Why Do They Keep Doing That?

This article focuses on the things that online users hate about Web sites and the Internet. Sree Sreenivasan, a journalism professor at Columbia University, wrote a column titled Stuff I Hate, for PoynterOnline in 2005. He wrote a similar piece in 2003. In each, he asked readers to tell him what they hated online. Responses to his most recent article indicate that things haven't really improved. For example, there are still plenty of Web sites that don't include easy-to-find contact information. One person complained about going to a newspaper Web page and not being able to figure out where the paper is located. A medical writer said he was frustrated by Web stories without a date because he can't tell how fresh or how stale the information is. Other peeves included slow-loading home pages, often due to promiscuous use of music or graphics; pages that mess with a user's browser; Web sites that require downloading special software in order to access content; sites that present a seizure-inducing Flash introductory page; and links that start the download of unexpectedly large portable document format files without warning.