Time again to list the Internet stuff you hate. After my initial column on the subject and your responses, the messages keep pouring in. You can keep sending in your ideas — starting the sentence with “I HATE…” — to poynter@sree.net (with your name and affiliation).
I HATE… “pages with printer-friendly links at the bottom of the page. I know it’s a laziness issue on my part. But I often print stories for reading when I am away from the computer. And I know the top of the page is valuable real estate. But I still hate those links at the bottom of the page.” – Carl Natale, MaineToday.com‘s “Duke of URL.”
I HATE… “posting groups (yes, even Poynter) that provide links to newspaper stories that I can’t read without subscribing. As much as I love newspapers, I don’t want to subscribe to every one in the country — I can’t remember that many passwords — but often, you can’t take part in the discussion without reading the story. The Romenesko list is a big offender. I’ve stopped clicking on the little teasers on the left, because they so rarely take me to the story. They just take me to a long subscription form.” – Kathleen Purvis, food editor, The Charlotte Observer.
I asked Jim Romenesko to respond. Here’s what he e-mailed me: “I very rarely post subscription-required links, and when I do I let readers know about them with a sub.-req. notice. I would guess that I’ve posted one sub.-req. link on the left rail in the last three months. New York Times links
are registration-required, and I let readers know that with a reg. req. notice.”
Kathleen has a good point about remembering passwords. I recommend Roboform to deal with passwords. Be sure to read my Oct. 2002 column that reviews its free version and a reader comment about its paid version.
I HATE… “when I’m doing research and half of a website’s resource links lead me to defunct pages. Update your links, people!” – Kate Johnson, senior associate editor, American Animal Hospital Association.
I HATE… “all the ads pestering me about signing up for broadband service that isn’t even available in my area. For that matter, I hate that broadband service isn’t more widely available and at a lower price.” – Doug Ross, assistant editorial page editor, The Times of Northwest Indiana.
I HATE… “more than anything, web sites that DON’T WORK! I make my living online doing search engine optimization and consequently spend the work day glued to my monitor and keyboard. When I visit a site that ostensibly offers services directly online and attempt to use a web form and then get an error message — it drives me nearly insane! Worse, when I’m a registered user at a site and enter passwords and usernames, but the site gives an error message not based on typos or incorrect entries, it is inexcusable.
“Next on the list of pet peeves is a site that hangs up for over 20 or 30 seconds (I’m on cable modem) without loading anything or providing any sort of ‘Please Wait’ type of message. Sometimes I’m willing to accept that it’s my OS 9 Mac that causes the hang-up because they don’t support my browser on this operating system. But more often than not, when I visit the PC sitting next to my Mac and attempt to access the same offending page with a current version of Windows and Explorer 6, it doesn’t work from that machine either! This is not rocket science and websites that don’t work for any reason are inexcusable and damage my opinions of whatever company operates the non-functioning site.” – Mike Banks Valentine, founder, Website101.com.
Your turn: What do you hate? Let me know at poynter@sree.net.
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