Blog Ettiquette - Auto-Start Music
I visit a lot of blogs in the course of my work week, whether it’s checking pages that have linked to my various sites, reading articles that friends have suggested, looking at the artwork done for the various challenges, or just random surfing.
One of the most annoying things I encounter is blogs that have added auto-start music to their templates. These sites are slow to load, because they have to load up a music player, and they’re loud enough to make my dog bark. If I’m really interested in staying on the blog, I have to hunt down the player, and switch it off. More often than not, I just abandon the site to shut the music off.
If you have a blog, and have added music to it, please, please, PLEASE don’t set it to start as soon as the page loads. It’s startling. It’s annoying. It’s not workplace-friendly.
Just say no to music on blogs!
Yes, I share your feelings. I hate it. I check websites and blogs when my son sleeps and usually don’t bother at all to find how to switch it off - I just close this window.
@Ayala: good point. I don’t have children, so I didn’t think about sleeping babies—they’re another good reason not to inflict music on your readers!
Oh, I couldn’t agree more, Lisa! And like you, I usually just close the window. Love your space!!
Heae, hear! I agree fully. I too will not stay on a site that has music that I have no choice on loading/listening. Better things and more satisfying website to visit
Hear! Hear! Thank you for saying something on this frustrating trend.
I dislike “music” blogs for all of the aforementioned reasons but find them annoying, period. It doesn’t enhance my visit, just makes me dive for the volume button on my speakers. If anything, it is a thought interrupter and I normally won’t stay to comment.
I click out of any site that has music on it. I find it very distracting.
I agree wholeheartedly! I actually have sound turned off for most of my web use. I turn it on when I know there’s something I want to hear, in order to avoid all that I don’t want to hear.
Yes, I agree with you & your other commenters - unless I’m specifically expecting sound (i.e. youtube tutorials, etc) I’ll click out of anything which inflicts it on me!
Hi Lisa,
I have a music player on my blog, but have it set to off, so it does not start unless you go over to it and turn it on. I like to have it there mostly just for me, so that when I am working on my blog, I have the music I like to listen to, while I am plugging away at the tedious tasks there. I figure if someone wants to hear the stuff I like, then they can go click on it and listen to it. If they don’t want to be bothered, then they don’t have to. Thanks for these wonderful Blog Ediquettes!!!
I blurf oftentimes in the middle of the night when I cannot sleep. It seems something I can do without waking up the whole household — until I hit a site with music on it. Drives me nuts! I will not leave comments or return to sites that have music on them.
I totally agree, Lisa - after all, how likely is it that the blogger will have taste in music that remotely resembles your own? While we read blogs to learn about other people’s lives and activities, having their choice of music suddenly jump out at you is NOT fun! But I did manage to tell my favourite blogger this VERY tactfully, so she changed her player over so it doesn’t start automatically any more - AND we are still friends.
I totally agree. I still have dialup internet at home and evidently everyone in the web world thinks dialup doesn’t exist anymore. Any blog that has the music player is almost impossible for me to visit. (Of course, so is any blog with lots of high resolution images.) I can check these out if time allows at work, but, working 3rd shift alone, I will often have my own music playing on the computer, like Pandora or Accuradio, and I don’t need someone else’s taste in music playing as well.