Fixed Width Larger Than My Screen: I got it set for 1280 x 800. This should not happen.

Just a few. :)

• Ads all over the place, especially when it's a big, flipp'n text ad RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FRIGG'N TEXT!!!!1!1!one
• Tiny font. If I can't read your blog then what's the point? Also with huge text. If your font size scares my dog, it's too big.
• Serif fonts, especially Times New Roman. Seriously, sans serif is just SOOO much better online.
• Text aligned aaaaallll the way to one side (usually the left) with there being no border between the edge of my browser and the beginning of the text.
• Non-centered designs. I purposely un-maximize my screen so that the site looks centered.
• Main content sections that are narrow enough to be a sidebar. BinaryBonsai used to be guilty of this. The site's gotten better. It's good in some instances, but they're few and far between.
• All centered text, all the time

To be fair, Ben, I've never seen you commit any of these sins (except the non-centered blog, but the fact that your nav bar is on the left massively helps that out) so I don't expect you'd start now. However, while not a pet hate, maybe a bit of a peeve (it's not so much a sin as it is a psychologically revealing preference, at least if you're Luscher) is that you seem to love pastels. Personally, I like starker contrast in colors, but that's just me.

1) Having to scroll to the bottom of the page or hunt for a link to subscribe.
2) Having an about page that doesn't freaking say anything relevant.
3) No way to contact you.
4) Twitter, Jaiku, Flickr, etc. in the main article feed when it was articles only when I subscribed.
5) A ridiculously long sidebar - put that stuff on it's own page since there is so much.
6) No search feature
7) No archives
8) No way to easily browse through past articles
9) No categories - how the heck am I supposed to know what you mainly talk about?
10) Multiple authors but not saying who wrote what
11) No dates
12) The header not having a home link
13) 3rd party crap that slows down page load
14) If you have excerpts on the front page make sure they make sense (don't just cut off randomly and they don't make a point).

Haha, I could go on all night...

I'm not so arrogant as to make a list though I'm sure I could find things at every site which annoy me, but the main thing is colors and fonts which cause me pain. That is the only sure thing. I also prefer an about page.

Lists like tyme tend to make one a little paranoid.

500 bookmarklets/chicklets when a select few would suffice.

Cooper, why would you expect anything less from a woman that goes through sites all day every day for 9rules? I prefer the honesty so everyone can possibly learn from it then for her to hold back because it's a list. If others have a list of grips share them!

I have one to add: Not making links look different from normal words.

I read about pages a lot and I noticed most do not have the flare the entries do or do not mention anything about the writer. That's why I click on the page to find out about the site and the person who is writing it.

I thought of another gripe. Requiring javascript or flash.

I didn't say i didn't expect it of course I'd expect it from Tyme.
it was not a serious sentence really, although i did run over and add a search,categories, and put my subscribe on my menu because it was too far done in the page. ;0

All good stuff... Didn't seem to break any of them really badly, but from the lists above I could use some improvement.

There's a few good ones her but nothing specific that would stop me from returning to a site. I think my personal top list is currently something like...

• snap.com previews
• Half a page of ads before any actual content
• Requiring javascript or flash
• Del.icio.us, Twitter etc in rss feed with no way to ignore it (I've emailed people before asking for separate feeds without these)
• Header does not link to homepage, or worse, no navigation at all (I've seen people do this - it's crazy!)
• No archives/ way to easily browse past articles
• tiny/ low contrast text
• Reeeeaally long lines of text, so I lose my place when I go to the next line
• No individual post information (date, author, category etc)

Gnorb - hope my pastel shades don't offend you too much - my upcoming realignment only enhances them :) Your comment about non centered designs is a little strange to me though - I don't see how that could be that big a problem?

Add me to the list of those who find snap.com links annoying, but if the content is good I'll put up with it. Really, the only thing that instantly gets a back button from me is when a site plays music automatically.

I HATE those pages with CRAZY huge non-content or ads and a "skip to content" button.

@ErinR: I'm gonna go stick my head in the sand!! ;)

Yeah I'm definitely aware of it. I've been pondering the light on black lately--in conjunction with the Pink for October possibility.

Though I have nothing to add, this is a really good thread because I'm sure everyone's checking their blog against all the lists here. And mostly breathing sighs of relief? :)

Oooh ooh - overlay and expandable ads. How I hate thee.

Thankfully not that common on blogs but annoying none the less

... and those contextual inline ads that link random words in articles as well. Unfortunately those ARE common on blogs :(

Estarla - I hope most 9rules members are happy in the knowledge that they have done nothing "wrong" :)

erin, so my burgundy, maroon, with wine purple text won't work? lol

well i will admit i came up on at least 2 things on tyme's list. but i had reasoning behind those choices, so although they were an inconvenience to readers(HA!), i did it on purpose. I have tried to correct at least one of those issues, but i still don't think i needed to.

i will say though that i hate those snap.com ads more then you know. i find myself jut closing pages that use them because i don't want the headache.

I'm working on the next version of my site and I'm making sure those things don't happen (and I played around with some to see how bad it irritated people).

In truth, many of these things happen because the writer is the victim of picking a theme that doesn't have the reader's point of view in mind. Honestly, the average writer (myself included) will see a theme, something about it makes you go "WOW!!!" and you install it, probably hack it a bit but for the most part it stays the way the designer designed it. People automatically assume that it's "good". That is not always the case.

Inspired by this post - I've just written my own version on my site :)

It's slightly different to my list above. In breif my top ten are...

1. Snap.com
2. Excessive Ads above the fold
3. Overlay & Expandable Ads
4. Inline Ads (those double underlined ones)
5. Del.icio.us/ Twitter in feeds with no opt out option
6. Bad/ No navigation
7. No/ Hidden archives
8. Tiny/ Low contrast text
9. Long lines of closely spaced text
10. No individual post information

@BinaryMoon:

hope my pastel shades don't offend you too much - my upcoming realignment only enhances them :) Your comment about non centered designs is a little strange to me though - I don't see how that could be that big a problem?

Neither is a problem, per se. Both are matters of personal preference.

On the content positioning: I guess my complaint isn't so much about non-centered designs as it is about designs which demand the focus be too far to one side.

On your site (currently) the nav content is on the left, which easy to ignore since the main content is closer to the middle by virtue of positioning. Because the content is on the right, the effect of the blog's left-aligned focus is minimized. However, in cases where the blog blog HAS a left-aligned focus AND the content is to the left of the nav bar, then the feeling becomes of one side being completely weighted. An example is Tyme's site (and I don't mean to pick on you, Tyme, it's just that I've noticed your past 2 designs doing this very thing, which is why I read your stuff on the RSS instead of going to your blog). At least there, though the main content section is wide enough to compensate for the one-sided feel. Generally, designs like these have narrower center content -- closer to the 500-or-so px average -- which, while I don't mind asymmetry, just make it hard for me to read, since my eyes will naturally want to gravitate towards whatever's nearer to the center. In these situations I just stop going to the site and read the RSS feed.

On the colors: Max Lüscher would like to have a word with you. ;-)

By the way, any plans to release the current theme publicly once you're done using it?

Thats weird, I thought I posted here... Anyway, the one thing I truly hate is really small text. Its even worse if it stretches across 2/3 of the screen.

Ads within the posts are irritating.

Gnorb - I shan't be releasing the Binary Moon design as a theme. It was designed with my content in mind and everything around it is tied to my site. It would be a lot of work to turn it into a theme... although a theme inspired by my site might be good. Also the new design is an evolution of the existing one, rather than a totally brand new site.

Regarding the colours - I wouldn't say I love pastels. The site was designed to do things differently to normal blogs which meant trying to chose colours you don't often see on tech/ gaming/ personal sites :)

Vidar - small fonts are indeed evil

Anadgouda - I would say this depends upon how they are integrated. It could fall under excessive ads, but it can also be ok, depending upon how they are integrated (IMO)

Really long line lengths are a big annoyance for me. That and I really don't like fluid content that shifts when you resize your browser window. Bad navigation is also a big thing. If it's hidden in the footer and not immediately obvious then it just seems pointless having the other pages.