Does anyone have personal website pet peeves?

[wris]

"best viewd at 80 percent zoom"

This is a thing? Serious question, why not just make your website 20% smaller?

[manpaint]

I think probably my biggets pet peeve is pages that are supposed to be zoomed out but there are no warnings/it's nto written anywhere (i mean something like: "best viewd at 80 percent zoom":wink:.
It makes me think the site is broken at first glance tbh also a lot of sites that i have to zoom out on have super tiny text and zooming out makes it even tinier

There is quite a few Neocities sites like this sadly.

[theymightbefoxes]

My personal pet peeve is sites with parts that seem like they might have content but turn out to be "Under Construction." I don't think there's anything wrong with Under Construction signs but I think it'd be more helpful to visitors to clearly indicate whether a section of your site exists or not, because otherwise it feels a bit like I'm Wile E. Coyote smashing into a picture of a road painted on a rock :omg:k:

"best viewd at 80 percent zoom"

This is a thing? Serious question, why not just make your website 20% smaller?

I've been guilty of doing this before (though in the opposite direction where I tell people they can zoom in if they like) and for me it's really because if have your margin and padding set to a particular way that you like it's kind of a pain to readjust every little thing to make your website look exactly the way it does when it's zoomed in (although now that I think about it this would probably be solved by copying the original site, opening it in your browse and zooming it, and adjusting the original in another tab through trial and error.)

[jessica]

(getting up on my little soapbox)

the biggest thing for me is accessibility issues and lack of mobile compatibility (cross-browser to a lesser extent) i know it's easier to take short cuts, and more than likely people are just unaware bc it's not something they've had to think about, but ESPECIALLY with accessibility issues you can be denying people with disabilities equal access to information, community, discussions. there are reasons why web accessibility standards and legal protections exist, and while this can require more work and sometimes a creative challenge (and no, did not exist in the 90's because the internet was not ubiquitous), it's more important to me personally to make concessions and to work harder ti create space for diversity. If you don't know how, ask for help or do a little research - there are tons of resources and guidance out there. I think especially in the context of "web revival" as it relates to social issues, it's important to be mindful of not undoing work to improve accessibility. There is a lot of information and resources on the ADA websites about web accessibility that I highly recommend anyone building or planning to build a website read through.

ADA laws don't apply to personal sites specifically, but i still think it's important to consider them. to me it's like saying you need to have wheelchair ramps for banks and schools, but not clubs and community centers because you don't need them to survive. it's still a line you are drawing that excludes a group of individuals, even if only at a social level. it doesn't feel right. maybe because i deal with this so much at work, but i just find it jarring.

and as for cross browser and mobile compatibility...it's 2023 people are using their phones more than computers to browse the internet, and it's also just not that hard to do with all of the free tools at peoples disposal now. not everyone has access to a computer, either. unless i am working or coding, i am almost always on mobile, and if i visit a website where half the links are covered by an iframe i just leave lol.

ok essay over. if you have any questions or concerns about your accessibility, though, feel free to reach out!! i'm happy to help. i know it's initially confusing and can be frustrating, but it becomes second nature.

[Cele]

My websites are readable on mobile but it's probably a bit annoying. Too bad tho because I don't see myself doing much about it. I wouldn't even know where to start.

Anyways, my petpeeve are websites with a lot of views and followers (= they show up often in Neocities website directory) that have nothing to them than like the front page. Try to click most stuff in the navigation and it gives you an error. Why are people even following and visiting this site so much?

Another are sites where you click into somewhere in the navigation and the layout turns into something completely different and the navigation disappears like ok. I was planning on browsing your site though, do you expect me to hit the back button in the browser to access the other navigation links?

[wygolvillage]

I agree with the "popular site with very little content" one. It's always disappointing to click on a cool looking website and finding that it's all aesthetic and no meat

[pinkvampyr]

Lately I've noticed that I actually hold a lot of strong opinions about personal websites, and I was wondering if anyone else has common trends on Neocities (for example) as pet peeves. I'm interested because coding is a passion and I like hearing people's opinions... that being said, don't see my own as things that are inherently bad, your website should be coded however you feel most comfortable!

Anyways, mine are:

• All caps/all lowercase: Terrible for screen readers, especially the former. I would suggest doing something with the "text-transform" property on your CSS instead of actually typing like that.
• Seizure-inducing graphics: I have epilepsy, and although I'm medicated I still have some issues with flashing graphics. Lots of blinkies, flashing buttons, etc. should be avoided, or at least have a warning.
• Non-semantic HTML: Ever since I learned that you don't need div tags for everything in your website layout, coding felt a lot easier to manage. Non-semantic HTML still has some use, but it seems silly to me to have "<div class="header">" instead of "<header>".

Anyways, I'll get off my soapbox now. I tried to add solutions to my pet peeves, hopefully you can gather some use out of my tips!

- Alastor

this tbh. I don't mean to be presumptuous bc I'm new to all this but that's one thing that's bothered me about quite a few websites I've seen. I get that flashing gifs give that old web "feel" but it's honestly really irresponsible how some people get with it. like. it sounds like an exaggeration but you could put people's life and well being in danger :^/

[Lyonid]

Snarkiness. Some people really and truly love to introduce themselves and immediately jump straight to personal grudges against strawmen. Long DNI lists, opinions on pronouns, elitist blabber on technology, overall edginess. I get that it's the first thing that might jump to your mind when you write about yourself on a site, but I urge everyone to remain kind. I am here to enjoy your site, and not to have a hypothetical argument with you. Put that in your blog.

Also seconding small fonts because it can't be overstated. I just can't read it! :(

[Cele]

Snarkiness. Some people really and truly love to introduce themselves and immediately jump straight to personal grudges against strawmen. Long DNI lists, opinions on pronouns, elitist blabber on technology, overall edginess. I get that it's the first thing that might jump to your mind when you write about yourself on a site, but I urge everyone to remain kind. I am here to enjoy your site, and not to have a hypothetical argument with you. Put that in your blog.

Also seconding small fonts because it can't be overstated. I just can't read it! :(

Internet, 2023

[shevek]

Internet, 2023

I get the feeling of wanting to prevent investing time into people you will clash with in key views that are important to you, but I also view dni's rather critically as well.
Most people using them have other views and identities of themselves listed elsewhere on their site, and it would be highly unlikely that people mentioned in their dni would even like to interact with them based on that info. And even then, can you imagine someone going "Oh no, racists don't interact! Guess I'll see myself out!" ? So I feel like it is reduced to just signaling specific views, but in a way that's like "I disavow you before you can disavow me" to stay in control of it.

I wish people spent more time really elaborating on their views in relation to themselves again, and more positively, than that. I also simply can't imagine that dni users get inundated with messages and other contact methods so much that they have to release a dni for people to filter themselves out and ease the load. It just makes it seem as if they have hoards of racists and transphobes and homophobes messaging them trying to be their friend or harass them, when that's probably not the case, and even then.. is a dni gonna stop them from harassing you? What is the dni actually accomplishing if you probably have to vet people's online presence anyway before deciding to accept their invite or their chat message?
The cherry on top is listing horrible things (i.e. "nazis dni") together with some ship/fanfic/fandom stuff, as if they are somehow equally bad. I wonder how people can just write that all on a list in random order and not feel weird that they put <shipname> and nazis right after eachother, for example.

[pinkvampyr]

I get the feeling of wanting to prevent investing time into people you will clash with in key views that are important to you, but I also view dni's rather critically as well.
Most people using them have other views and identities of themselves listed elsewhere on their site, and it would be highly unlikely that people mentioned in their dni would even like to interact with them based on that info. And even then, can you imagine someone going "Oh no, racists don't interact! Guess I'll see myself out!" ? So I feel like it is reduced to just signaling specific views, but in a way that's like "I disavow you before you can disavow me" to stay in control of it.

I wish people spent more time really elaborating on their views in relation to themselves again, and more positively, than that. I also simply can't imagine that dni users get inundated with messages and other contact methods so much that they have to release a dni for people to filter themselves out and ease the load. It just makes it seem as if they have hoards of racists and transphobes and homophobes messaging them trying to be their friend or harass them, when that's probably not the case, and even then.. is a dni gonna stop them from harassing you? What is the dni actually accomplishing if you probably have to vet people's online presence anyway before deciding to accept their invite or their chat message?
The cherry on top is listing horrible things (i.e. "nazis dni") together with some ship/fanfic/fandom stuff, as if they are somehow equally bad. I wonder how people can just write that all on a list in random order and not feel weird that they put <shipname> and nazis right after eachother, for example.

i mean in my experience ive seen a dni or two that have genuinely made me say "oh i want nothing to do with this person" so i can say that its not completely ineffective.

[shevek]

i mean in my experience ive seen a dni or two that have genuinely made me say "oh i want nothing to do with this person" so i can say that its not completely ineffective.

Fair, me too definitely, but I am pretty sure (I hope!) that it wasn't because you were the racist mentioned in the dni

[pinkvampyr]

Fair, me too definitely, but I am pretty sure (I hope!) that it wasn't because you were the racist mentioned in the dni

pffff no ofc not. usually just someone with bad takes on trans people that they just broadcast out to the world.

[Necrosia]

I have a lot of pet peeves, a lot of things I found very poor and questionable design choices, most of them I can tolerate, even the dreaded autoplay music I can silence the tab despite the initial distress but what really makes me leave a website instantly is impossible to read content. That can come in many flavors: poor color combinations, tiny fonts or overly-decorated, etc. If I can't read your content even with zoom or by selecting it then so sorry but bye.

[Skykristal]

uh I noticed I haven't put my two cents into this thread before, so lets go

First of, most things are completely fine to me and everyone surely has their preferences for websites. But I do have some things that genuinely bother me. Some were already mentioned here before but I'm going to list them too, also to add some of my opinions.

1. low contrast and tiny text.. nightmare. Tiny text is still somewhat okay to me but low contrast, especially in combination is too much. I always wonder what the people who were designing this thought when they did it. They either have some different screen settings which makes it easier or they are wizards. Seriously, some of it is unreadable unless you switch to read mode or select text. And trust me my eyesight is good.

2. mobile In my opinion you don't need a mobile version of your website as long as it is accessible. But I also feel like some people don't quite understand what mobile-friendly means. If I can see your whole page from header to footer squished in the top corner of my phone you designed it in a way that things aren't all over the place but this is not a mobile website nor nicely accessible from a phone. But I will say if the whole site is movable and I can reach things, It doesn't bother me too much. But shouldn't be labeled as mobile-friendly or mobile view in my opinion.

3. text and background I see this even on popular personal sites, where the text color is obviously unreadable because of the background image behind it. Just like with the tiny text and low contrast, I wonder how things like this come together. I mean you literally can't read it, even as the one writing it. Not only that but, I also think it just looks terrible. (and I also think this is a poor "old web" choice.) old web doesn't mean you should turn your site into a nightmare :'D

4. website buttons I dunno, maybe that's just me but whenever I stumble across a site that has its own button literally everywhere but doesn't collect or show a single button from other sites it feels kinda rude. It of course up to you if you want to have a collection or not but I always found that if people share my site, and link to me I could at least give some support and linking back to a few others as well. but idk.. maybe that's just me.

5. no menus /links , or unclear menus. Sometimes I even have to search for it. Especially on websites that seem interesting, I find this pretty frustrating as I wanna see more.
+ Websites that don't show any kind of hover state, or making clear this is a link. I see this super often on splash screens/ landing pages. I move and click around until something works or I see an url popping up lol. On a lot of my content I like to make some kind of animation (as I'm not too much of a fan of underlines) so that also colorblind people can see it. I don't do this everywhere but in a lot of places. I mean.... I want this to be an obvious link people can click on. I don't want to hide it from them.