# Things you hate about the internet (too mild for pit) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 31, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945 "2010-10-31T01:48:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/1 "2010-10-31T01:48:04Z")
Of course, it looks as though spam, stupid ads and malware are never going to go away and let us stop hating them, but what other things do you really hate about the internet? I’ve got one that I’m sure has been bubbling under for a while, but my notion of what it is and why I hate it only just crystallised: **Blog posts consisting of lists of other people’s creative work.** If you see something cool that someone did and post it on your blog, that’s great - even if everybody else is doing the same, that’s still OK. But if the only way you can fill your blog posts is to create bland, lazy, probably plagiarised lists of “the 40 best photo manipulations” or “12 best freeware apps you must have”, then you’re wasting electrons and need to get off my internet. Sure, I understand there are probably reasons for doing this, such as keeping a blog alive, or SEO, or whatever, but it doesn’t legitimise the complete lack of original thought. If you have a blog, write something original on it. If I loathe what you write, I still won’t hate it as much as if it’s just a list of things other people did or said. What do you hate about the internet today\> ---
**Author:** ![Gilliver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5fc32e/32.png) [@Gilliver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilliver)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/2 "2010-10-31T01:54:05Z")
the personalized ads I look around at some products…lets say I need some new work shoes…and I go on the internet to shop around and see what is available at what cost… THEN everywhere I go on the intertubes wants to sell me the very item I was looking at. Sometimes from the very sites I was shopping around at. What is with the sudden invasion of places looking at whatever I do? Cookies?? ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/3 "2010-10-31T02:08:35Z")
Passwords. _Hate them._ ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/4 "2010-10-31T02:23:55Z")
White text on black backgrounds. DIAF. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/5 "2010-10-31T02:26:13Z")
Trolls. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/6 "2010-10-31T09:03:50Z")
> [@Ruby Sees](#): > > White text on black backgrounds. DIAF. Oh, that one! It hits worst when you stop reading it, only to find that the whole world has horizontal lines superimposed on it. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/7 "2010-10-31T09:47:29Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Oh, that one! It hits worst when you stop reading it, only to find that the whole world has horizontal lines superimposed on it. Blech. Is it just white on black, or do you hate anything that’s not black on white? I hate reading tons of stuff online that’s black text on white. The Dope always seems too bright. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/8 "2010-10-31T09:57:33Z")
Any web site that launches a video without my permission automatically loses my business - no matter how badly I might have originally wanted the product. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/9 "2010-10-31T10:45:53Z")
Teh complet derf o grammer n ortografic skills the avg user seem’s to possess. I never found white on black to be much of an issue (in fact, my own blog used to be white on black :o. It’s now white on dark grey with a toggle to black on light grey). Yellow on blue and blue on yellow however should be forbidden by law. ETA : also, popups. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/10 "2010-10-31T11:33:00Z")
> [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](#): > > Is it just white on black, or do you hate anything that’s not black on white? I hate reading tons of stuff online that’s black text on white. The Dope always seems too bright. For me, I think it’s just inverted text generally. I only hate it because it hurts. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/11 "2010-10-31T12:28:39Z")
I find blogs to be frustrating reads, makes me think I don’t understand the fundamental idea of them at times. I get the point of a comments section making things interactive, but when said section contains 3 interesting comments out of 617 it’s hard to see the attraction. For the blog readers out there - is reading the comments section part and parcel of the blog-reading experience? So much of what is written is of such low quality, and present in such quantity (welc to the internet, right?), that I usually skip it and just read the author’s main posting. But that’s basically equivalent to reading an online newspaper. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/12 "2010-10-31T12:39:26Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Any web site that launches a video without my permission automatically loses my business - no matter how badly I might have originally wanted the product. Do you let the business owner know that? The only way for them to know it’s a problem is if you make them aware of it. A few years back I emailed HowStuffWorks to let them know that the animated ads bothered me. I used to go on that site every day. Then they added an animated ad down the right side. Okay, I could deal with that. There’s ways around it. Normally, I could either right click and stop/pause it, or I could zoom in to a non animated point far enough that there was no on screen animation, or I would just read that section as fast as I could so I could scroll down and not see that ad anymore. Annoying, yes, but I liked the site enough to deal with it. Then, they added a second ad down the left side. That, I could not deal with. I could not read an article with animated ads on both sides. I emailed them to tell them about this and I don’t think I’ve spent more then a few minutes there in the past few years. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/13 "2010-10-31T13:15:38Z")
I just turned off AdBlock, I see they still run the animated ads. ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/14 "2010-10-31T13:19:20Z")
Almost everything, from stuff you purchase to posting on boards to applying for a job, makes you set up an account. You have to have a password and hand over your email address for the stupidest, most trivial things. I have never bought something from a brick and mortar shop that essentially held the item hostage unless they have this information. So annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/15 "2010-10-31T13:49:43Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > I find blogs to be frustrating reads, makes me think I don’t understand the fundamental idea of them at times. I get the point of a comments section making things interactive, but when said section contains 3 interesting comments out of 617 it’s hard to see the attraction. > > For the blog readers out there - is reading the comments section part and parcel of the blog-reading experience? So much of what is written is of such low quality, and present in such quantity (welc to the internet, right?), that I usually skip it and just read the author’s main posting. But that’s basically equivalent to reading an online newspaper. There are blogs out there that are consistently high in quality, but they are vastly outnumbered by the shitty ones. I think a lot of it is: People posting blogs purely to have something to slap ads onto. People trying to manipulate search engines by inserting links to their favoured target site in their blog, or in the comments on others. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/16 "2010-10-31T14:22:48Z")
How you might be watching a YouTube video of some puppies playing together in a field, and you look down at the comment section and see people having a massive assholish argument about Israel vs. Palestine, complete with ethnic slurs and death threats. What is wrong with people? People who still type in all caps in this day and age. Why the fuck would you do that? ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/17 "2010-10-31T14:52:30Z")
I hate how everything must now have some sort of video component. If I wanted to \*watch \*the news, I’d turn on the TV. I want to read the news on the internet, not have to watch a damn video to get the info. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/18 "2010-10-31T14:59:03Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > How you might be watching a YouTube video of some puppies playing together in a field, and you look down at the comment section and see people having a massive assholish argument about Israel vs. Palestine, complete with ethnic slurs and death threats. What is wrong with people? The comments section of anything is the worst thing about the Internet. 98% of them seem to fall into one of two camps: too dumb to be believed or hopelessly smug. It’s like a sports radio call-in show where the host speaks for 5 minutes and then lets random callers yell at each other for 3 hours. Every time I read the comments for a YouTube video my faith in humanity takes another hit. ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/19 "2010-10-31T15:51:50Z")
Yes, the comments section of any website. YouTube and especially local news websites. When I read some of these, I think “these people are counted in the census, they live in my community,” and I get very depressed. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/20 "2010-10-31T15:55:19Z")
The best part of the internet is that anyone can make their voice heard. However, the worst part of the internet is that anyone can make their voice heard. I also dislike people who seem to believe that having a blog makes them more credible, or just plain right. These people usually have a photograph of themselves at the top of their blog page, with a smug, “thoughtful” look on their face, and generally think like this: [http://home.comcast.net/~jz78817/stuff/sheeple.png](http://home.comcast.net/~jz78817/stuff/sheeple.png) along with that, people whose only contribution to a discussion on a message board is to put up a link to their blog post on the same topic. I don’t give a shit about your blog, either post what you want to say in the thread or STFU and go away. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945.md?page=2)