My Blogosphere Whines For 2009
| Wed Dec. 31, 2008 9:59 AM PST
MY BLOGOSPHERE WHINES FOR 2009....Today is New Year's Eve, so here are my top ten whiny, blog-related pet peeves. They are in no particular order:
- Blogs without comment sections. Or, blogs with comment sections that require you to go through some kind of painful registration process just to leave a one-sentence note.
Bloggers who don't put their email addresses somewhere on the blog. I don't mind looking around for it a bit (keeps the mind sharp, you know), but put it somewhere, OK?- Blogs that provide only partial RSS feeds. See also point #5, which actually bugs me a lot more.
- Bloggers who are too damn lazy to check their links after they post something. Come on, people.
- "Teaser" blogs that put only the first paragraph or two on the main page and force you to click "continue" if you want to read the whole thing. This is both annoying and pointless. It only takes a second or two to scroll past a blog post you don't want to read, after all. (Yes, I'm talking about you, Felix Salmon.)
- People who say "blog" when they really mean "blog post."
- Blogs with lousy (or nonexistent) search capability. Mine, for example.
- Top ten lists that are plainly larded with filler because the listmaker couldn't actually think of ten things to write about.
- Bloggers who can't count.
I fully expect these problems to be completely resolved starting tomorrow — or, at the very least, on January 20th. If they aren't, a blue ribbon commission will be appointed to deal with them. You have been warned.
Continues Below
Continued From Above
Comments
In regards to #6..I have always liked those few blogs that use AJAX to have the link to read the whole post just open it up AJAX style without re-rendering the entire page. Then the post can be closed in the same way. It is really the best of both worlds. (I think Ezra Klein's old blog had it.) Unfortunately, there are few blogs with it.
"Teaser" blogs that put only the first paragraph...[]
To take #5 a step further (or to add a '5b'), my pet peeve is bloggers who comment on something but add no context at all as to what they're referring to, just a blind link (which I almost never follow).
Atrios is infamous for doing this (one of the reasons I stopped reading his blog), but I was really disappointed when Charles Pierce (guesting at Altercation) started doing it.
Submitted by Legacy on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 10:01 AM PST.
Ropty: I agree. That's a decent way of doing it. (And I don't mind hiding part of a post if it's genuinely a really long post. But it's annoying when it's used routinely, even for moderate sized posts.)
Supersaurus: Don't get me started.....
supersaurus reminds of another pet peeve: blogs that repeat the title of the post twice, i.e.:
My Blogosphere Whines For 2009
MY BLOGOSPHERE WHINES FOR 2009....Today is New Year's Eve[]
I don't know why, but that (& "Recent Comments" boxes) really get on my wick.
Ditto raff. Why do you include the title again in the body of your post in caps? That makes no sense to me. It looks silly in a feed reader and looks silly on your blog. Did doing that make sense at one point?
Ben Smith's blog would be a whole item. His feed is only like 10 words long and if you click through to see the rest of his typically short posts you're bombarded will all his idiot commenters. I don't mind blogs that only have a paragraph or two in their feed or displayed on their site; you have to defend against scrapers.
Submitted by Felix Salmon (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 10:30 AM PST.
I used to agree with you on #5, but since being forced into this by Conde Nast against my will, I've actually grown quite fond of being able to see a lot of blogs within a relatively manageable scroll area. (Especially since, as you know, I write long, and I only have 372px column width.)
After all, there is an easy solution: just read me in an RSS reader, where you get the full post and no "continued" link.
my pet peeve is bloggers who comment on something but add no context at all as to what they're referring to, just a blind link (which I almost never follow)
This is a big one for me. "What Digby said." Well, I like Digby, but at least let me know the subject matter.
Raff:
The Atrios style of blogging is my biggest peeve. I honestly don't understand why anyone cares about that blog. Half of the posts are open threads with no content whatsoever. Forty percent are one-sentence, off-the-cuff remarks about whatever is in the news, or perhaps a long blockquote from another blog followed by same. And the other 10% are incisive, interesting entries. I had him on my RSS feed for a while, but after my 88th time seeing a post that was just "Afternoon thread, enjoy folks" I took it off in disgust.
Submitted by Legacy on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 11:01 AM PST.
Felix: That's what I do, but then Conde Naste loses me as a reader of their actual site, which seems sort of self defeating.
Newspaper sites all do this too, and I'm not sure why. I assume it's a way of tracking which readers actually read entire stories and which ones don't, but it's still annoying. (Even more annoying than in a blog, actually, since there's not even the excuse of trying to minimize scrolling.)
Flat:
Yeah, after about the 10,000th Atrios post consisting merely of "Heh. Indeed." & an embedded link, I stopped reading.
Also, I'd add a '5c' to the "Teaser Blogs" (or did Kevin mean to say 'blog post'?). I hate it when an already longish post has a "Continue Reading" or "Continued Below The Fold" & you click through only to find a couple of sentences or a short paragraph. If the post was already 3 -4 paragraphs long, why would you make me navigate to a new page just to read the last few sentences? (The cynic in me suggests it's to generate more page-views.)
Submitted by Legacy on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 11:07 AM PST.
Sarah: I use a bolded title as a lead-in to my posts because I've always done that and consider it part of my look and feel. When I moved to MoJo, the template for the blog had the title above the post, which meant there was now a double title, but since we were working on a site-wide redesign there didn't seem to be much point in reworking the template just to eliminate the double title for a month or two.
Well, a month or two turned into several months, but the redesign will be here soon! Though after saying all that, I'm not sure if it gets rid of the extra post title after all. However, it turns out that it's a useful thing to have anyway. We turn off comments on all posts after a few days as an anti-spam measure, and that means that if you want to read the full post with the comments, the only way to do it is by clicking on the title. So it's a good thing we have it after all.
Anyway, that's the explanation. I didn't promise that it would be a good explanation....
Submitted by DonBoy (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 11:22 AM PST.
This is probably controversial, but I admire the fact that Mark Kleiman and associates take care to write a special RSS summary of every one of their items. Points for effort!
I hate blogs with tiny comment windows for typing in.
I hate blogs that are so technically perverse, that it takes a full minute for the comments section to open up.
And I hate blogs where 90% of the screen area is given over to dreadful graphics.
And yet I still read this one, which is a prime offender in all those categories. But still, Drum, knock it off.
I like nested comments at sites where a conversation is worth having. I think it might be useful here. Do people actually try to communicate in 500 comment strings at Eschaton?
I'd register if it let me attach links without moderation. Linking to things through the tubes is what makes blogs more useful than 1980's era text message boards.
[Continued Below The Fold]
5, 5, 5, my God, definitely 5. It's why I don't read Spencer Ackerman anymore.
If you're going to do 5, at least do it 538 style, which I'm totally cool with.
Matt, this is exactly what I planned to say. I'm just going to repeat it and hope Spacks reads this thread.
Before anyone points it out, yes, MoJoBlog is guilty of probably half of the sins Kevin cites, and, yes, we're committed to fixing them.
As Kevin mentions in a comment above, we're overhauling the site in January. That doesn't just mean the layout of the site. It also means we're getting a new back-end content management system and new blog software. Hopefully, the result will be that we fall into compliance with the Drum-list above and address most of the complaints mentioned in the comments.
More likely, of course, the new site will have a new set of foibles that people will complain about. We're aware of that, too!
I don't understand Escheton's comments section either. I have no idea how it gets consistently into the 300's...some kind of magic. The guy is really insightful though, and I like that in a medium where there is a tendency to go on and on and on and on he cuts to the quick.
That and when he does post a longer blog post it's like 'oooo, red meat.'
Submitted by Clara Jeffery (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 12:06 PM PST.
One of MoJo's coeditors here:
As Kevin and Jonathan mention, in just two short weeks, the whole site, including Kevin's blog, will have a new look and a new Drupal-powered, open-source back end.
Many of the sins Kevin mentions are committed by some or all of our blogs. 2, 3, 5 are all addressed in new design. Well 5 sort of. I think it's a matter of taste how long a blog post should tease you before jumping if at all. We've allowed the DC bureau to use the MoJo blog to post stories, because it's a much easier/quicker interface than the main site (powered by Atomz). But in the new site, we won't have that problem so we'll we'll be posting stories as stories and keeping the blog for bloggy things should be somewhat rectified. And all our blog posts will link to an author page, where many of us will display our email addresses (gulp).
As for 7: All our blogs are searchable, it's just that it searches the whole 10,000+ pages site.
When I search "Come on, people" and "kevin drum" I get seven returns. None of them this post. Hmm.
"plainly larded with filler because the listmaker" and "kevin drum": nothing.
Perhaps it is not indexed yet. In any case, Atomz search sucks. We're hoping Drupal will be better. If it doesn't rise to the occasion we're going to patch in google search.
And as for how long comments stay open. Kevin has moderators who help keep the spam and trolls at bay. Our new site will allow readers to report abuse, which should make their, and all of our, lives better.
And comments will be threaded. And you'll be able to suggest courses of action to policy issues, track how/when/and if those suggestions are acted upon.
And a whole lot more.
I'm sure there will be plenty of things to hate on, but we're open to suggestions as to how to keep making it all better. So watch this space.
Reading actual book this morning as part of ongoing successful routine of reducing not having a life reading blogs and other minor forms of chronic Internet addiction and found great peace with just the text on the page rather than the infinity of distractions per typical blog page like this one and gotta remind self what Toreroo guy said that if you heard about one dead cow you heard about em all. The core pain never stops yet always the same as is compulsive need to talk about it. RSS thing must be an even deeper form of compulsive anxiety. As Froid said, when the RSS stops, you're dead and fear of death ends with it. Amen. Whoopee. (Only monks with concubines and vineyards are truly happy.)
As ironic as this is, I'm not so sure about #1. I like Sullivan's blog, and he doesn't have comments. But he's put it to a vote. The consensus was no comments. But he does post dissents from readers. And I know they're real because some of them have been mine. Unfortunately, he doesn't correct my spelling errors.
Submitted by low-tech cyclist (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 12:27 PM PST.
#5 is why I quit reading Firedoglake. Before the site redesign (2 years ago? Can't remember) it used to be a very readable, easily navigable blog. Now most of the front-page posts are just a single paragraph before the jump, and the two or three longer ones at the top are impossible to visually separate from the surrounding clutter.
I have no idea whether Jane and Christy are saying really worthwhile stuff, or really crappy stuff. It's no reflection on their writing. There's just no way I'm going to try to read a blog with such a godawful design.
I'm so glad to learn that I'm not the only one who really can't stand "teaser blogs." I didn't even know there was a name for them.
It was a very sad day for me when TBogg switched over to that format. I still think he's great, but I visit him about half as much as I used to.
Also, since Atrios is taking some hits here, I'll say one thing that I like about his blog a lot, and that's the little check box at the top to have links open in new windows. I wish more blogs had one of those.
Submitted by Maynard Handley (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 12:58 PM PST.
"When I'm standing on line killing time by reading blogs on my cell phone, blogs that require you to download column after column of crap before getting to the first post. Bad ones are Washington Monthly and Hullabaloo."
The way to deal with this is to reroute the blog URL to go through the Google Mobile proxy server, which does a pretty good job, on most blogs, of stripping out CSS and most of the sidebar crud, to leave you with just the good stuff. You rewrite each URL like so:
------
[Unfortunately I can't FSCKING SHOW YOU how to rewrite the URLS because whatever I do the damn spam filter on this web site claims the post is now spam. Do a search for things like Google Mobile proxy server or google mobile URL rewrite and you should come up with something.]
Unfortunately:
(1) The google mobile proxy server seems to be the flakiest part of the entire google operation --- probably once a week or so it seems to die and your links just won't work for an hour or two until it gets rebooted
(2) The proxy server cannot deal with web pages constructed by crappy flaky software (most notably Brad de Long's new TypePad layout and its amazing disappearing comments. If the web site doesn't serve up comments half the time when you connect to it using a desktop browser, google can't magically fix TypePad's server to work properly on mobile).
(3) It can't help with the Felix Salmon stupidity that Kevin so correctly notes. Damnit, Salmon, get with the program and fix this aspect of your blog.
Submitted by JeffB (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 12:58 PM PST.
#5 is by far the worst blog sin posted here. Raff's caveat runs a close second. I don't really understand why blogs want to focus on page views vs. actual reader visits, but I presume it's because page views paint a rosier picture to advertisers.
Submitted by Chris Brown (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 1:07 PM PST.
My biggest peeve is what has become of the Washington Monthly blog since you left. It is now almost nothing more than one of thousands of news digest sites.
" "Teaser" blogs that put only the first paragraph or two on the main page and force you to click "continue" if you want to read the whole thing. This is both annoying and pointless. It only takes a second or two to scroll past a blog post you don't want to read, after all."
Andrew. Fucking. Sullivan. It's annoying to click through and there's only a single short paragraph after the jump. Thanks for wasting your reader's time, dick. Is this a way to increase page hits?
And TBogg- the guy is a funny motherfucker, but I refuse to read that eyesore of a site.
Submitted by JohnH (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 1:31 PM PST.
I don't mind some blogs that require clicking to read more. It can allow someone to write something a little more substantive, just as we don't scream when the newspaper lists its articles, all separate, with only a two-liner for each. I set up my own site originally as a magazine with separate articles, and whenever I had a new one, I put a six-paragraph blog entry on my home page. What I hate is when you click only to find it gets you another 100 words max, because the blog software has automatically cut things off. This happens all the time with TPM Cafe.
Submitted by JohnH (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 1:35 PM PST.
Speaking of what I last said about my own site, can I add a request for help? I fully agree that comments are important, but I don't know how to allow them short of signing up for a blog with, say, Blogspot, whereas I already have a whole site with hundreds of longer articles, and I just at some point changed my home from a menu to blog entries once blogs got popular. How do I integrate blog software into what I'm doing, with my existing home page as its primary URL? If someone with wisdom doesn't mind, email me: jhaber you-know-what-symbol haberarts dot com. You'd probably have to see my site to follow what I am doing, and I hate to burden you.
10) Blogs that don't turn off comments in a week or so and end up with lots of spammy garbage tacked on the end.
Blogs without comment sections.
I would go so far as to contend that without a comments section a blog isn't a blog, but only an online diary. I think having commenters who can (and do) call out the bloggers on any crap they throw up on the same page as the post (or very close by) itself is what really makes the "medium".
11. lousy searches. I hate searching for something like "hot dogs 2008" and getting results back in random order starting with an obscure post from 1948. for example angry bear: I have no idea if it works now because the results were so bad I gave up.
this doesn't make the top 20, but why is your comment section's clock so far off? the last one says posted at 4:55pm, but I don't know how to post in the past. check the time for this one, it is actually 5:15pm when I hit the button (5,4,3,2,1...)
Submitted by William W. Wexler (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 2:04 PM PST.
tpx.... I'm with you on the censorship. Without mentioning any names, I will just say that I have stopped posting anything serious at sites that censor my posts, especially based on congruence with their political points of view. Oh, and this ISN'T one of them... ;-)
At one site I changed my bio to the most toady suckup paragraph I could write about how wonderful the site operator is, how she's the best thing to hit the TV guest circuit for years, etc, and her minions started letting my posts go right on through... amazing.
But this is supposed to be light, since it's the New Year and all. Wilder, I will try to keep my posts as ane as possible from now on. Thanks to MoJo for keeping it real for another year. If things work out for me, I'll send you some cash. (really).
Happy New Year to all, and I'm saying this before I have my annual bottle of beer.
-Wexler
Consensus seems to be Atrios, Firedoglake and Ackerman, all of whom I like as writers, but have to totally agree with the complaints- firedoglake has dropped down to the "already read everything else category" simply because of the format, and I only go to Ackerman on a link simply because I don't want to have to guess what his latest cutesy title means.
Submitted by skippy (not verified) on Wed Dec. 31, 2008 6:45 PM PST.
how about bloggers who use essentially the same self-referring joke twice in a row at the end because they can't think of 10 actual things for a top ten list?
but seriously, i'm getting tired of all the bloggy preaching to the choir, and, worse still, the multitudes of blogs all writing about the same stories and usually w/the same talking points and points of view.
blogtopia and yes, i coined that phrase, has become as homogenized, shallow and echoing as the mmm (multi-millionaire media).
or maybe i'm just blogged out from a particularly stressful news year.
anyway, happy new year kevin, and all the drumettes, and i'm looking forward to the new look next year.
Submitted by James Wimberley (not verified) on Thu Jan. 1, 2009 1:36 AM PST.
#4: Commenters can't be held to the same standards as bloggers. On many blogs (not this one) it's impossible for commenters to preview and check links, let alone correct typos.
#5: I'm really surprised at this. At RBC (Mark Kleiman's blog), since I've been posting I've always made an effort to keep the lead-in short - two or three paragraphs - as a courtesy to readers. It's true we quite often have long, wonkish posts. This is a question of balance not a principle. I agree Nate Silver gets it right.
Mark K. is trying to restore comments but has technical problems.
