Photo By Athena
Dear Blogger Friends,
I hope this letter finds you in good health. All is well on the home front. Been keeping busy with many different projects in blog world. I recently participated in a great event called the Ultimate Blog Party which was hosted by 5minutesformom. I actually met quite a few of you at this party. What a party it was. However that party has led to this letter. I believe we need to have a talk. I won’t lie. I am a very opinionated person and firmly believe in to each their own. So to just get it off my chest I would like to bring to your attention some annoyances I kept running into at the party. Keep in mind these are MY annoyances not everyones and I am posting under the ”to each their own” entitlement.
- Music! Again I am bringing music on blogs to your attention. You may love hearing your favorite tunes while reading your own site (stop reading your own site and come read mine), however not everyone has your same taste in music. On top of that I know that when I go blog hopping I open blogs in multiple tabs and start going through them. Can you guess how annoying it is to have to go through tabs to see where that awful music is coming from? Even worse is when the music player is hidden in some tiny corner so I can’t find it to shut it off. Guess where that leads. I hit the little red x and never come back to your blog again. If you insist on a music player please please please don’t have it auto play. Leave it up to the reader on if they want to hit play or not.
- Captcha! Really need I say more. It is annoying as hell. Even more so when you don’t see the captcha until you already hit post. Really people turn it off. Moderate your comments if you must. I moderate. It’s a great thing. Also with moderation you never have to worry about missing a comment someone left as you must read it to approve it. It’s not that hard. Personally I think that if someone takes the time to leave you a comment you should take the time to read it. Moderation means you will never miss a great comment and you don’t have to worry about spam or haters as you can delete their comments instead of approving them. Everybody wins.
- Messy blogs. There are all kinds of messy so it is hard to pin point what I mean by messy. But your content (posts) should be easy to find and read. Subscription options should be easy to find and the thing should be easy on the eyes. It should not be so messy that I can’t read a post because my eyes are jumping around to check out all the clutter.
- Leaving comments. I love comments, they are what keep me going and give me the drive to post. I know someone out there is waiting to read and leave me some comment love. But really posting “Visit me”, is not a worthwhile comment appropriate of being classified as comment love. I am not asking for a novel or for you to read my whole blog. But at least show you read a post. All “Visit me” does is show me you only came to give me your link and make it all about you. If the mood is right I may visit you and post “hi, visit me again” but the mood is almost never right.
I think that sums up all my concerns after our latest party. Can’t wait until the next one. Until then post often, visit friends, find new friends and spread the comment love.
Yours Truly,
Related posts:
LOVE IT!
“Visit me”
Maybe when the mood is right
Perfect. Especially the music thing. I HATE music on blogs.
Maybe I should put music on my blog to point out how annoying it is. I am thinking a Veggie Tales song would be perfect. hahahahaha
I dare you to click here.
I’m with you on the music thing. I hate that. I read my blogs when my kids are napping and if music comes on I close the tab as fast as I can and don’t go back. Reading a blog is not worth waking my kids. (And I’ll turn off my captcha for now, unless I start getting spammed.)
I forget. Are you able to moderate with blogspot or it is captcha or nothing?
Thumbs up!! Although, I am guilty of having the word verification…but I have been meaning to shut it off.
Friendly reminder then
I am with you on the music thing. It really gets on my nerves
You can moderate with blogspot without captcha (just fixed mine)
Nice. See how quickly I forget how it runs over there. Thank you for turning it off. Hope you don’t get too many spammers. They suck.
I have to challenge you on CAPTCHA – I enter a lot of giveaways on blogs and I have a tendency of not realizing they have moderation (some blog software doesn’t even tell you, it seems) until I’ve attempted to post the same thing 10 times. On top of that, often I’ve forgotten which entry method I just completed, and for Blogspot, at least, it doesn’t show you what you just entered. At least with CAPTCHA what I post appears immediately so I’m not repeating myself ad nauseum.
For blogs that never do giveaways using comments, then moderation is perfectly fine… but if you do run giveaways, CAPTCHA is much easier for your readers to enter with.
Otherwise, totally agreed
See even then I find CAPTCHA very annoying. I am trying to get the entries entered and it takes much longer because of CAPTCHA. However I very rarely participate in giveaways either so I guess I don’t get much of an opinion there.
I am so with you on the music thing. How can people STILL not get that nobody likes to listen to somebody else’s music whilst perusing a perfectly, otherwise, great, blog!
I just think some people don’t care. Or maybe they think their blog is so awesome we won’t care about the music. HELLO I can’t read your blog as I closed it to shut off the music.
Wow. Well said! I agree with every single point, even the controversial CAPTCHA. I’ll even add three of my own…
5. Stop restricting comments by making me log into ANOTHER site to leave a comment. If I’m tired or too busy, it is really quite annoying to have to log into a third party site like Google or whatever to leave a comment.
6. Make the comment relevant to my post! If you can’t find a post on my site that you can relate to then, my bad – I do try!, but don’t leave a comment that just says, “Stopping by to say hi!” Actually take the time to let me know how you felt about the post.
7. Get a gravatar! It takes about a minute. Seriously. Then I can stop feeling like I have Clue game pieces visiting my blog. Gravatars just make your comment more personal.
Great post!!! It got me going.
Love the additional points. They fit perfectly
I know exactly what you mean about music on blogs – I mean, when I’m reading blogs I’m either at work, where I can’t have noise, or at home where I’m listening to my own music!
Isn’t that the best to. It’s like “Hi I am being nice and visiting your blog while I am supposed to be working, thank you for blasting your music and making it harder for me to sneak by for a visit”.
I think this is a great post for the new site, Better Your Blog! I think these are great tips to share with bloggers!!!
Interested in guest posting? If not, I can just link back to you here – your call.
.-= Alyna, Better Your Blog´s last blog ..Hello Bloggers! =-.
I’ll guest post. I got company coming soon but I can get something together this afternoon/evening to post up over there so it’s not word for word and I can add in the other points shared in the comments.
I totally agree 100% about the music, it reminds of myspace which is annoying lol. Do you have a recommendation on a good layout?? Im looking to have my layout redone.
I did the layout myself. There are tons of blogger layouts out there. Have you looked into them or did you want something more towards just you? When I was on blogger I used a free pre-made and found it at thecutestblogontheblock.com if you wanted to check them out. Do you have a vision of what you want?
I’ll have to look on that website thank you!! I have an idea , something clean and simple .
.-= Lisa (franticmommy)´s last blog ..Spaghetti Sunday =-.
Well have a look around over there. If you need any help let me know and I will see what I can do. I still have my blogger account so I can go in there to test stuff for those on blogger.
You’re on potluck Fridays on SITS! Congrats! And I couldn’t agree more on your post. I hate captcha – especially since half the time it doesn’t load properly and I have to redo it a couple of times.
Broot recently posted..Hot water bottles shouldn’t be just for Nannas
Thanks for coming and pointing out I was on the potluck. Was a nice surprise to wake up to. Oh yes the loads slow captcha. Or what about the captcha that is almost impossible to read. If I have to deal with Captcha at least give me 1+1=? easy, simple and move on.
YES – to all of this! The music thing really drives me up the wall for so many reasons. Maybe I have a ton of blogs open and I don’t feel like hunting for the culprit. Maybe I’m at work and you just announced to my boss that I am not currently working on anything remotely related to my job. Maybe I have my own music playing and yours fights with mine to create an awful cacophony. Or maybe you just have bad taste in music. Plus, I don’t like the element of surprise. I click on a link and BAM! Music! No thanks, I don’t need a coronary today.
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“Maybe I’m at work and you just announced to my boss that I am not currently working on anything remotely related to my job.” HEHE BUSTED! Or what about you are watching vlogs and one was low so you cranked the volume. Then you forget the volume was cranked and you end up on a blog playing music. I have had that happen when my kid is napping.
AMEN to everything you wrote! Some of those pages won’t even load because of the music they have embedded (wish I knew how to tell a friend to get rid of the music ’cause I can’t get to her site anymore). I use an anti-spam plugin so don’t need a captcha (yeah me!). I hate messy blogs, too… especially the ones LOADED down with banners and buttons and all sort of blinking and flashing things.
And comments… well, now, you can tell I like to read who I visit.
Enjoyed sharing annoyances with you, LOL!
Congratulations on being part of the SITS Friday potluck! =)
Diana recently posted..the water was just a “little” deep
Thanks for sharing annoyances. I would just tell the friend “Turn your stupid music off or lose me for good. If I am a friend and not reading because of it how do you think strangers feel about it”. If that doesn’t work then call her hopeless. I don’t know.
Visit me!
Hahaha! Just kidding! Happy SITS Friday potluck! How lucky are you? Great post! I have some of those pet peeves too!
Cheryl D. recently posted..Swim Lessons
Visit me back! lol. Going to visit all my visitors at some point this week-end. Right now I am trying to respond to comments.
I completely agree with you on the music! Sometimes I like to watch a tv show or a movie and check out new blogs at the same time. I’ll click on a blog and BLAMO, the music will blast at me. SO annoying!
Happy SITS Friday potluck!
Bea (The Girly Tomboy) recently posted..And Isnt it Ironic – Dont you think
One thing I am learning finally is if I am going blog hopping to find new blogs to just turn off my speakers before I start. So much easier now.
I loved this post! And it really made me giggle (which I don’t actually do much) because I wrote about some of the exact same things just today. It’s so nice to have someone else be direct and make no apologies.
I’m visiting from SITS. Enjoy your spotlight! Off to explore some more of your blog.
Totally taking a break from replying to comments to go check our your rant. Did you giggle like a little school girl? I am picturing it and laughing right now.
#4 (The Visit me! comment) is my biggest pet peeve and I’m glad you’re pointing it out. It makes me do the opposite, which is to not visit. Anyways…enjoy your SITS Potluck Day!
Steph recently posted..Crafty Reviews
I am enjoying it so far. Love replying to all the comments and grateful that you guys are taking the time to come visit.
Congratulations on being featured on SITS Potluck Friday!
I agree with all of your points in your letter to fellow bloggers. I don’t mind captcha, but it can be annoying if you want to preview your post, and you get snagged by captcha coming and going. I’ve also lost posts that way, and don’t usually bother to rewrite. Moderated is convenient for everyone concerned, unless the commenter wants to see their comment show up immediately.
The music thing is my main pet peeve, and why I keep my sound muted unless I’m listening to something I’ve chosen. Then it’s annoying to have it interrupted by something I would normally not listen to.
Thanks for the opportunity to share blogging grievances:)
call2write recently posted..If I Had Access To Unlimited Resources- I Would…
Thank you for sharing your annoyances. I never thought to blog hop with my sound already muted. Why did I never think of that? WOW I feel stupid now. Must remember that.
I’m just stopping by to say hi and come visit me. (eyelashes batting a mile a minute).
Happy SITS Potluck Friday!!! I hope you have a wonderful Independence weekend.
I am only coming to visit you because you batted your eyelashes so quickly. That is the only reason you visit me comment spammer
I am Canadian and just had Canada Day yesterday but you have a wonderful Independence week-end. Hope it’s a great week-end.
‘To each their own’…fair enough.
Just popped in from SITS.
Hope you have a good weekend.
Thanks for stopping by. I love “To each their own”.
I still consider myself a newbie even though I’ve been blogging for almost 2 years. These are great tips! I’m always looking for ways to improve my blog and not just the content.
I also hate the autoplaying music. I always do try to leave a pertinant (spelling?) comment along with the “visiting from SITS”. I know it bugs me to see the “visit me” without a real comment so I extend the same curtesy to other bloggers.
Happy SITS Friday Potluck!
Elizabeth recently posted..Freshman Initiation
I am always looking for ways to improve as well. One never stops learning unless they have given up I think. I don’t even do the visit me thing unless appropriate. Most WP sites have a spot to insert your website address and when I comment on blogger it is set up to link my name to my site. If someone wants to visit me they will click on my name and do it.
Have a great week-end.