I love blogging and by extension I love the blogosphere (the blogosphere is the backdrop to blogging – it covers blogs, bloggers, and social media).
The people, the laughs, the sense of community and the brilliant writings I get to read all add to the fun of writing a blog. Like all good things though, it has it’s downsides.
Here are three of the things that never fail to drive me mad in the blogosphere:
Auto DMs on Twitter
I know this one is over done. It’s over done because we all hate them.
Yet it still seems that a lot of bloggers send them out.
Have you ever heard anyone say “Oh I love auto DMs – the lack of the personal touch, the fact they are just begging for follows on other networks or trying to sell me something, the generic tone – they make me feel so special”?
No? That’s because no one has said that.
Ever. What people do tend to say is how much they hate them and how it is the quickest way to get unfollowed.
If you want to thank people for following you, either tweet or send them a personal DM without trying to sell them anything or go like you on Facebook.
Pop-ups on blogs
To clarify, I hate giant pop-ups that cover the full screen – I am almost certain to close the page if a pop-up appears that covers all of the screen, especially if I am on my phone as they are so tricky to close on the mobile version of blogs.
If they are just little, with an easy to find close button, I am more likely to just eye roll and close them. It’s still extremely unlikely I’ll do whatever it is the pop-up wants me to do, but I’m less likely to just leave.
The only one I don’t mind is the one some people have that thanks you for sharing their content if you do because it doesn’t bug you to do anything else and it’s small.
If you really want a pop-up, don’t let me put you off, this is just my opinion, but please keep it small if you don’t want to lose readers. Also, if you are asking people to sign up or follow you somewhere, let them at least read the post before it comes up.
How does anyone know they want to follow you if they haven’t read your content?
Post titles that have no relevance what so ever to the content
I must say here none of the blogs I read regularly have ever done this (or if they have I haven’t gone to read that particular post). But it is so frustrating when you see a social media post with a post advertised that grabs your attention, you click through and the post has nothing to do with the title.
I appreciate you need an eye catching title. The options here are write a relevant eye catching title or write the content to match the amazing title you thought up. Click bait might get people to your site but they won’t stay if the content isn’t what you promised.
Those are my top three bug bears in the blogosphere. Really, that’s not bad when you think how many good things there are. The good far out weighs the bad.
What are your pet hates in the blogosphere? Let me know in the comments 🙂
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I stop following when I get one of those Auto DM’s.
I can’t stand when people are so terrified of spam that they put you through the twelve trials of Hercules to leave a comment.
I don’t blame you, they are so annoying!
I know, I wonder how many genuine comments they lose out on where people just give up!
I so agree! I do have a ‘singular’ popup on my blog, but I don’t think it takes up the entire page, and it is set to only appear occasionally, not every visit.
I detest DMs. 99.9% of them are spam.
Another thing that gets me worked up is not being able to share a post readily or find the subscribe buttons.
Mary
That’s not so bad if it’s quite small and doesn’t appear too often. I really hate the ones that reappear every time you click anything. That’s a good one, it’s annoying when you want to share or follow and the buttons are hidden or non-existent!
Yup yup & yup! I agree with the commenter about crazy anti-spam practices – like the one blog where I had to construct a puzzle in order to pass the human not robot test! Craziness! x
Wow, that’s ridiculous! The maths ones annoy me. I had one a couple of days ago asked me for 8-5 and it wouldn’t accept 3. I tried twice then gave up! x
Eeekkk….auto DMs– I find them very impersonal and annoying too. I actually dislike disqus …it’s so complicated just to drop a comment!
Yeah, they are so annoying! I don’t mind Disqus although the constant emails for weeks after leaving a comment get old quick!
Anti spam stuff in comments annoys me because I took the time to comment and now you are making it super hard for me to do so. I’ve ended up just giving up on a few blogs :/
And kinda blog related but Pinterest. That site winds me up no end because you see an image, click to the url and sometimes if it is a blog I just get a huge pop up, or no blog at all, or it takes me to the home page of that blog. drives me round the bend lol.
Me too, I always wonder how many comments these bloggers miss out on and if it’s really worth it to save having to delete the odd spam comment. Yes, I find that a lot with Pinterest too and it drives me nuts too.
I agree – 1 and 2 drive me bonkers and really put me off which is a shame because sometimes they are blogs I really enjoy. Haven’t come across number 3 so far but just reminds me of those awful click bait articles that pop up on Facebook, which I can’t stand either!
Same here and it is a shame because there might be some really good content but I don’t always get that far when the pop ups appear. I hate click bait! If you want a title that makes people click through, write that post!
I’m still avoiding twitter so I don’t have a problem there but I really hate pop ups – especially the ones where I can’t find the X to close them! I won’t have them on my blog – I also hate the advertising ones that block the bottom of the post. Btw I didn’t know blogosphere had a definition – I thought it was a made up word like interwebs 🙂
Those are the worst where you waste time looking for the x. I won’t have them either, I know how much they annoy me and I don’t want to annoy my readers! I think it is a made up word, the definition is just what I think of when I use the word blogosphere 🙂
Oh, auto DMs drive me absolutely INSANE. They are awful, and I’m so confused why so many bloggers still use them. Like you said, EVERYONE hates them. I can’t think of a single positive that comes from having that set up. Definitely agree with the commenters about the comment anti-spam. I did one yesterday where I had to choose images with water in them, and it kept telling me I was wrong. So frustrating! #effitfriday
I know, I just don’t get why people still have them. I haven’t come across the water one and hopefully I won’t lol 🙂
Yes pop-ups are so irritating and like you say hard to get rid of on mobiles. I don’t like it on blogs when you can’t see their archive as I love to read bloggers very first posts!
They drive me crazy, especially on my mobile! I have archives but I have to say my first posts are pretty cringey lol 🙂
DMs are easy enough to delete. They don’t bother me as much as pop ups. Its such a small matter to close them, but I find it such a major annoyance
Both bother me equally I think. The DMs I don’t know what it is really, probably just that people actually think they work kind of bugs me more than it should!
All of these pee me off especially auto dm, I ignore them and they just feel personal. I hate pops they drive me so mad and want to forget bothering to post at times. X #effitfriday
I ignore them too now. I remember when I first joined Twitter, I naively thought they were real messages and actually replied to a few! x
Auto DMs irritate me, so much. I can’t believe how much I tut when I get them. Pop ups annoy me but I am STILL considering adding one. I’ve resisted so far!
Me too, I have taken to often shouting out “bloody auto DMs” even if I’m in the street lol 🙂 Don’t do it Laura!!
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