I ran across this unfinished list of Internet Pet Peeves I ranted about a year and a half ago:
- Exclamation marks are not your friend. We know that you are excited to say every sentence you are saying, but it is physically draining to read sentences that are literally exclaimed all the time.
- Capital letters are to be used sparingly. The default status of your Caps Lock should be “off.”
- Using words like Ur and 4 for “you’re” and “for” is not cool. Maybe when IM became the rage 10 years ago, you could get away with being lazy or ignorant, but come on now… If hooked on phonics hasn’t worked for you yet, don’t subject anyone to your feeble attempts at written communication.
- Do not have multiple videos/songs starting at the same time on your page, and always have some way for a person to stop whatever automatically start (though my preference is to have a visitor choose to start a song or video before being subjected to it).
- In a social networking context, saying “Thanks for the add” seems both insincere and desperate, so don’t do it. It is probably one of the most used expressions in comment sections, and it shows lack of creativity.
- If you want people to read your profile/site/blog, it should be legible. Crazy concept, I know, but bright green flashing text on a neon pink background is as likely to cause a seizure as it is to allow someone to read what you wrote.
- Just because someone posts a comment doesn’t mean that comment should stay on your page forever. Especially in the case of the spam/hacked comments you see everywhere with big text and multiple hyperlinks, you should be wiping those off the face of the earth. Log in to your account, click the option to view your profile, click view/edit comments above where people’s comments are shown, and use the “Delete this comment” link whenever necessary.
I still agree.
