What do you find annoying about some forums?
 

Okay, I hope this doesn't get too heated (?) but what do people dislike seeing in some forums?

For instance, I don't like it when a forum members a massive range of font colours and font styles in their posts, especially with usernames. I quite like consistency and a sort of 'tidy' appearance.

I don't like massive avatars - 100x100 is a nice size. Some forums you might as well ask for a profile picture as an avatar !!

Lastly, I don't like the "last one to post here ..." or "what have you just eaten" type of threads :S.

Your turn .... :D

I hate huge headers, big blocks of ads, "Latest topic" stats, shout boxes, etc all appearing before the actual forums. If you need to scroll down to see your forum categories, you're irritating far more than just me.

I hate installs of vBadvanced. Well, okay, let me clarify a bit.. vBa can actually be used well, but most people don't. Most people make a portal page with two sidebar blocks, a huge welcome message, one or two six - twelve month old news postings, and absolutely no link to their forums except for in a block in the left column..

So you get to their "portal" page and see a basic, pointless install of vBa. Now people who take time with vBa, and actually make a cms or a portal where it makes sense while still offering a decent UI, I don't mind at all.

I hate gaudiness.. How many sites actually need an arcade system? How many sites need vB's default calendar / FAQ? How many sites need to display hundreds of different things in the users "postbit" (that's what profiles are for), etc etc. I hate bloated features, I hate limitations (ie: you must post 5000000 times in order to get private messaging), I hate when admins make a sticky thread in every forum for "rules"..

And last but not least, I hate anal moderators and admins. :)

I hate suppression of FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!
Since just hurts 'unbalanced egos'... brings more benefits than harms...

Do I have to bring out my Freedom of Speech spiel and explain how it doesn't apply unless you're talking about or with the government?

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Anyway, I what I find annoying is sites that do not have any valuable content above the fold. This goes in line with what was said above. If I have to scroll to see my first thread then you have annoyed me. I don't care about shoutboxes, 2 hundred icons and graphics, floating icon docks, rounded corners, etc... give me content and give it to me without forcing me to scroll.

You have just done,what you exactly hate.

Anyway if u find something annoying about a forum u just move on simple as.What you may Dislike may be seen as good to someone else,so why should it be changed just on the view of one person.

i hate sites that simply replicate others, just because "they think they can do better" but at the end, they finish to do the exact same thing, with a plus, they trash the other sites...

oh, the "1 millions posts" threads... how useful to the web...

Pop-up and Pop-under advertisements...

I've probably said nearly everything I'll post here before, because if I can potentially complain about it, I probably would have in the past. But never the less, the things I do not like to see in internet forums:

Attachment 94285

Aka 'You need javascript enabled to view this site'

Seen it a lot on vBulletin forums recently, and it's certainly not a default feature, and I hope the creator of that horrible modification or code gets forever banished from the internet for crimes against usability and website design decency.

I also don't like default anything. Any more default banners, forum icons, smilies, BB code, general icons, forum buttons or colours, and I will probably close the page never to return. Default = bad. I just hate default internet software icons and what not.

Empty forums. You know, 0 posts, 0 threads...

Private forums and login only forums. Unless there's a very good reason for it, don't bother. I also don't like it when a forum is private but you can't even tell from the forum listing. Or join to view replies. Or what not.

Excess of advertising. Pop ups are bad. As are obnoxious flash advertisements.

The username 'admin'. Really, really impersonal in my opinion, and leaves a generally bad or strict impression of board management.

Limitations to the point of insanity. Reminds me of Nsider or Gamefaqs, which is NOT a good thing (for comparison, the latter makes you have to be a member for about two months to use the search system, the latter made you have to be a member and have 1000 posts for a freaking signature)

Alright things that bother me about forums....

For the most part i agree with everything that has been posted

I can't stand those ads that follow me as I scroll across the screens. It feels as if they are trying to shove that ad down my throat.

No music whatsoever playing in the background. I will listen to my own music, instead of being forced to listen the forums music.

The phrase "keep it simple, stupid" applies here. Instead of making a forum that shows everything of the first page, make the forum user friendly. Let the user navigate to where he or she is going to with appropriate titles.

Also with showing recent posts on your home page. Doesn't that defeat the point of the forum. I go to the forum to post and read posts. It seems redundant to have the posts that i can read on a different page. Its like come on! get some different front page material.

To many negative threads on here later.Everyone wants everything to their liking yet if u was to go to their site,you proberly would find something you disliked,but their reply would be `dont like it,move on`.Well thats what u lot should do when you not happy with something.End of day a site is not built around ones persons taste and as such you should respect that.

The site above cheatmaster - ive viewed and it loads fine on my comp so the onus is on you to enable java and not to use his site as an example.Is it the site owners problem because you have not got java enabled ? NO
Solution Switch it or on or stay on sites which dont require it.

There's no reason it shouldn't work without javascript though, default vBulletin does, as can be seen on vBulletin.com, so if the site is broken, and via a quick check of the code I found out what caused, then they're deliberately breaking their site for who knows how much of the internet population for no reason. Don't even start to say things like right click 'protection', since that's also annoying useless junk that needs to die, and wasn't used on said site anyway.

Forums that have addons/features that isn't needed. Especially the new ones!!

Why would a money/car forum need an arcade, radio, casino and/or chatbox?
Seriously... would the owner please think!

A lot of advertising
big graphics
gradient alt1/ alt2
bright orange
dark forums
forum starting far down the page.

Gabby

I don't really get what you mean with the latest post on forumhome ... what do you think of the site in my signature?

easy to browse and nice layout.

<Deleted>

No need to get personal, the post was on topic for this thread and nowhere is any site name mentioned.

I hate the sites with big logos/headers.

I also don't like it when member profile pages have mp3, youtube videos and all that ...
I often think I don't go to people's pages to hear music?

forums where all users have 800x600 sigs, with flashy Dragon Ball and whatever images, 200x200 avatars and the posts are one liners.

popup ads I think pretty much anyone hates.

mods/admins that think they are better than the users... I mean, c'mon, you are just the janitor.

boards that limit signatures too much. boards that don't limit signatures at all.

boards full of trolls, where everyone's hobby is to get to each other, where you don't make any friends, just enemies.

boards with 50 empty forums. I don't dislike them but its sad, been there done that. mine still has too many forums, but I can't bring myself to chop any one of them because they seem to make sense.

youtube mods with 1000 youtube videos. If I want a site with >1000 youtube videos, I go to youtube. now, a forum called "YouTube" where people share videos they like (using AME) is pretty cool, and is always popular.

what else... idk already complained too much :p

edit ===========================================

now for the forum categories I like

Anything goes
Movies and Television
Post Jokes Forum
Post Videos Forum
Interesting Images Forum
News and World Events

in the hands of a nice community, those rock :)

I hate strange rules. I've been turned off from signing up by reading the rules on some sites. It was not like I was planning to break any, but the way it was written was just not right.

The people and their petty bickering is the worst IMO.

You know, the name calling and calculated slander that should be left on a playground.

This is my "rules" statement on the subject of freedom of speech:

I hate forums filled with people who type l13|< 7|-|15 l0l0l0l0l

And forums where a thread takes longer to open than a myspace profile.

yeah and they have some 'shop' and it's all about some 'forum money' when all I want is to discuss somethings!

boards that are politically correct annoy me endlessly

A few more things I dislike (mainly management related, but some others)

1. Boards which give ridiculous privileges to premium members. I've actually seen boards which give premium members the ability to moderate members and delete others posts and give out infractions. I don't care if they've paid you $50 or so, it shouldn't give them the right to basically be staff and have moderator powers.

2. Xenophobic communities. Aka those that pretty much call everyone who doesn't agree with them morons and wants anyone banned who doesn't agree with a few elite members.

3. Boards with overly harsh rules. As in, IP ban for say, posting a Youtube video or the like. Or for the first ever mistake. Etc.

4. Boards which hate change in any way whatsoever. Not just somewhat hate change, I mean boards that flat out say 'here is a very long list of what not to ask to be changed, now shut up' and apparently prefer to be stuck in the 90s. I've seen some like this which even hate the idea of a search feature or links in posts.

5. Sites and forums with everything and anything on the home page. Like having to scroll down four pages to reach the forum list and having enough gimmicky junk nobody uses everywhere to set a record. You probably know what I mean here, like the boards which have a shiny clock on the home page for no apparent reason and have pretty much added the entire modification section here.

Agree with these

I hate sign ups you have to enter your whole life just to join

sites that have so many sponsors you can't find what your looking for.

pop up ads and so on.

I Hear folks complain about server cost and everything Else so please don't disrespect our sponsors what the blank is that.

The only thing i see that really cost when running a site is your time you put into it.

Granted
server fees 100-200 a year
paid software this can add up so lets just say 500 a year keepin the site simple and on point.

Advertising hmm maybe 400 a year depending on what your ranking.

I think it is great that a lot of the coders on here give up there time and energy to promote these mods and what they get in return is problems.

Thank to all the coder and moders on here GOD BLESS YOU ALL

rough Day 2 cents

This thread is very useful and educational to see what negative user browsing experiences are and what to avoid doing as a site webmaster! Please keep comments coming.

Ehm, not if you have hosting costs for dedicated servers, terrabytes bandwidth use, hardware, maintenance costs, software & coding costs, etc.

This is at the top of my annoyance list. Some forums owners can't seem to stop themselves from throwing everything but the kitchen sink at their forums. It looks like crap and usually causes their site to run like crap. Pure crap all the way around.

God! I just went on a forum where members can have avatars the size of a blasted profile picture?!?!?! wft??