Sound off: Tech sites behaving badly
Today is Labor Day in the US, a federal holiday that is part of the reason morning tech news is flowing very slowly for a Monday. Usually at this time, I have 1000+ unread items to view in Google Reader; today I had just 285. While enjoying the leisurely pace, however, I wondered what those in other countries (who didn’t know about the holiday) were thinking. "Where the heck is everybody?" probably. "So-and-so is slacking today" perhaps.
Either way, I’m sure many non-US readers of various gadget sites were slightly annoyed by the lack of news, especially with IFA going on right now. This got me thinking. What else irritates readers (worldwide) about tech blogs? What do sites do that their audiences can’t stand? What pushes readers to stop visiting a site?
See what bugs me about tech sites below and air your own grievances in the comments.
- Other than content that doesn’t interest me, which is a matter of personal preference anyway, what makes me unsubscribe from an RSS feed immediately is when a site doesn’t properly credit its sources.
- Excessive cross-linking. There’s a very crude expression about getting off of someone’s somethings that comes to mind here.
- Inappropriate language/slang. Is everyone aspiring to be Snoop Dogg?
- Nonsense posts. Some posts just don’t belong on a site about technology.
- Poor grammar. I was an editor in my pre-Pocketables life, so the misuse of commas, basic sentence structure, and it’s/its drives me crazy.
Now it’s your turn. What bugs you about tech sites? I’ve seen complaints about advertising, unboxings, comment systems that require registration, and typos, but there has to be more than that. Minor annoyances, pet peeves, major problems: sound off!
For the sake of civility, please don’t mention any website by name.
Image from Daily MVillos
