23 Aug
Here’s additions to my list of things on blogs that make me crabby:
1. Pop-up adverts. I wish there was a way to perma-block myself from accidentally returning to blogs that do this. I’m thinking of getting my firewall involved. I don’t mind advertising, but pop-ups are just annoying.
2. Restricted Commenting. It cheeses me off when I find a blog I like, read an interesting post, and then go to comment (I love to comment) and then find that they only accept blogger.com comments. I don’t mind if I have to be approved or some such, but this is too much! And then there are a few weird blogs out there, and even a few really funny ones, that don’t accept comments at all! WTF! But I have things to say!
3. Pet Blogs. Thanks to Wendy for reminding me of this in my previous post about Blogs I Hate, but Pet Blogs are pretty hideous. I have a cat. She’s funny, charming, engaging, and snotty all at the same time. But, sadly, she isn’t interesting.
I’m as yet undecided about blogs where people post for money. I see a lot of adverts for that on sidebars, but not very many actual paid posts. I’m not, as I said before, opposed to people making cash on their blogs. In fact, I’m downright tickled with the $1.47 I’ve earned for my 284980924832 hours work on this blog. And, if someone were to offer me $100 to post something about them on my blog, I really think I’d have to say ‘hell yes’, because that would pay for my hosting for a year!
So, I think my general reservation about this is unrestricted jealousy. The best offer I got so far was the folks over at Associated Content were prepared to give me $3.
So out of sheer jealousy, pettiness, and bitterness, I’ll add:
4. Pay Per Post Blogs. Cuz I’m a bitch.

I posted some stuff on Associated Content, but where’s the $$? (It says there will be $, but where is it? It’s like the Amazon Associates thing, where they don’t payout until you’ve earned a hundred grand.)
Secondly, they *rejected* one of my submitted essays — a New Yorker-quality profile of an elderly woman in our town who is an astonishingly effective gopher killer.
Wimps.
1. Firefox. Get it.
2. This bugs me as well because it kills the whole interacting-with-readers aspect that makes blogging interesting. I still do read a few though…if they’re good enough.
3. In general I agree, but mostly because it’s the PEOPLE who are writing pet blogs who are boring. The right writer can make almost anything interesting.
As for ads/making money, I don’t mind…to a point. I’d like to eventually make a little money off my blog somehow, but there’s a point where the ads overrun the content and/or just get too obnoxious. There’s a balance. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to cover hosting costs and maybe get a little something out of all the time and effort you put into it.
A blog about Toonsis the Driving Cat would be interesting, at least for a while…..
I have done the same thing. Find a cool blog, read an awesome post, go to leave a comment and BAM! ACCESS DENIED. I admit, I never go back to those places. Not the blogger’s fault, but it’s like they are on the other side of a wall of “You aren’t in our club so go away”.
Restricted commenting is usually in place for those who get spammed a lot, but I find that a captcha will take care of that problem pretty much instantaneously. Any other reason is just stupid (ie. We are an exclusive club.)
Yeah, the era of pop-ups is hopefully almost over thanks to savvy users installing pop up blockers and most browsers coming with a good one. They are annoying and users will NOT return to your site if they can find similar content elsewhere.
Pet blogs are just stupid. Even worse is when people take on the persona of their pet and write the blog as if “Princess Kitty Mew Mew” had taken up blogging herself.