1. Web sites that assume that the average visitor has a 256 zigahertz direct fiber optic trunk connection to the 'net and thus don't care if the page is 2,400,000 Meg in size -- not including Flash animations and treacly background music.

2. Flash animations and treacly background music.

3. World Net Daily. (Honorable mention: anything by a tax protestor. The two are chemically related.)

4. Alta Vista and other Web sites that are determined to reload the entire page instead of simply refreshing the advertising. This is a subset of #1, above.

5. Subset of #4, above: search engines that never check for expired links. (Alta Vista still returns links to my old Bellsouth Y2K page, which died several months ago.)

6. Web pages that use a Java bot just to scroll an inane little "Welcome To My Page!" message.

7. Pop up windows asking me to buy digital cameras and ZIP drives that I'll never use from companies that will just charge my Visa(tm) for about three times the stated price, then disappear.

8. Web pages designed by color blind people who think that I can actually read blue text on a blue background (ex., Foxnews.com).

9. Web sites that can only be accessed if Javascript is active.

10. The ubiquitous, nauseating, cliche'd, overused UNDER CONSTRUCTION! sign.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2001

Answers

Good list Stephen, I feel your pain.

My all time beef is them pop-up windows. Bad enough first reload, but ya close the damn things, click thru to another page, and then back and the darn things pop-up again. Ya I know I could be the proud holder of the Avia Visa, thanks thanks alot. CNN is really obnoxious. There's is some tricky deal to make you their "meme"ber by asking for your preferences so as to customize the cookie they are sending.

And is Microsoft ever going to get their website together? I mean come-on they had years now.

The java ticker to say "welcome" is a hoot. Or the ones which scrowl a duplicate of the links right next to it. These things are a complete waste. Never seen a single one worth it. Tricky javascript pulldowns are as well ridiculous.

Another major pain are blind links. Hover and it will say "try it". Hell why not just let me know where I am going ya nimrod? Off shoot of this are the redirects grrrh.

And people, one banner is overkill at this point. Been to pages at say tripod, which I swear have 25 banners, 5 link exchange boxes, free everything and some dorky swirling email icon. Like I would waste time emailing these kids to voice my pain? Ya I know I could find the love of my life online(hey I did, and I did it without needing "one and only network" go figure). And yes I know you want to send my name to every huckster in the galaxy for a free, no thanks. Ya I know I could already have won 6 zillion dollars.

Ok how bout news websites who pull stories older than 3 hours and then make ya pay to read-em? or worse the guys who just show their respect for ya by serving you up a 404 without any info on what you are requesting?

And people can we advance cookies so I can toss my little book of 5000 usernames and passwords? And do I really need a password to surf Homedepot.com? well no but to get anything beyond their logo it seems ya do.

Realplayer? don't even go there. I will say their Spinner app is very kewl and actually works, two thumbs up on that one at least.

Ain't it fun?

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2001

For anyone interested in the spinner deal just go to spinner.com

Nice mundane app without all the bs which works. The laugh station alone is worth it.

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2001

Dead links is a major pet peeve.

I don't remember if it was MSN or MSNBC that used to do this (or even if they still do this), but when you went to their page, on the upper right would be an ad. When you scrolled down the page, the stupid ad would follow you.

It was creepy.

Another big pet peeve is when you go to a website and you have to click to enter the site. Why the hell do they think I entered the stupid URL to begin with?!?!?!

The "under construction" is the worst. I've accessed sites that have been "under construction" for two years. Give me a break.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

(You realize that all of these "pet peeves" are the "speed bumps" of the Internet. Can I assume that if/when you become Supreme Dictator that these will be gone, too?)

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2001

I thought it was WorldNutDaily? I sit corrected...

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2001

You got a lot of them. One that gets me is people who use the internet when it isn’t necessary. In January, before I left town for 7 days, I did a radio interview. The reporter said that he would send a copy of the information that was broadcast. That’s OK; they usually send a tape. No; he sent the interview as a Wav file attachment by email. It totally filled my mailbox and bounced all of my email for the week.

Who knows how many invitations to visit porn sites that I missed. *<)))

Cheers,,,,

Z

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2001

Z we got SNOW today. No school and it started to melt by noon

-- Anonymous, February 16, 2001

Doc,

Ahhh, how could I have forgotten passwords? They REALLY expect us to remember a dozen different user names and passwords?!?

In fact, I have an admission to make: if anyone here posts a link to a news story at a site that requires registration, I probably won't read it.

(I never realized what a common name "Poole" was until I started accessing these sites.)

Trish,

I believe you're thinking of Yahoo/GeoCities. At least, I know THEY did a Spooky Ad That Wouldn't Go Away. :)

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001

That one's still there -- you have to click the "X" probably three times before it will go away.

No, this one actually scrolled with the page, but with about a half-second (or less) delay. It almost gave me motion sickness. And I remember it being one of the *.NBC sites.

{{{shudder}}}

(BTW, is it just my imagination, or is Yahoo buying up half the Internet? They now have eGroups, too.)

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001