Here are a few things I want gone from the web in 2007 – and forever – along with a few things I want you to do to make the web a better place in 2007.
Kill All Popup Windows
In every shape and form.
Out-of-control Advertising
Web pages, specifically blogs, are now looking more like classified ad sections in the newspaper, stuffed with glorious want ads, than published works. They are ugly, cluttered, and some some bloggers are giving up on some advertising techniques because of the “cheap look” and interference with content quality. Not every blogger needs to pay their rent with their blogs. Blog for the fun of it and let those who are serious about blogging as income make more money with lovely, interesting, and intelligently placed ads.
Constantly Auto-Reloading Web Pages
In order to get more coverage for their ads, some web owners force their web pages to reload every X seconds or minutes so the ad banners will cycle and change. This sucks. It wastes bandwidth and time. Stop it. The average visitor rarely spends more than a few seconds on a page, so why bother torturing those who do? I’ve been in the middle of a Wired News story and the page went blank. I had to wait for the entire page to reload in order to continue reading. I’ve now stopped reading Wired. If you have to use ever-changing ad banners, then use Ajax or something that loads with the page and then does not consume any more bandwidth.
Blog Bling
Okay, okay, folks. There are enough gadgets, gimmicks, and gizmos on your blogs, not to mention widgets. We got it. We know you know how to accessorize your blog with every graphic bell, whistle, and sound. Stop it. Focus on content not clutter.
Music on Websites
For more than 10 years I’ve been whining about music that plays on websites when you visit. Web page reading has never needed tunes to read by. They do not “enhance” or compliment the website. It is annoying and 10 years out of date. Let me choose what I want to listen to when I’m surfing the web. Stop it.
Tiny Fonts
The majority of readers on the web are getting old. A new generation of readers are coming online, so don’t strain their eyes too early. Help save our eyes with decent font sizes.
Link Spawning – Open Links in New Windows
Do not use target="_blank" in your links to force open new windows or tabs from your links on your blog. They are not user-friendly and violate web and accessibility standards. Let the individual control their browsing experience. Everyone has learned to use the Back button, so stop forcing new windows to open from your links.
Kill Off Anything that Moves
Ban all use of rain, snowflakes or leaves falling on websites. Stop using anything that dances, whirls, or clicks on web page designs. It’s annoying, distracting, and exceptionally frustrating as they cannot be turned off easily. These cutesy things are old and get in the way of readers reading and using your site. Stop it.
Flash is Not Content
Websites and blogs designed with a lot of Flash do not make for good content. Flash, videos, podcasts, and heavy graphics do not represent content. It is the words you use that gets you found in search engines and builds an audience. Tell people what you are going to show them, then show them, but don’t expect everyone to live by the video or podcast clip alone.
Javascript Driven Links
Many sites use javascript in their links. Why? Who knows, but when you try to open these links in a new tab or window, they won’t work. Usually, these links are designed to open in their own window. Why bother? Stop it. Make a link a link and don’t bury it in Javascript.
Don’t Violate Your Own Privacy
I would also classify this one as “don’t air your dirty laundry”. Limit what information you hand out over the web, in any form. Don’t give out personal information about yourself or others. Do not give out your middle name, parent’s name or maiden names. Do not hand out your social security number, address, phone numbers, or even your email address unless you are totally confident and trusting in the request. On chats, forums, emails, or on your blogs, do not give out enough information that will violate your privacy and invite up close and personal confrontations. Be careful what you say about others, too. Gossip is fun, but it can also hurt.
Do Not Splog or Plagiarize Others
If it’s on the Internet, it is not free. Some things are, a lot aren’t. Know the difference. Do not copy other’s work and do not violate their copyrights. You have an imagination – use it to create your own unique work. Respect the work of others. And when you spot a copyright violation or spamming blog (splog) using the work of others illegally and for making money, report them. If it happens to you, defend and protect your rights.
Comment Spam
Make the death big or quiet, but kill all comment spam. Make the business of comment spam illegal or make them pay for the bandwidth they waste. Do not let comment spam get through and clutter your blog. It doesn’t speak well for you. And never do business with comment spammers.
Do Not Get in the Way of Commenters
Do nothing to get in the way of those who want to comment on your blogs. Do not challenge them to take a test or type in letters of weirdly spelled words in a captcha. If you want comments, don’t force people to register or log in to comment. It does not stop comment spammers. Do not force me to load a new page in order to leave a comment on that separate page. Do not force me to jump through hoops. Just let me comment, and use the best comment spam fighting tools around to stop the evil comment spammers from cluttering your blogs.
Time Wasting Comments
If all you have to say in a comment is “I agree” or “This is interesting”, don’t comment. Don’t waste our time over vague and innocuous comments. Make your comment matter. Make it contribute to the conversation. Vague comments make us think comment spam. Don’t risk being caught by comment spam fighting tools. Say something intelligent and helpful.
Forcing Email Comment Subscriptions/Notify Me of Followup Comments Via Email
If I feel compelled to comment, don’t make my comment experience miserable by forcing me to sign up for notification via email on comments made on your post or blog. The process of getting off these lists is tedious and time wasting. Make it my choice. Do not automatically enable the notification option, and put the option before the Submit button, near the email box in the form or above the comment where I will see it first before I hit the Submit button.
Stop Spyware/Malware
Folks, this is old stuff. Stop downloading crap you don’t recognize and keep software updated and secure. Don’t forward email messages with files included unless you know what it is. Don’t offer downloadable files on your sites without virus scanning them first. Use serious anti-spyware and anti-virus defensive programs because I expect to see a boon in viruses in the next year with the release of new operating system versions and expansion into web page viruses through various web scripting programs. It’s an invitation to the evil doers to get their evil in first. You need to practice prevention first.
Multiple Page Views/Print View
Many sites, like magazine and news sites, are still thinking in print. They design web pages with multiple pages to tell the whole story, and getting more ad coverage across the pages.
Right along with popups and constant reloading, multiple page posts suck.
If I find a newsy article in such a format, I will look for the print view link to read the whole article, often without ads, a much more enjoyable experience. The next and previous page links are often small and lost within the ad clutter, so are often overlooked. It takes a long time to load four pages to get through a short article, lengthened only because it is stuffed with advertising. It’s a waste of bandwidth and annoying, so why bother?
Do I have to keep going? I think you are getting the time-wasting picture of my opinion of paged post views. Let me add that the print version links are also clutter and huge time and bandwidth wasters. With today’s CSS technology, make a default print stylesheet that automatically removes all that crap for printing and it will be used automatically when the reader hits print. Why waste space and clutter things up with a “print version” link?
Design for Print
There is nothing more frustrating than printing out an article, grabbing it off the printer and heading out the door to read it during lunch or while waiting in traffic jams, and finding that only half of the width of the article printed. Or a series of blank pages printed out between the title and the text or at the end of the page, wasting paper.
CSS stylesheets allow you to add print styles easily. Strip away the forced widths and wasted space of your web page designs. Eliminate unnecessary items for printing, and let the text and graphics flow out of the printer so people can read the whole story, not just the first halves of the sentences.
Stop Email Crap
Please, make this the year everyone stops all the email nonsense. Email travels across the same bandwidth web pages do. The more crap online, the slower the whole online world is. Stop the junk email and useless email forwarding.
Stop emailing crap to each other. Stop sending ridiculous online greeting cards. Buy a postcard and stamp instead. Stop sending jokes to everyone on your email list. We’ve all seen the same jokes four times before. Stop forwarding Powerpoint slide shows and videos of sunsets, animals playing, or people farting. Stop forwarding “warnings” and “alerts” about crank programs, policies, drugs, health, and viruses. Check first, as these are usually a hoax, and learn to get your information from real sources, not email forwards.
Make it a New Year’s Resolution to limit email forwarding to only family and friends’ communications, business-related, and serious emails. Cut the junk.
Stop Obsessing Over Page Rank and Traffic
Come on, Page Rank and traffic counting is old school. Get over it. Work to earn readers and encourage others to link to your blog because of the quality of content. Earn your popularity.
Validate With Various Browsers
I’m really tired of web pages designed “only for Internet Explorer” or “best viewed by Firefox”. I hate being confined to using only IE on sites with interactive online services or forms. Why should you be limited by your browser choice? Make your site design work with everything.
Forced Width Web Page Layouts
Let’s please eliminate the empty spaces on forced width web page layouts. I especially hate web designs which won’t shrink down, forcing vertical scrolling, or sit in a huge screen with vast space on the sides. Use the whole screen. Use space, but use it wisely.
Evil Bloggers
In “A Blogger Worth Modeling” by Steve Rubel, he admits that he’s unsubscribed from dozens of “mean-spirited blogs” this year, ashamed and disgusted by the lack of blogs adding “value to our lives”. I’ve done the same, as have others. Evil bloggers use sharp tongues and nasty wit to harangue and abuse their readers with their biased opinions and wicked editorializing. I get enough crap standing in line at the grocery store from magazine racks before my eyes. I don’t want to encourage the nasty online gossip mongers, so I’d love to see bloggers support good bloggers more, the ones who lift us up and raise the bar with the highest standards.
More Petty Annoyances Wished Gone in 2007
While not at the top of my list today, the following might be at the top of my list tomorrow. These are some of my biggest gripes I’d like to see gone in 2007, on the web and elsewhere.
Spell Check, Folks
Firefox now comes with a built-in spell checker. I’m sure Internet Explorer must have that feature, too. Use it. In whatever program you may write your blog posts, use spell check. There is no reason today, with all of the advanced technology to prevent us from sounding and writing stupid, to not spell check. Whether you are typing up a blog post or in a comment, spell it right.
A Hack is Not a Tip
If you have a series of tips to offer, tell people you have some tips to share, not hacks. A hack is a “a solution or method which functions correctly but which is ‘ugly’ in its concept, which works outside the accepted structures and norms of the environment, or which is not easily extendable or maintainable”.
In other words, a hack is digging into code and “fixing” (or altering) the original programming code.
A hack is not a tip. A tip is helpful advice and information you share to help people solve a problem or figure out how to do something. Among those tips can be hacks, but not all tips are hacks.
I’ve found a lot of bloggers touting “5 Top Hacks for WordPress” and such to get Digg or linking attention when all they are offering are 5 tips for using WordPress, and not one of them involves a hack. Stop abusing this word for attention getting linkage.
Use the right word at the right time in the right place and you will get the respect you deserve.
Make Your Post Titles Make Sense
I’ve written about how to write good post titles, and I’ll be writing more soon, but why not make this year the year you give some serious thought to your post titles. After all, they are the draw that lures people in from various feed and link sources, including your own, and they are often the sole influence on whether or not people click and visit your site.
Make your post titles make sense and give us a clue as to what your content is about.
Write Your About Page
I’m really, really tired of visiting a blog with interesting content I’d like to share with the world and not finding any information about the author or the blog. Take time RIGHT NOW to write up your About page. It doesn’t have to tell us everything about your life, but we want to know why we should trust what you write and say, and help us decide if you are indeed worth linking to.
Like Like and Like More
Since returning to the United States, I’m puking over the ridiculous overuse of the word “like”. It’s like I like have like totally returned to the, like, Valley Girl days, like, in the, like, eighties. I’m hearing it in very small children, teenagers, and forty year olds who have one or two college degrees on their walls and teenagers running around emulating their “likes”.
And now I’m seeing it in blog posts.
It’s like totally not cool to use like, like, wrong. “Like” has become the modern “um”, a sound made when people can’t think of the next word they are going to say. Well, folks, think before you speak and think before you blog and like kills the likes, like okay?
So what are your like unfavorite like things you would like to like see gone from the like web in like 2007?
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network
Lorelle on WordPress 
50 Comments
Lorelle, this should be a Bill of Rights for bloggers.
Well done. It is so spot on.
I’m probably guilty of few points, and I promise I’ll try and fix them.
txt spk. I hate it. It’s lazy, difficult to read and just annoying.
Putting advertisements on blogs is something I dislike. I remember back in the days when people used Geocities and Angelfire, etc., where one of the main incentives to buy your own space was to get rid of ugly ads! So now it’s cool to bring back that ugliness?
For a few blogs, it makes sense, but for many I feel it’s just another vanity element. I feel a pang of disappointment every time a blog I’ve been reading starts plastering a strip of Google ads inbetween the article and the comment box.
Thanks for the reminder on the about page…I need to give it a little more personality.
I am not a fan of ads on anything but I understand that it is a way of life. I have to take exception to a couple of your points.
Do Not Get in the Way of Commenters: I like the default checkmark to have the comments emailed to me. I visit many blogs and leave many comments and I can’t really keep track of them all. I haven’t been able to figure out co-commenter so I really appreciate the comments being emailed to me. Users know how to uncheck a box as easy as pressing the back button.
Multiple Page Views: This is all well and good if your content is fairly concise, but the longer content (we’ve had two multi page features) are formatted because it would require the reader to scroll for the equivalent of 8 pages. I just don’t know how convenient that is either.
Evil Bloggers: Having been called a mean girl for blogging about authors behavior online and giving negative reviews for books, I take exception to this as well. The internet allows everyone the freedom for their voice. Your “evil” blogger might be someone else’s daily entertainment. Again, it’s easy not to visit the site if it doesn’t appeal to you.
I’m not sure how I found your site, but I’m glad I did. In fact, I bookmarked you!
Thanks for the tips and good advice. I agree with most of what you’ve said.
There was one thing you highlighted (link spawning); which I took a little personally.
I use that feature because I can’t stand clicking on a link and losing sight of the original story – whether I can ‘back-click’ to it or not. I find that more annoying! Especially if it’s a story where one is referencing a lot of things – by way of linkage.
The other thing which struck me – is evil bloggers.
You are dead-on, target.
I often question if these bloggers are writing from prison or a psychiatric hospital; because of the mean-spirit.
Link spawning: Control your own link spawning. In IE, Right Click > Open in New Window (or IE7 New Tab). In Firefox, Middle Click your mouse or Right Click > Open in New Tab.
When a new window or tab opens on a link that I don’t want to open, I have to go hunting for it. And it means I now have to close two windows. That’s a lot of trouble for a simple thing that I should have control over. I want the link to open, I open it. Don’t push it upon me.
Besides, whether you like it or not, it does not meet web standards, unless you put a warning next to the link.
By the way, in IE, when a new window opens, it loads another FULL version of IE, eating up your RAM. When a new tab in Firefox opens, it consumes only a little more RAM, not another full version of the program. The less RAM (memory) you have, the slower your browsing and computer functioning experience.
These things annoy me as well. But I’m glad you pointed them out because I just started a new blog and I’ll be putting up a few new websites soon, so I’ll have to keep them in mind. Sometimes in the midst of things you forget about site width, etc.
One thing that annoys me is copyright violation or anything close to it. Hotlinking and scraping content is a huge no-no with me. It’s too bad a lot of other people don’t agree.
It’s actually possible to attach javascript to links (including js that pops up a new window, say for a video player) without rewriting the actual link in the HTML, so that the target page can be opened in a tab. Web authors should learn to use their tools better. I suppose everyone should 🙂
great tips. you definitely nailed most of them. i’m still on the fence about the “never use a target=”_blank” for links. i’ve been on a number of websites where they link off to some site or further description, and if i forget to right-click and open in new window, i read through and close the window when i’m done. whoops, there goes the original story i was reading. granted, this is my habit of surfing, and yours may be different (or the ‘standard’).
Then stop using Internet Explorer. Firefox has an option to reopen any recently closed tab, and you can add the Tab Mix Plus add-on for even more control over which tabs are open and closed and so on. Then, no excuses. 😉
I’ll be glad if only one fulfil: “Evil Bloggers”
Brilliant.
LOL! 😉
Lorelle, I shouted yes! in response to every one of your points. I will now violate the leave meaningful comments only rule by echoing Matt – Brilliant!
This blog is fantastic! I’ve already made it a must read for my high school students who blog because it’s the “in thing” but have no idea of what they’re getting into.
As for your 2007 wishlist, the world would be so much better if these were true. Though I can’t be too optimistic about the pop-ups and the other technical peeves because that, unfortunately, is the nature of the beast. Anyway, thanks for this. Cheers!
Great points …and it reassures me that my blog isn’t so bad after all – aside, of course from my boring life contributing to the mundane content 😉
You went overboard on bandwidth issues by suggesting people use postcards and stamps. The people who send greeting cards electronically could suggest that bloggers should be publishing flyers and selling them at newsstands. Both of these actions are wasteful of resources to print and deliver things that become landfill. Of course you were spot on with the rest of the email forwarding discussion.
Your details on Evil Bloggers potentially labels yourself since, by its very nature, this kind of list puts the writer in a position to speak down their nose to the Philistines.
Thanks for the bulk of the post which was entertaining and informative. I learned new and useful things.
What? Did you miss something that needs to be gone? I think you covered it terrifically well.
I would agree with most of this but not the video blogs. In a word: ASL (or your country’s sign language of choice).
Although, podcasts are evil and should be eliminated 😀
You can’t help the fixed width of a page if your design uses a fixed width design. Not all of us are good with coding and are that flexible with it. With my knowledge, at best I’ve come up with a lot of design issues when trying to design a liquid layout. So far none of them pan out because I can’t seem to grasp the technical aspects of it. It took me three years to know how to push my blog to the limits of its original design (from its original Ocadia theme to what it is now).
It’s unfortunate that I’m no longer young enough to have all the time in the world to invest on something I know will take a lot of time and work to put together again.
Here’s an idea: let’s put these suggestions into a time capsule, and see what is still around in 2008!
You have a point in every single one you mentioned. I just hate pop up windows.
Honestly…another thing that has been burning since Google took over the world is parked domains. They dilute the internet, specifically the excellent domains. Going to a domain that links to aggregated content that links to aggregated content that links to…yeah you get it. It sucks. I hate it.
Another one nobody mentioned yet;
Quit using webstats4u statistics, it spits out pop-unders with adds all the time, if you need to know your statistics use a good plugin.
I think this really caught my attention:
I have a nice big 17-inch LCD monitor. I don’t keep my browser windows maximized, but getting more (readable – small fonts won’t do) text in the area I use would be nice. Many Web designers these days think really weirdly.
About the JavaScript links: I am a serious tab adict ever since switching to Netscape. Now in Opera, I set up a button on my mouse to open a new tab when I click on a link using that button. It’s disappointing to have to go back to the originating tab and regular-click
While I agree with your list for the most part I couldn’t disagree more about “link spawning”. We are exact opposites on this issue. When an article or something of the sort is being linked I always have it open in a new window (or tab).
I’ll go through a set of news links and open new tabs for all the ones I want to read but I want to do that after I’ve gone through the list. Having to go back and forth is annoying. This way I can sort and then read instead of scanning, reading, scanning, reading, back and forth.
Anyway you get the point. For the most part the rest was spot on.
Opening tabs (or windows) by yourself is not link spawning. Link spawning is when you innocently click a link and it opens without your control in a new window or tab. That does not meet with web standards and is very, very old tech. It needs to stop.
As for opening tabs, I’m a pro and fan without a doubt, known for opening 150 tabs or more at a time while doing research. I almost never have less than 15 tabs open at any one time. One person called me the Queen of Firefox Tabs. 😉
You are very sharp.
Can I add? What about too much graphics on a page which take ages to load?
One thing I would love is the ability to have multiple stylesheets on my WordPress.com blog (with the CSS upgrade). Then I could create “print view (no comments)” and “print view (with comments)” stylesheets.
I open everything in tabs and then I keep on control-W-ing to close them. It let’s me easily open everything I’m interested in, then look at it all in the same order I opened them.
One thing about forced width… I find with widescreen monitors and the like I much prefer around a 700-800px fixed text portion so that paragraphs don’t squish down to two to three lines of text. I like stuff to look how it would on 8×11.
Well, you can’t put a conditional option in stylesheets, but you can have a print style added to the stylesheet option WordPress.com offers. Style it with comments, but get rid of everything else annoying and it’s done.
Otherwise, you’d need to add those darn print link clutter buttons, two in fact. Print with and Print without comments.
Opening links you want to sit and read while returning back to the original page is something you should have control over. The whole issue, though, is about control. Give me control over what I want to do in my browser. Don’t make things happen that take my control away like opening windows or tabs without my permission, interfering with my reading with popup windows or dancing or snowing bells and whistles.
Let’s get back to some simplicity where content wins and the audience applauds.
You should of titled this Top Blogging Mistakes. The blogosphere is full of ivil bloggers. Do you happen to have a zap button?
Nice post. I agree with almost all of it. Most of the stuff I noticed with other sites as well. I totally can relate to the annoyance of Music on Websites. Most of my friends own websites too and they have this crazy idea that a Mozart Rap Remixz II with delux bass is the best song ever and everyone should hear it.
I really like how you pointed out the “Out-of-control Advertising”, and I think that this should definately be pointed out to Weblog Tools Collection as well as another point you didn’t add: Really Big Font. That is the most annoying feature of a website. Is when the text feels too big.
You also made me realize that I have an over-obsession of traffic stats. My website does fine, but I always want to make it better for users (yeah, I know I need to work on this). If a large tital wive of users comes by, I normally tend to blog a lot more stories then usual (it’s getting better though).
But the thing I hate the most of all you said, was the Like Like and Like More. That is such a freaking stereotype. Not all teenagers do this. Sure, maybe occasionally, for only…5 min. but that’s it. You make it sound like that’s all we say. But at least you didn’t go overboard with the description of “Like like” (ha, reference to zelda).
Wow, that was longer then I expected. Nice post, it was a very good read.
I’m glad the post scored some points with you. I’d also like to like clarify that I like said:
It’s the forty year old, well-educated adults saying “like like” who really infuriate me. Saying it is one thing, and bad enough. Writing it in your blogs is a stupid thing.
Oh well, like okay (hah hah, like). I must have misread the part of the 40 year olds. Sorry about that.
I have only come across your website today and know I’m going to be coming back to it again and again. HOWEVER – bombastic or what! If I prefer target windows, I’ll flaming well have them!
Hi
Here is how you can still use Webstats4U but eliminate the pop-up advertising. Your readers might be interested in this. All I did is re-write their m.js to stop the pop-ups.
One thing I would love is the ability to have multiple stylesheets on my WordPress.com blog (with the CSS upgrade). Then I could create “print view (no comments)” and “print view (with comments)” stylesheets.
correction: that’s really easy to do in the same stylesheet with “media print”
Lorelle, I’m feeling good about being in compliance with nearly all of these issues. However, with regard to link spawning, you said:
I’ve been wrestling with this issue and had established a convention that links within my site do not target a new window, but external links do. And I’ve kinda justified this for two reasons:
1. Google Analytics and my monthly site host reports leave me to believe that the vast majority of our visitors on 2Dolphins are using some version of Internet Explorer. Shouldn’t I then suit the ‘needs’ of the many rather than the few?
2. Much of our target audience is older and/or less-experienced surfers. Many of those folks can benefit from whatever hand-holding I can provide.
So, I felt like I could justify TARGET=”_BLANK” due to those points. But I’m starting to soften my position on that… Maybe I need to give our readers a little more credit for being able to handle basic web navigation…
Okay, how can I say this more simply? According to web standards, unless CLEARLY marked with something like “link [will open new window]”, if you cause or create a link which will open a new window you are in violation of web standards for accessibility.
This is not my opinion. It is a fact.
While there are many discussions about this, one of my favorites which sums it up comes from Dive Into Accessibility.
I totally agree, especially with the music part. Music on places like Myspace DRIVES ME INSANE!!!! Especially because they don’t offer a choice for people to keep the music from playing for browsers (People can individually set that option for their own profiles, but not for others. Stupid, huh?)
I would like to hear a bit more on the link spawning, perhaps in conjunction with this post asking the disabled for feedback.
I certainly understand the issue with screen readers.
I have trained myself to use right-click and open in new tab. But how prevalent is that knowledge?
Does it make a difference whether one is on dial-up and a crummy telephone line or using a faster service? It is frustrating to wish to keep reading, and yet have the new site ready to read, when everything opens in the same window.
links in the sidebar– I can see having those open in a new window or tab, so one can see what else is on the first website, yet not forgetting to view the other sites that seemed interesting.
Should everything be read twice, first to open all the links, then use back button to start reading at the beginning? Do people know they can use the drop-down menu to find the very first page, instead of just the last web page viewed?
A last comment on the issue of link spawning. To keep it simple, think of web standards as rules rather than guidelines. They aren’t but for this issue, considering link spawning as speeding on the highway. Sure, you can do it, you can even get away with it a lot of the time, but it’s still illegal and you take a chance in getting caught and paying for the consequence of your actions.
The consequence? You can lose readers, making them frustrated at the least, and angry and leave your blog for good at the most.
I just visited the GoDaddy website today to help a client get information. I thought I’d have the answer in less than 30 seconds. I arrived on the front page to find out if they do or do not provide WordPress installed automatically. I clicked numerous links and got no access to any page I clicked. I kept clicking, thinking their site was broken since the design of it really stinks anyway, until I realized that my browser and computer was slowing down.
I went to the back of the queue of tabs in my browser and found I’d opened 9 tabs of the links I’d been clicking. From those pages, almost every link I clicked opened a new tab page. I’d close most of them, thinking I might be able to find the information on “this” link, and another page would open. And another and another. By the time by 10 agonizing minutes were over without finding any information on WordPress, I’d opened and closed 18 web pages, all link spawns, and still hadn’t found the information. I had to search Google to find the answer to my question.
Trust me, link spawning is NOT user friendly. Just from that one 10 minute experience that should have been 30 seconds, and another 2 minutes spent closing all the tabs, I will NEVER recommend GoDaddy to anyone. EVER. I have never experienced their services directly. My judgment is surface, only from the interaction with their website. If that is how they run their business, I can’t imagine they would be good for my clients.
Got it?
I don’t like sites with right click disabled. Very annoying.
Here’s my problem in regards to a Print link on posts…
I’m not a programmer by profession. I’ve learned enough to be able to modify my blog as need be, but I do *not* know how to create code from scratch. And hence, why I have no idea how to create a brand-new print.css. I tried using the same stylesheet for display and print (“media, print”) but for whatever reason, the text doesn’t show up. I used a free theme and while it looks great on screen, it apparently doesnt print well.
Hence, I installed GamerZ’s excellent WP-Print plugin. Add /print to the end of any post URL, and you have a great printable version of the page. Unfortunately, there’s no way that I can see to have the print CSS redirect to that automatically. Hence, the need for a Print link on my site. I’ve tried to make it blend in, creating a FeedFlare for it that leaves the option there but its not obtrusive.
If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them Lorelle…so far, Google hasnt been any help in this matter.
Hmm, it’s not hard to find. It’s in the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress users: Styling for Print. And it isn’t complicated and doesn’t require rocket scientists to do. You DO NOT need a print link. Not necessary. When people hit print, the print.css will automatically be accessed, and a beautiful page will be printed.
OK, Lorelle you inspired me.
After my last comment, I went and did a few hours of research and coding. I’ve now got a pretty good Print stylesheet and am considering removing the Print link (and in the process, saving the load of one plugin!).
Thanks for making me do it :-D.
Oh, and the WordPress Codex was a good read, but this link was much more helpful.
After using the print.css provided there as a template, I went in my own style.css and found the classes and ids for the sidebar and header and other extraneous items and was able to add it to that existing print.css. Very very good building block for other WordPress bloggers to start making their own print.css.
Thanks again, Lorelle!
Spectacular post.
It’s unfortunate that we’re already over 11/12ths of the way through 2007 and we are not even close to solving all of these problems.
Better luck next year?
I’m especially tired of haters who use blogs, comments, forums, Wikis, social news sites, or email to make false allegations against anybody – public figures, other bloggers, entire groups of people, or whomever else they hate.
Typically, one or more responders will put in hours or days of effort to refute those accusations, but the malicious accuser simply goes elsewhere and starts the same process all over again.
We post a blog comments policy. Among other things, we refuse to post comments that contain racist or bigoted ranting, especially the anti-Semitic ranting that seems to be plaguing the blogosphere these days.
We do allow people to use the comments in our blog to level truthful accusations against specific individuals, organizations, or governments. But if those accusations cannot be substantiated, the comment will be either refuted or deleted.
It is up to us to maintain civility in the blogosphere – otherwise, the better part (in both senses of the word) of our audience will depart. To that end, I suggest that bloggers should neither allow false accusations to stand unanswered in their comments, nor let malicious commenters have the last word.
my computer puts gross things on the adress that i dont want
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