Annoying things on other forums?

What are some things you find to be very annoying on other forums? It could be things like the way the site is organized, too many advertisements, the way disputes are handled, etc. Feel free to get specific.
I envision this thread becoming a nice reference for new forum starters to be able to learn what not to do on their own forum.

 

I dislike very soporific advertisements! The ones that blink, move with your screen and pop-up relentlessly.

I also hate the advertisements where you will roll-over a word and then an advertisement will appear.

I also dislike boards with poor organization.

Another annoying thing is boards that are constantly choosing moderators/administrators. A greatly balanced staff team is great. This also includes over numbered members of the staff. Why have 15 moderators when there is only 20 registered members? Oo

Last but not least, I hate the way some forums let moderators handle problematic users when really, the moderator doesn't know what happened. Then, the moderator will choose sides and take matters into their own hands personally.

These, amongst other annoying things, are top annoying.

 

The site needs to look 'ok' so it does not hurt the eyes (some are really bad).
The site needs to be able to be navigated, a 'normal' forum like vB.com is easy to navigate because it has list of forums with subfoums and I can navigate that. Other forums I simply cannot figure out how to navigate.

If the site is not running vB it really needs to be able to be navigated by someone familiar with vB.

I guess the most annoying thing about a forum is when they do not use "Database (automatic forum marking)". Once someone visits a site they need to read every thread of interest before they leave or the unread threads will be marked as read. I really wish vB shipped that as default. People get used to things like that and are reluctant to change.

 

I don't join forums with overly intrusive ads or horrible designs; they don't have to be fancy or even pretty, but if it's ugly I won't stick around long unless the content is spectacular.

 

I hate sites where the admins insist on sending PMs about every little thing they do on the site. Make a thread about it - I don't want a PM telling me about it! I have had to turn my PM messages off on a couple of sites where this occurs and I hate doing that because sometimes a user has a legitimate reason to contact me. Luckily, vbulletin has Visitor Messages now, so those users can just leave me a message that way.

 

It's only a matter of time before a "Mass Visitor Message" mod is released. :p

 

Having the posts being locked soon after they are made is a bit of a turn off too.

Classifieds on a forum where discussions can take place can make using the new posts button less entertaining because those discussions show up. From an administrative view point conversations in the classifieds usually result bumping threads, people saying a product is over priced, and some other issues.

One of the beautiful things of having your own forum is those things can be set up they way the owner likes.

 

I hate Admin sites that do banner placement reward system. The one you get credits for posting and can redeem these credits for banner advertising space. How do these sites generate money?

I can't stand unorganized and cluttered up sites. I've been on sites that I literally can't tell if I'm coming or going.

I'm not much on plain factory skins ether. I realize people like my self don't have 1,000 to spend on a custom coded skin but there is tons of free stuff as well as affordable 30.00-50.00 skins available.

I'm also not big on site emails...I don't mind something every once and a while but that is it.

vBulletin....if you don't have it, get it.

vBulletin factory emoticons are boring, think fun and animated.

 

We're working on this here, FYI. Just not the animated part. For now. :unhunh:

 

They don't.

And I don't mean to sound rude, but why do you care if they're generating money or not? Some don't have the funds to buy advertising space with actual cash, and, to be frank with you, I think this is great for those who can't buy advertising space.

 

I like most of the points that were made on here so far. But one of my biggest pet peeves?
Joining a forum and being the thread killer on every single thread you ever post on. Pretty much a clique board. That does not include new and/or newish members.

I have felt welcome and even apart of this board as soon as I joined. I have been a member on another board for 3 years and I still feel like a newbie outsider trying to get in with the "crowd" to be acknowledged on the forum.

 

Don't mean to be nitpicky Tom, but you strike me as a person who likes to be precise, so I'll tell you I think you meant to say sophomoric advertisements. Soporific advertisements would be a completely different annoyance Though I have run into the occasional web site that threatened to put me to sleep!

 

Thus, I used soporific.

Since you want to strike back, sophomoric wouldn't work in the circumstance I used it in.

Sophomoric refers to characteristics of a sophomore. And, a scarcity of judgment.

So, I do think soporific worked fine.

 

Tom, cool it.

 

What do you mean, cool it?

I did nothing wrong, just defending the choice of words I decided to use and why I decided to use it. Not only that, but am correcting Mich for her word-of-choice that wouldn't work.

 

Sorry I upset you Tom, I won't suggest alternate words again.

 

Since you seem to be so keen on debating the definition and usage of words, let's see...

In the future, please try harder to exhibit respectable amounts of self-control.

Michelle, please disregard the confrontations you've encountered in this thread. Matters have been dealt with accordingly.

Let's keep this thread on track from this point forward. Thank you.

 

Mich, you didn't upset me. :rofl:

 

I hate going to websites that are filled with advertisements, next to the banner, under the navigation bar, in between forum categories, after every 2nd post, popups, full page ads... it's ok to have some ads but don't overkill it.

I also hate when people want you to check out a website, or you stumble across and you go there and there is that hover bar that follows you everywhere you go that says "I see you are unregistered, click here to register blah blah blah blah" you scroll down and it follows you you go up it follows you it makes me feel like I am being stalked and hounded to join your website and will make me click out of there as quick as possible.

Just to clear up something Tom said about the ads where users can use forum cash to buy advertising space - vBCredits.com have just released vBAdvertiser which looks awesome and wish I had the funds to get it.

That is the system these sites must be using - it allows credits to be spent on purchasing advertisement spaces... The way this works is I have brought a professional mod from vBCredits.com that allows people to BUY Credits, spend $20 or whatever to buy credits.

And so what I can see the uses of having a system like this is:
A) Make your advertisement prices high so people have to buy Credits to purchase advertising spaces.

B) If they dont want to spend money they need to post more on your website to get the credits together....

So to narrow it down - 1 - You will make money from people buying credits, 2- your forum will get more active by people posting to earn the credits.