Kim Severson recently did a piece for the New York Times on recipe deal breakers, addressing the ingredients and instructions that consign a recipe to one’s personal fuhgetaboudit heap. The lovely Mrs. W asked how far you’ll go before issuing a do-not-resuscitate order on a recipe gone awry. In a similar but infinitely more curmudgeonly vein, I’d like to share with you (ok, impose on you) what it takes for me to write off a food blog completely.
I’m not concerned here with style or even substance: I am mostly restricting my observations to the basic issues of format and ease-of-use. With that in mind, here is a sampling of ways an otherwise entertaining food blog can forfeit my readership.
1. Overzealous use of anti-spam devices.
Do I have to type in a string of random consonants to prove I am not a robot? And then await moderation? One or the other is acceptable, but not both. Worse: did I have to register for a site-specific account just to get to the random consonant stage? Do you think I don’t have enough login/password combos in my life as it is?
2. Over-activation of Blogger “security” features.
This is related to point no. 1, but possibly even more annoying, because you are also launching a pop-up window on my desktop.
3. Not allowing commenters to leave their url.
This is usually a Blogger issue, but I’ve also seen it on other pages. No, I don’t want to comment so desperately that I’m going to create an empty Blogger account just to do so. No, I don’t want to “Sign in with my Google Account” or OpenID. And yes, I want to leave my web address as my calling card. You’re being awfully stingy!
4. Not replying to comments.
If you average 85 comments per post, I totally forgive you–you might as well quit your day job if you want to tackle all those. But when the number is easily manageable and you still won’t engage with your readers, then I wonder why you blog at all.
5. Way, way, way too much advertising.
Advertising is a personal choice. I have no real problem with it, and if you’re getting a lot of readers, why not? But please do not let your Google AdWords actually surpass your content in column width. Come on now.
6. All smallcaps.
e.e.cummings, I cannot read you. It hurts my eyes.
7. Uncurated blogrolls.
Everybody loves Chocolate & Zucchini and Chez Pim. They paved the way for us all. But they’re out there now. Your mammoth list o’links tells me nothing about who you read, and doesn’t highlight blogs I haven’t yet discovered but ought to.
8. Clicking on the banner does not take me to the main page.
This is a standard. Please adhere.
I tried to make it to 10, but couldn’t do it without getting dangerously subjective. Can anyone expand on my list? Keep it clean, though, kids.
Related Posts
COMMENTS / 14 COMMENTS
Nice list. I especially can’t stand #1.Jude added this comment on September 01 2008 at 5:34 pm
I’d probably add -intentionally- excerpt-only RSS feeds. Sometimes I just want to read the content without loading 200 other things on my slow laptop.
Oh, amen. And not just food blogs.Ezer K'negdo added this comment on September 01 2008 at 6:38 pm
Love your blog, btw. The photos make me want to take a bite out of my laptopMy kids thought your chicken with the tomato roses was hilarious and they made it out of playdough! Our family loves to cook and eat, so my older children have been reading your food posts right along with me.
uh oh. i’m a lowercase writer. i hereby forgive you if you never read me again. i’ll still lurk and write you comments and you can leave me responses herekrista added this comment on September 01 2008 at 7:01 pm
besides, i don’t write a food blog.
by the way, i’m a total hyprocrite because i was going to say that i can’t stand reading people who use things like ‘LOL’ or ‘LMFAO’ to express themselves but then i go and use a stupid smiley face made out of punctuation.
Jude: I agree.Michele Humes added this comment on September 01 2008 at 7:08 pm
Ezer, thanks! Your kids’ chicken can’t have tasted much worse than the chaud-froid.
Ah, Krista. Or should I say krista. I was very cranky when I wrote this. This is the first time I’ve ever lived in the US during a presidential election.
You covered all of the big ones here. I especially get peevish over the first three you listed and only make exceptions for friends’ blogs in those cases.Amy at Minimally Invasive added this comment on September 01 2008 at 7:25 pm
I should add one that I’m guilty of, actually–no automatically converted line breaks in comments. I’m working on it, starting now.Michele Humes added this comment on September 01 2008 at 7:34 pm
I’d agree with some of these and not others. Most of my pet peeves have to do with format, because I use a recipe database software to store all my recipes from foodblogs to read later. Certain formatting things make it a real PITA to do that.Judith added this comment on September 01 2008 at 8:02 pm
As for #4, I’ve been hoping for quite a while that Blogger and Wordpress might come out with direct reply commenting a la LiveJournal. I want to reply, but it’s so clunky - the reply will only get to the person if they’ve checked the clicky box to notify comments, and if they do check it then they have to read all the comments that other people leave as well. With Wordpress, there isn’t even an e-mail option! I am trying to be better about replying generically though, in case people are checking back.
#3, I have to say, is sort of a foodie income issue. I’m not saying anything about you personally (I only just started reading your blog and have no idea what your income level is like!) I’ve just observed that there seem to be a lot of foodies at the middle to upper end of the spectrum, and for those of use who aren’t, free blogs are the only option. This means we have no control over how people leave replies. I use blogger for my foodblog, because I unfortunately need to run Foodbuzz ads and Wordpress formatting doesn’t support that. I don’t use moderation or make people type funny letters, but there’s nothing I can do about the lack of a URL-leaving option. I hope one day to be able to afford an ad-free site with its own domain name, but that’s at least five or ten years off.
Ok, I fixed it. Just want to apologize to everybody, ever, for making you leave really long blocks of comments with no white space all these months! The new code should apply retroactively, too.Michele Humes added this comment on September 01 2008 at 8:59 pm
Judith, I don’t know anything about Wordpress/Foodbuzz compatibility issues, so I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth. And it’s not that I have a problem with Blogger blogs per se, I just don’t know why all of their security features have to be activated at once!
I also agree with you about the direct reply commenting, although Wordpress does have a number of optional plugins that enable it. The catch is that you have to install and configure them yourself.
Ooooh thank you for the link! And I agree on your list… now let me run and clean up my blogroll…Amanda added this comment on September 03 2008 at 11:45 am
Amen to your list. Here’s my pet peeve (or one of them, because, let’s face it, I’ve got more than one): How about upwards of 20 photos to illustrate one recipe? Who are these people? All I want to do is see how many cups of sugar are in the recipe, yet I have to scroll for a solid minute through all the photos to get to it. There’s step-by-step, and then there is stupid.Aimee added this comment on September 03 2008 at 1:09 pm
If you need an example, email me and I’ll be happy to oblige.
Excellent list. Just discovered your blog via TasteSpotting and am really enjoying it so far.Aubrey added this comment on September 04 2008 at 2:24 am
For me, the biggest turn-offs are hard-to-read font (too small, too pale, blends into the background, etc), and *anything* that causes the page to lag. Bloggers should be aware that not everyone has a computer that can handle 10 high-res pictures, 5 animated ads, and a foot-long list of links all at once.
Your blog, on the other hand, is organized, interesting, easily readable, and the pictures are wonderful!
I’m guilty of not responding to comments when there’s no obvious way to respond, you know? How do you respond to the mmm, yummy comments?Natty added this comment on September 04 2008 at 11:21 pm
Aww, Aimee, I envy the 20-photos-per-post bloggers. I just wish I had the dedication to photograph hollandaise in 25 steps, or to gather my entire mise-en-place for a group photo before each post. Woops, I don’t.Michele Humes added this comment on September 05 2008 at 3:16 am
Hi, Aubrey. I checked out your flickr page and am excited to see that you have a bunny, too! Thanks for your kind comments.
Natty, I hear you, but I’m not talking about those. I’m talking about the ones I leave, which are, of course, profound and thought-provoking at all times.
Uhm, I’ve totally broken two of your ten very sensible lists. Comments are like emails for me. Sometimes I respond enthusiastically, sometimes I don’t for a couple of days and then the overpowering guilt prevents me from responding at all. Also, the banner in my site doesn’t take you back home, but the foreign man made it and I’m not monkeying with the CSS so I’ll make him fix it later.rach added this comment on September 05 2008 at 5:42 pm
ADD A COMMENT
