What are your pet hates online

[mack]

Web articles with no date (no idea how current the info is)

Mack.

[lexipixel]

Lack of editors.

Nothing breaks my train of thought faster than an grammar error.

[Samizdata]

Web articles with no date

I'll second that - amazing how many give a day and month, but no year.

A personal pet hate is promotional links to non-public "social network" event pages.

Expect me to sign up for an account just to read your advertisement? Dream on.

an grammar error

I was going to mention spelling mistakes, but decided it would be tempting fate.

...

[limbo]

Being redirected from main site to mobile site homepage from a link to a page or product. Please redirect me to the corresponding mobile version of the article.

Not being given option to bypass mobile version of a site.

[lucy24]

amazing how many give a day and month, but no year.

Counterbalanced by the sites that were, by amazing coincidence, updated only just today. As if they knew you were coming. Uhm, sorry, site owner, but we're looking for the date of your last substantive revision, not the last time the php compiled.

I used to have <address> lines with month and year, but gave it up as too 1998 :(

[g1smd]

Undated articles.
Sites where every article has the same date - today's.
Spelling and grammar.
Colour scheme with almost zero contrast between text and background.
Text that deliberately flows over an image and some words fade into the background.
Articles that aren't all that long, but are split over multiple pages to fake the number of "pages" viewed. I hate clicking through an article one or two paragraphs at a time. I want to scroll.
Pages with some sort of css or jquery advertising popup box where the cancel button for it is outside the viewport on a netbook.
Code examples that can't possibly work, or don't do what the text says they should.
Splash pages.
Long pages without a set of links to the various sections placed in a navbox at the top of the page.
FAQ pages with questions that no-one actually asks and a lack of answers to stuff that people do actually ask.
People that use the work "actually" twice in the same sentence.
Q&A sites with obviously incorrect or out of date answers, but where the question has been closed and no further answers or comments are allowed. Double points if the page contains no dates.
Sites with so many flashing and blinking ads that you almost have a seizure looking at it.
People that post "it doesn't work" as their sole error report and expect someone to fix it using crystal balls, mind-reading and guesswork.

[lucy24]

People that use the work "actually" twice in the same sentence.

Actually, I think we're even.

Mwa ha ha.

A thread in another forum reminded me of one thing that drives me stark staring bonkers:

When you come across a page by accident

:: insert obligatory nagvaaqtait reference ::

and start wandering around the site following links and reading other stuff-- and later when you want to go back to the original page you can't find the #### thing anywhere even when you follow every single link that's even remotely likely, and by this time you've forgotten what search term led you to the site in the first place, so you can't simply look for it again, and everything in your browser history takes you to the same wrong page, and...

[engine]

Ecommerce sites that process your order just fine, but at the end of the satisfactory sale process just leave you at a page with.... Yep, nothing much else.
A thank you page is half thoughtful, but how about adding a simple addition of "continue shopping" or "browse our daily specials," etc.

Oh, I can think of many more, too.

[Lame_Wolf]

Poor grammar and spelling (including double negatives.)
Text talk.
"Tarzan" talk.

[Lame_Wolf]

People that use the work "actually" twice in the same sentence.

There is an annoying advert in the UK about support pillows. One woman says "ever" twice in the sentence.

It goes something like this...
It is the best pillow ever used ever.

And to make it worse, they repeat her words twice during the advert. I just want to scream.

[Lame_Wolf]

I was looking for some pans for someone who had seen them advertised on TV. I found them, and at a good price, but I didn't purchase from them because they spelt "jewel" as "juwel". I paid more elsewhere instead.

I purchase a lot of lingerie for the wife. Some sites are in the USA. One in particular decided to open up a UK site to serve Europe. Instead of paying in USD, I can now pay in Euros. I didn't bother to tell them we do not use Euros in the UK.

[g1smd]

Hahahaha. And four hours later I spot the typo: "work" should be "word".

I suppose I ought to add:
Forums that close post-editing too quickly. :)
as it's not the first time that's happened.

And, "scrapped", "scrappers", "alot", etc.

[edited by: g1smd at 3:25 pm (utc) on Dec 17, 2012]

[Lame_Wolf]

Hahahaha. And four hours later I spot the typo: "work" should be "word".

I've got the T-shirt :)

[mack]

Another of mine is certain forums that Prompt you to download their app when you visit on a mobile device. I already have an app to view their content.. Its called a browser.

Mack.

[blend27]

Sites that use <meta http-equiv="refresh"> and don't provide a link to the target page as an alternative.

Gov Sites that offer 39 MB PDF files(forms to fill out) that contain 1 page of information and embedded Original DSC_ image.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Forum signatures... where you read a thread about 50% of the intra-post content is guff you wouldn't like to know 99999 times out of 100000.

[Lame_Wolf]

SEO sites that claim the world, yet they fall over on basic SEO things, as well as validation errors etc. Plus, some have been online for years yet are PR1 or PR2... and cannot be found in the SERPS.

[lucy24]

I don't hate Big Name Sites that don't validate. Or that leave out crucial bits of header info, heh heh. I enjoy them.

:: pause for chorus of "Small Pleasures" ::

But it is exasperating when you go snooping into someone's html hoping to swipe one teeny bit of code, and you're hit in the face with twenty-six separate CSS files. (Really. I counted. And three .js.)

[piatkow]

I will go with undated sites. In the music business it is rather useful to know of a gig is next week or two years ago!

A personal pet hate is promotional links to non-public "social network" event pages.

Expect me to sign up for an account just to read your advertisement? Dream on.

Same here.

One that I would add is, when registering for something with a US site, being required to pick a US state abbreviation when entering a non US address.

[martinibuster]

eCommerce sites that try to force me to enter my credit card and address information BEFORE letting me know how much the shipping costs are. I would rather abandon my cart and go elsewhere than waste my time giving up all that information.

It bugs me when people post, Walla, when they mean Voilą. I know it's likely not intended by those who post Walla, but to me it feels like it glorifies ignorance, xenophobia and provincialism all in one pseudo-word.

[lexipixel]

My comment about grammar doesn't apply across the board -- I can forgive the "one man shop" that puts up a decent blog -- but I'm seeing it almost every day in "front page" type articles on NYT, LA Times, WSJ, etc.

In the old says, I'd email the reporter or an editor with a heads-up so they could fix it -- but now it's so prevalent, I don't bother.

FWIW -- the print editions of most newspapers are suffering from the same lack of proofing and editing.

[TypicalSurfer]

Typos or misspellings are so plentiful I think it is intentional. It may be some paranoia about dupe filters, there just doesn't seem to be any other reason for it.

[mack]

It's probably one person writing then proofing the content. When you write something you become blind to the errors.

Mack.

[Lame_Wolf]

It's probably one person writing then proofing the content. When you write something you become blind to the errors.

To a point, I agree.
Sometimes, I am so wound up that I type too quick for my fingers, but there is no excuse for people who use the wrong spelling of words like...

"allot" "alot" instead of "a lot"
"your" instead of "you're" (and visa versa... and worse still, UR)
"two" "too" "to"
"payed" instead of "paid" (Daily Mail guilty of this twice this week.)
...and there are a lot more like that.

I get really riled up when I hear people say things like "Spag Bol" and "De-lish" but that is for another thread. ;)

[lexipixel]

It's probably one person writing then proofing the content. When you write something you become blind to the errors.

-Mack

It is -- and worse.

Funny, (but more sad for print news junkies), the other day I noticed a major newspaper publisher (GateHouse Media, [gatehousemedia.com...] ) advertising on Craigslist for an "Editor".

First, the irony that they had to advertise on Craigslist to hire someone did not escape me.

Gatehouse owns every daily and weekly paper in my region, and hundreds across the country.

The CL job description for "Editor" included; writing, photographing, getting out to meet the community, posting online and using social media.

What used to be (5) jobs: Reporter, Photographer, Proof-reader, Editor, Marketing/PR person is now one.

So, we're stuck reading things like "a apple" or "an banana"... but it hurts my brain.

[Leosghost]

The BBC website seems to have been hiring from the Grauniad[sic] for the last 5 years or so, their homepage typos and grammatical errors are getting worse..People are described as "Italy man" ( for "Italian man" ), "America man" ( for "American man" ) , "Australia woman" ( for "Australian woman" ) etc..

Pure Chavspeak innit, no respek fo' gramuh.. :-(

"Walla" irritates me too..as does "bizzard" for bizarre, and similar crimes against "listening carefully", rather than approximating in speech or writing, the sound that one thought one heard..

I remember a post in the copyright forum here where the OP was complaining about the quality of outsourced articles which they found to be full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, and basically asking how to "train writers in English"..

Their own OP had more mistakes than a 30 over par golf round..and English was "apparently" ( according to them ) their first language..


Another "hate"..ads that redirect when one clicks on the "x" to close them..and ads ( such as the BBC were allowing for a while for those of us who visit from outside the UK ) that "zoom" out to fill half the page when the cursor passes over them, on the way to a navigation element..

So, we're stuck reading things like "a apple" or "an banana"... but it hurts my brain.

It happens in all languages..unfortunately it is a by-product of the unwillingness, ( due to "PC" considerations, either self imposed or imposed from outside ) by those who know better, to correct those who do not..

Murphy's law dictates that I will have made many errors in the above;) however it is very late here,06.00am, and my speeelchucker has always been schizophrenic about me typing in English on a French language system and keyboard..

[lucy24]

it is very late here,06.00am

Dawn: The time when men of reason go to bed.

Oh, fer hevvins sakes. Look it up for yourselves. You'll enjoy it.

[topr8]

just had a good one - i queried an order that had been sent to me (slightly incorrectly) by email.

they replied by email saying we've replied to your message here (link), i click the link which takes me to a page where i have to log into my account to read the message! i've only ever purchased once, i don't remember opening an account to purchase and if i did i sure don't remember my password.

hilarious!

[lexipixel]

'nother hate: Flash videos that request 10, 20, 30 or more accesses to .SOL files

[mack]

Another..... This one really gets to me.

You receive an email, it is something you have agreed to receive, probably during a sign up process.

You decide you actualy don't want to receive it and as if by magic at the bottom of the email "click here to un subscribe"

You click the link then get promoted to log in grrr.

Mack.