home

Top Media Internet Peeves of the Year

Worst Media Internet Practices of 2015 (Worthy of a Boycott of Sites That Use Them)

1. Auto-playing videos on news sites that slow or hang my computer. I continue to refuse to link to any site that has auto-play video and I close the window as soon as I see it. Worst offenders: CNN, ABC and local news, but almost everyone is doing it now. Fewest might be Reuters and NY Times, but even they do it sometimes.

2. News articles republishing unconfirmed facts without doing any independent investigation to verify. There's no excuse for lazy. San Bernadino is this year's best example.

[More....]

3. Public relations agencies and candidates who who add you to email lists without first asking your permission so you have to go searching for an unsubscribe button. Most of the time I could care less about their issues and frequently, it should be obvious to them I oppose their position.

4. Email providers that don't let you mass delete emails with one click. Most require two clicks (like a checkmark next to each one you want to delete and then you have to click to delete them. AOL had a trash bucket at the end of each email header so you can click the can and it's gone, no extra steps. You can just look at your list of 300 new mails and click the delete button instead of the open button. Much better. (But AOL has other bad habits now, like too many ads and autoplay video of some irrelevant reporter on every news article. Memo to AOL: We do know how to read, we don't need you to read aloud to us. It adds nothing and in fact makes me close your window as fast as I can to avoid it and read the news at another site.

5. Not providing dates of news articles (causing readers to waste time searching the news site to figure out if the news is current or old. Frequently, these are old articles hidden under a tag like "related news articles." But some sites just don't bother with dates at all.

I could probably get to ten if I tried, but five is enough for now. Do you have any to add?

Update: Number 6: The overuse of social media sharing buttons and "other articles you might be interested in" that overlap onto the screen space of the article I'm reading.

< Drug Cop Shoots and Kills Three Fellow Officers | Monday Open Thread >
  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


  • Display: Sort:
    "Top Internet Peeves?" (5.00 / 2) (#1)
    by NYShooter on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 01:59:05 PM EST
    Boy, oh Boy, oh Boy......

    But, seriously, most of us probably have the same general peeves. Yet, it's not just the intrusive, irritating pop-up ads, videos, and scripts that are the main problem. It's the quantity, and, the obvious technical techniques those geeks install on their ads making them, virtually, impossible to ignore. Things like clicking on the upper right hand, "X", that's supposed to close the pop-up, but, doesn't work...... that gets me furious.

    I know they have to have income to keep their sites running but, I just wonder if what they're doing doesn't chase away more potential customers than get new ones?

    There are some websites that are so, incredibly, weighted down with their volume of entry barriers that I've had to take them off my "Favorite" list, and, just live without them.

    And, that's just the beginning; there are so many more problems that need airing out, but, you have to start somewhere.

    The X moves around too (none / 0) (#24)
    by BarnBabe on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 11:45:39 PM EST
    Lately it seems that I am trying to read an article and I have these small pop up ads popping up all over. Top, bottom, and sides. And as for the X, they move it around the ads too. The same annoying way. And if you don't have an X, you have a faint Close Ad and that moves around also.

    I wonder sometimes if the advertiser realizes that they are not getting the big bang for the buck. OK, that is my 2 cents on that subject. Heh.


    Parent

    My biggest internet peeves are ... (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 03:05:10 PM EST
    ... sites that bog down their pages with way too many long scripts, which slows down their loading, and even in more than a few instances -- I'm looking at you, ESPN -- cause the page to abort and reload, sometimes repeatedly before its internal issue is finally settled.

    What's really annoying is that most are those scripts are for ads with auto-play videos, which of course comes full circle with your own pet peeve.

    Another thing I find terribly annoying are news media sites that string their top stories on one long page, one after the other, which is then automatically updated by reloading at set intervals. I can't begin to tell you how many times this past year I was reading an article, only to be rudely interrupted midstream because the page effectively reboots to add more stories to the end of the string.

    Aloha.

    I hate (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by jbindc on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 03:12:50 PM EST
    When I want to look at some inane list ("Top 10 Child Stars and What They Look Like Today" or "15 Things You're Doing Wrong in Your Workout") and I have to go through a slide show.

    Just put them in a list.

    And then they make some ad that looks (5.00 / 2) (#20)
    by ruffian on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 07:49:31 PM EST
    like the 'next' button...so I click the ad instead.

    Actually that happens on a lot of sites, not just listicles.

    Parent

    I hate it when people (none / 0) (#6)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 03:20:50 PM EST
    Go through those stupid lists and then complain that they "have" to.

    Parent
    I don't have to (none / 0) (#7)
    by jbindc on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 03:24:37 PM EST
    And many times I don't - because they are slide shows.  So, too bad for the people getting paid for me to click through, because I'm not doing it.

    But wow.  You can disagree with anything I say, it seems.  Well done.

    Parent

    I agree and hate slide shows (none / 0) (#26)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Dec 29, 2015 at 01:17:08 AM EST
    We don't need pictures and videos of everything. But that's how they get their traffic stats up. By putting each item on a separate slide with a photo, they get 10 clicks instead of one. It's pathetic and I won't give them the satisfaction.

    Parent
    Question (none / 0) (#25)
    by BarnBabe on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 11:54:15 PM EST
    On these list, when you are looking at them (like the old WWII pictures and your mouse is lingering on a photo, why does 'China' pop up? Is the site coming from China or do the pictures belong to China?

    Parent
    Maybe I'm just getting old (5.00 / 7) (#9)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 03:59:29 PM EST
    And its no different than it's ever been but

    The tendency I am noticing more and more of left leaning sites to mirror the hypocrisy of right leaning sites is really starting to bug me.   A great recent example IMO is the Ted Cruz monkey children cartoon.   It's one thing to defend free speech.  I do that all the time.  I defend it in this case.  It's another thing entirely to weasel and rationalize and equivocate and act like it's not offensive because it was aimed at someone we hate.

    There is a saying that you become what you hate-

    A Cherokee Legend

    An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

    "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

    The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

    The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."



    Two wrongs don't make a right (5.00 / 3) (#13)
    by MO Blue on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 05:23:10 PM EST
    The cartoon of Cruz's daughters should never have been published.

    What IMO is also true is that Tec  Cruz should never have used his daughters to slam his political opponents. His daughters were not only featured prominently in his ad where Cruz pretends to read children's stories to his little girls titled "How Obamacare Stole Christmas" and "The Grinch Who Lost Her E-Mails." But at  one point, one of the girls pretends to read the Hillary Clinton story "Grinch" story, precociously scolding Clinton.

    The no-children rule should work both ways. Attacks on a candidate's kids on the trail or in the media are wrong and a candidate using his children to slam his political opponents is also wrong.

    Parent

    please stay on topic (none / 0) (#22)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 11:14:15 PM EST
    it's media internet peeves

    Parent
    there's an open thread you can (none / 0) (#23)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 11:16:06 PM EST
    post your political thoughts in.

    Parent
    Knew I recognized that (none / 0) (#10)
    by TrevorBolder on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 04:33:31 PM EST
    "Which wolf will win?"

    The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

    A line from Tomorrowland

    By feeding the population with constantly negative information, it becomes self fulling , feeding the      wrong wolf.


    Parent

    Agreed (none / 0) (#11)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 04:40:33 PM EST
    Firefox and Javascript (none / 0) (#2)
    by Repack Rider on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 02:15:06 PM EST
    Not directly related, but close.

    Sites that use Javascript slow my computer down, down, down, and if I leave the page open for any length of time, it freezes Firefox.  I have to go to Task Manager and shut it all down.

    OF COURSE I have been to the Mozilla support site.  Best I could do there was download a Java blocker, so if I don't need those features, I can cripple that part of the page.

    When I get the error message that says I can "stop script," I do it and it doesn't help.  When I click on "Debug Script" I get pages of code that I'm supposed to be able to modify.  I don't write software, so that is useless.

    Anyone else have the problem, anyone else been able to solve it?

    I get the stop script message when (none / 0) (#3)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 02:32:23 PM EST
    I'm visiting foreign news sites that use auto play video -- particularly those in India. What I hate is that I'm usually writing a post and looking for a link when I land there, and unless I click the stop script, the screen is frozen and I can't save or copy what I've written. As soon as I click the stop script button, Firefox is shut down, including my post, and I can't get it back. (Not being able to get it back is a feature of Scoop, the platform TalkLeft is on, that's not the internet's fault.) In other words, clicking stop script doesn't just close that window, it closes all the open firefox windows.

    Parent
    I hate "lists" (none / 0) (#8)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 03:26:50 PM EST
    And the people who click on them enough to keep them propagating.

    Different strokes (none / 0) (#16)
    by Zorba on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 06:06:29 PM EST
    For different folks.   ;-)

    Parent
    Saw something (5.00 / 1) (#17)
    by CaptHowdy on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 06:14:31 PM EST
    The other day about how lawyers no longer have to worry about being the most disliked occupation as long as there are people getting paid to make "internet lists"

    Parent
    LOL! (5.00 / 1) (#19)
    by Zorba on Mon Dec 28, 2015 at 06:23:47 PM EST
    N/t

    Parent