Things you hate about blogs.....??

[GolfOscarLimaDelta]

Just wondering what peoples pet peeves are when looking at others blogs?

What kind of themes or styles do you hate?

Do you hate particular colours or colour combinations?

What do you really hate to see?

Captchas, hard to read text and tiny photos.

White text on a black or dark background, for the body of the blog (sidebars or small bits of text aren't so hard on the eye like that).

Text that hasn't been checked properly before publishing and is still full of errors - we all make the odd typo but it's a bit rude to your readers not to try to get it error free!

Really bright reds or yellows that make your eyes hurt once you start reading!

Thanks for the replies :)

I'm trying to make my blog user friendly before it's unleashed. I din't think I'm entirely cut out for blogging - I'm too frightened at the thought of it being too public!

I agree with white text on dark background. I stop reading blogs that are like that. Or too small text that I have to peer at.

I am not keen on overly crowded blogs, with lots of badges and awards -- although that is personal preference.

If a blog is full of adverts, reviews and sponsored posts then I won't read it.

Gosh, I sound really fussy, don't I?

The first one is the deal breaker. If the blog is well written, interesting and/or fun then I can cope with anything really.

oh, and if you would like to PM me a link to the blog for a sneak preview, I will take a look and give you some feedback before you go live.

I don't like it if I can't work out what the blog is or is about. There needs to be an "about" section that tells me the purpose of the blog or a bit about the author.

Got to agree with all the above posts, particularly dark backgrounds, or those with fussy patterns in the background. Also yellow/pink text that is just hard to read for me.
Too many adds is annoying and yes the big one, but then I use addblock so I tend not see any these days.
Not knowing what the blog is all about!
Need to get a nice balance of pictures/text
A post not being clear what it is about from the start/obscure post titles - catchy is good, but sometimes you just need to get to the point.

Good luck with the blog!

Oh, one final thing - if you have a space for comments and people leave one, always reply fairly quickly, especially when you are first starting, readers of blogs like to feel involved and not ignored or they may not come back.

All good tips thank you :)

MmeLindor - I am live, just not promoting bar a link or two on twitter. I'll pm you when I'm home tonight though :)

Yeah totally agree, very light text on a dark background. The worst is also when people put colours like blue and red together, so you're having a little seizure every time you try and read it.

My pet hates are:

• Those posts that you have to click to see the whole thing.
• Blogs with no feeds (I use Google Reader, if you don't have a feed, I won't read).
• CAPTCHAs, or anything that makes it hard to comment.
• Animated smilies, and too much clutter in the sidebars.

All these, and just poor writing generally. I'm notice of a pedant and typos and writing how you speak is acceptable on chat forums but if you are going to write a blog, a mostly written medium, at least have basic writing skills.

Really agree with the about page too. I like to know where people are coming from.