# 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:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/61 "2010-11-02T15:14:18Z")
IE6 and 7. If you’ve ever contracted out a website where you wanted some fancy stuff on it, you’d be appalled at the price you’re paying to make it work in IE6 and 7. If you knew, you’d probably say ‘give them the minimal site experience’ so you can save money. Flash for layout. Kill me now. Ease of pirating. I never had a sneakernet, didn’t know anyone personally. I had postalnet. Aw yeah, mail. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/62 "2010-11-02T20:10:00Z")
I hate those darn “comparison shopping” sites that are nothing but a list of other sites where you could actually, y’know, buy the thing you wanted. Utterly useless, and yet they always show up first on google searches. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/63 "2010-11-02T21:29:37Z")
> [@Annie](#): > > Ooh, look, [everything I hate!](http://www.morimotonyc.com/) Turn your speakers down, but not totally off. This really needs the soundtrack for the full effect-and it doesn’t stop… :eek: Thanks a lot! It just made every FF window full screen, and opened a s-l-o-w-l-y loading graphic in a NEW window on my main screen, not the extended one that I have my non-work related stuff on. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/64 "2010-11-03T04:48:52Z")
Videos with title cards that are white text on a blue background, sliding into shot from every which way. YouTube has about eleventy-kajillion of them, and it just screams “I have no idea what I am doing, ooh this button saves me the effort of having talent, I will use it over and over for everything I do for the rest of my life.” ---
**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:** [November 3, 2010, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/65 "2010-11-03T04:59:35Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Now that you mention it, yeah, I’ve seen that word on a lot of these. What exactly are they, and why is it necessary for them fill up 10-15 consecutive, identical comments? Is it CNN (or whoever) saying, “Look at how many people have linked back to this article!” Who cares? Trackbacks are useful for audience stats, to keep track of who is sending you readers and so forth. Advertising people find such stats useful. It’s also nice for the writer to know who’s been linking (and therefore, likely commenting/discussing) to his or her stuff, so they can get feedback from or retort there as well. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/66 "2010-11-03T10:09:56Z")
> [@AmunRa](#): > > The internet still has ads? > > For some reason pretty much everywhere I have ever lived the ip location is way off, so those ads would always be more like “HOT GIRLS WANT TO TALK TO YOU IN \.” And why the bloody fuck should I be interested in talking to HOT GIRLS? I’m a straight woman! If anything, I’d be interested in body-temperature 40ish dudes, not HOT GIRLS! Ads with noise/music. I’m happily playing a game while listening to music, I have a webpage open for whatever reason, and then get some strange noises, and it turns out to be the “K-POW” from an ad for a bug-killer or the tinny din-dan-dong of some Chinese MMORPG. Excuse me here, I’m trying to listen to the radio, not to you gits. Off with you! Sites written in the tiniest possible font. Some people use laptops, you geniuses; some people just happen to have bad eyesight. For some reason, the Spanish National Govenment and AENOR (the local ISO-like organization) love doing this. Shouldn’t they be the very first ones to be “internet accessibility compliant”, instead of the last? The government of my 4K-people town can do it and these moneywasters can’t? ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/67 "2010-11-05T08:52:36Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > And why the bloody fuck should I be interested in talking to HOT GIRLS? I’m a straight woman! If anything, I’d be interested in body-temperature 40ish dudes, not HOT GIRLS! I’m getting ads with the Snooki clones too and i’m a 32 year old woman. I don’t think these girls and me are looking for the same thing in men. Ads with flashing colors and fliker efects are bugging the shit out of me. And i’m another one who’s also seriously tired of all the crappy changes Facebook’s made lately, small fot craploads of ads and teeny font… the place looks as amateurish and crappy as an Angelfire page. ---
**Author:** ![Norse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/68 "2010-11-05T12:59:31Z")
[ul] [li]Pop-ups. I want to decide for myself if I want a new browser window, thank you! (And a non-ironic thank you to Opera for killing said pop-ups (yeah, they did it before FF or IE ever thought about it))[/li][li]Resizing browser windows. I like the allocation of screen real estate I’ve decided for. Don’t change it. And when I’m at it: “This webpage is designed for 800x600” (or whatever). I want to be able to read your friggin’ pages both on my 30" desktop screen and my 10" netbook. That was exactly the reason for HTML: That the contents of the page should flow and be readable regardless of browser window size.[/li][li]And the irresistible combination: resizing pop-ups! ‘Scuse me while I burst a vein[/li][li]Introduction videos. When I go to a web site, I want to go to the web site. Not some lame intro video[/li][li]Flash design and animation. You do Flash, I’m outta here[/li][li]Unnecessary cookies. Why can’t I navigate your friggin’ pages without you setting a bunch of cookies?[/li][/ul] On the not-really-hate-but-still-am-irritated-at-level: Rolldown menus and HTML frames ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/69 "2010-11-05T13:05:39Z")
> [@BobArrgh](#): > > I’m a computer programmer. I hate it when I search for a problem only to find out that it **might** have been answered on Programmer’s Exchange, which wants me to pay to find answers. Someday, I hope to find a Firefox add-on that will allow me to build a list of sites that I **never** want to see in my results set. Programmer’s Exchange would be the first item on the list. I should probably write that add-on. > > Also in the technical vein, I hate it when I find someone who is writing a technical response or is describing how to do something in a particular language, but doesn’t give any idea of the time period in which he or she is writing, or what version of the language/framework is needed for the solution. No add-on for this, sorry to say. I’ve never used programmer’s exchange, but I use experts exchange quite a bit, without a subscription. When it comes up in google, don’t click the link itself, click on the link beneath it that says ‘cached’. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and there’s your answer. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/70 "2010-11-06T08:06:47Z")
For Experts Exchange (and similar sites which try to trick you into subscribing) you don’t even have to use the cached version. Just scroll down past all the stuff that looks like it should be the bottom of the page. (It was years before I realised this - from a tip on these very boards, I think). One thing that bugs me is when you’re entering a post/zip code or whatever in a form, and you type in a valid code but in lower case with no spaces or whatever the standard formatting is. And the page either fails to find a match or says something like “please enter the code in this format: ABC-12-XYZ (upper case).” It is an absolutely trivial programming task to convert between abc12xyz and ABC-12-XYZ. Many sites manage it. Why can’t yours? ---
**Author:** ![Yarster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7c8e57/32.png) [@Yarster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yarster)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/71 "2010-11-06T14:22:52Z")
Others have stated similar problems, but when I use Google Scholar to look up scientific papers, I usually find what looks like the paper I want, only to click the link and get told “here’s just the abstract jerk, and pay up if you want to read the paper”. They often want an outrageous fee to do a one off view as well. Oh except there are 10 other versions available. Click each of those and nine will also be the “paid subscription” variety, whereas one is the actual paper published by the author on their personal or school website. Seriously? How about you provide that as the first link rather than making me hunt around for it? ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/72 "2010-11-06T18:18:24Z")
Articles/Blogs/Papers with no date. I can’t tell you how many times I am searching for detailed information and I find relevant things but I can’t tell if they were written 10 years ago or yesterday, so I don’t know if they are the most recent info or whether I need to keep digging. (Side note: I’ve never lived/worked in the academic world, but why do I find papers by people without a date. Seems like the standard is to not put a date, then I have to dig through the references and find the most recent dated reference to figure out how recent the paper might be. Can anyone tell me why a date right on the first page isn’t a standard? Seems weird). ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/73 "2010-11-07T02:51:32Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > Since when was anything on the Cheezburger Network relevant? 😛 Katie [(1,](http://cheezburger.com/cheshirehuman/lolz/View/3678631680)[2)](http://cheezburger.com/cheshirehuman/lolz/View/1553059072) & Misha [(1,](http://cheezburger.com/cheshirehuman/lolz/View/1553112832)[2)](http://cheezburger.com/cheshirehuman/lolz/View/1553085184) _ **resent** _ that! Sincerely, Cheshire’s Cats ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/74 "2010-11-07T03:08:25Z")
[QUOTE=BobArrgh;13089215… I’m a computer programmer. I hate it when I search for a problem only to find out that it **might** have been answered on Programmer’s Exchange, which wants me to pay to find answers. Someday, I hope to find a Firefox add-on that will allow me to build a list of sites that I **never** want to see in my results set. Programmer’s Exchange would be the first item on the list. I should probably write that add-on. …[/QUOTE] There’s an add-on called surfclarity that does this. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/75 "2010-11-07T03:14:26Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > It is not the concept of comments I find disturbing, but the large number of ignorance-laden comments. I guess anonymity brings out the absolute worst in some. [IFW Theory](http://swingnews.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/greater-internet-fuckwad-theory1.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/76 "2010-11-07T20:27:12Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > 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. > [@Shawn1767](#): > > Yes, the comments section of any website. YouTube and especially local news websites. > [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > As others have said, for me it is the comments sections of sites, with YouTube and news sites being among the worst. The amount of racism, misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia expressed is astonishing, and further solidifies my belief that a growing, and not insignificant, number of Americans proudly cleave to intolerance and ignorance. > [@Anaamika](#): > > And the commentary! I’ll watch some perfectly fun and nice Bollywood video on youtube, and I’ll scroll down, and there’ll be a Hindu-Muslim fight in the comments. Every. Single. Time. Get over yourselves, assholes. > [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > It is not the concept of comments I find disturbing, but the large number of ignorance-laden comments. I guess anonymity brings out the absolute worst in some. Agree with all. What amazes me is that this wouldn’t be a problem if people who put up YouTube videos maintained their damn pages! It’s such a simple matter to remove offensive/stupid/spammish comments, or if it’s an ongoing problem, set your page so that comments have to be approved prior to posting. People post assholish and brain-damaged comments because they can. They can because most people who put up videos can’t be bothered to remove/prevent them. Really, the responsibility falls squarely on the people who put up the videos and they only have themselves to blame if their video comments are overrun by dicks. Clean up your pages, people! You have the power! I have hundreds of videos up on 10 different channels, and a jerk won’t be on the comments page any longer than it takes to read the e-mail, click on the page, and hit the “Remove” button. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/77 "2010-11-07T20:43:34Z")
Obligatory xkcd link: [Listen to Yourself](http://xkcd.com/481/) ---
**Author:** ![Saratoga\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Saratoga\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saratoga_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945/78 "2010-11-07T20:46:58Z")
The only thing I really hate about the internet is the fast approaching doom of print newspapers and the gradual slow death of bookstores. And, yeah I order books thru Amazon and read my favorite newspapers online now. Its just not the same somehow… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-hate-about-the-internet-too-mild-for-pit/558945.md?page=3)