I can vouch for pretty much everyone, that when we were young, we did some stuff that we weren't proud of. There were some things that we thought were cool to do, but now that we look back on it, it seems incredibly dumb. Same goes for the internet. The following are some of the not-so-intelligent behavior/effects that I've seen done around the net, some of which I've done myself as a beginner, most of which I've grown to hate.

01. "For the fun of it, I'm going to place this image/GIF randomly so they all load simultaneously!" This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Yea, I even did it as an amateur. XD Now that I've had learned internet etiquette, I know better. Even if you really really really like that one image and/or animated GIF, don't put it randomly on a page to show it off. One animated GIF is enough to slow down a 56K dial-up and tax the computer's memory, let alone 50 GIFs all loading simultaneously.

02. "My layout sucks! (what I really want is for you to tell me it doesn't)" If it sucks so much, take it off! I highly dislike those people who practically beg for compliments. It's pathetic. If you do it once in a while, where you don't feel satisfied about the layout, feel free to say so. But if it's obvious that you're trying to get comments, that's when it's pathetic.

03. "I'm too elite to talk to you. *sticks up nose*" I have a problem with people who think they're so elite on the web. Yeah, there are elites in the world, consider Hollywood for example. The Oscars, the Emmys, the Golden Globes (that's on tonight ^.~), the American Music Awards, etc. etc. recognize talented actors and music artists and those actors and artists are elitists. Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, we all know them. These actors and artists are recognized for their roles, and they have the talent to prove it. The keyword there is "talent." However, there is a difference between people who are elite, and people who think they're elite.

There are some people on the web that think they're elite. Unfortunately for them, they're the only ones who believe so. They lack creativity, originality, some even lack the basic content. Some just like to slap an image on a site, dumptruck a trashload of brushes on it, and call it a Picasso work of art. Reality check, no. Honestly. =.= There are elite cliques made by people who lack even the tiniest bit of creativity, yet they call themselves elite and develop an bitchy sort of ego on top of it all.

I don't like elitism as a whole. Yes, we'd all like to think of ourselves as an elite, having an elite site. It makes people feel good, right? What people are forgetting is, it also makes people feel bad. Elite cliques and webrings disgust me. They are blatantly telling people that they suck, their sites are not good enough, they don't deserve to be elite just because the owner of the cliques doesn't like their sites. Who the hell are you to say so? Who's to say your site doesn't suck? Treat people with a decent and mutual respect. If you think putting down people makes you look so cool and elite, you need a reality check. Sure, I agree, you can't accept every single site that applies to be in your clique. You need to set standards, for the site to have a decent design, content, internet decorum...Basically sites that don't crash your computer or give you a heart attack, or severely damage your vision. In reality, all cliques are semi-elite, if you want to put it that way. I don't think of it as that way, because I don't consider the subject of elitism when it comes to sites. The point of your clique should not be letting the webworld know who is elite and who's not. When you look for a certain something on a site, you should not be thinking: "not elite...elite...not elite...elite.." Just remember, your site sucked once, even if it may be a long time ago.

04. "This no right clicking script will stop people from stealing my layouts/coding!" Oh.my.dear.lord. Why do you need this? Tell me one reason please. If you think no one is going to steal your layout, you are wrong. All they have to do is screencap it. If you think no one is going to steal your CSS code/script, you are wrong. All they have to do is View, then source. What is the point of the no right clicking scripts then? Unless you have it within a frame and you don't want people knowing your codes, that may actually provide some usefulness. But of all the sites I've been to that utilizes the "right click disabled" code, none had frames. What's more, it annoys the heck out of me, since I like to right click and open links in new windows so I can still view the site I'm currently on. I like to multi-task, so sue me. I'm not trying to be selfish here, but when webmasters want visitors to come to their site, at least make it pleasant for the visitors.

05. "7pt, arial narrow, navy blue font and a black background really goes with this layout!" Fiona brought this up in her blog entry a few days ago, and I agree with her. I have to say, if I come across blogs with unreadable text these days, I just hit that little x button on the top right corner of the webpage. What annoys me is that sometimes, the text is *still* unreadable even *after* I highlighted. It's great that it matches your layout, but the point of your blog is not for your text to match with your layout. It's for people to read your text.

06. "Sign my guestbook pleeeeeaaaase!" I don't know about you, but I only sign guestbooks of sites that I like, and a desperate call for guestbook signing is not going to make me sign it. And what good is a guestbook if you have only your friends sign it? Why don't you just rename it to "friendbook?" Great, you have just hit 500,000 guestbook entries. 499,999 of them should not be your friends' entries. What's the point of that?

07. "I heard so-and-so" is doing this and "so-and so" is such a bitch! Ok, so not everyone is so nice on the net, and you may encounter some egotistical, rude, incompetent, arrogant, ignorant people. It's one thing to state your opinion about this with a friend over private AIM, but it's another thing to publicize this on a blog. A lot of people don't seem to get it, but the basic idea is: "mind your own business." With me, if someone tells me "Bob did this and here's the evidence," I will take a look at the evidence and judge for myself. I don't judge a book by its cover, so until I've communicated with Bob directly, I usually hold off my opinions. Someone else's opinion doesn't dictate what kind of person Bob is. For those people who hear "Bob is such a bitch!" and broadcast it on their blog, they are being rude and pathetic. Why do you care what kind of person Bob is? Why bother? You don't even know Bob. Don't form your opinions based on what others say.

08. "I disagree with your rant, so I'm going to flame you!" Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, as you are entitled to yours. What annoys me is when I come across a blog with an entry commenting on someone else's blog entry, yet they don't even know that person. Again, mind your own business. If you disagree with an entry, fine, it's your opinion. Don't go flaming them. Blogs are for people to voice their opinions and to rant freely. Unless it doesn't directly concerns you, mind your own business.

09. "I'm going to plug __ and __ and __ and __ for this and __ and __ and __ and __ for this." To put it blatantly, what's the point of your links list if you did that everyday on your blog? No one wants to read a bunch of plugs day after day after day and no rants/stories/daily life. Your blog is for yourself, don't use it to flatter others so they can link you. A couple of plugs per day is fine, we all like to see new layouts and cool sites. But if every one of your entries is nothing but plugs, that gets tedious.

10. "OMG! I like your site soooooo much! It's the best site in the world! I visit it every day! Please-linkme-linkme-linkme-linkme-pleeeeaaase." I hate suck ups! *stabs* It makes me want to puke when I see someone sucking up. Yes, there are some webmasters that I admire, and I would like to get a chance to talk to them. But if it's one thing you need to know about me, it's that I don't kiss ass. It's absolutely pathetic, and it's annoying. I only compliment when I'm truely amazed by something or genuinely like something. Sucking up doesn't get you anywhere, unless the webmaster just happens to like bathing in suck-up glory. On the contrary, it annoys people. I really dislike it when people e-mail me countless times, submitting this, awarding me that, sucking up in gbook entries and e-mails, and asking me to link them. One gbook entry will probably have me looking at your site, if you leave one. If I like it, I'll link it. But sucking up is going to make me not want to link it. Come on people, have some respect for yourselves too. Some people are just unbelieveably shameless.

11. "Love your site! Can I be your sister site?" Aha, aha. I don't know about anyone else, but personally, I separate affiliates and siblings, as should be. Siblings should be your close friends, the people you correspond with very often. Affiliates should be your acquaintances, those that share some common interests with you and whom you talk to once in a while. Some people have a ton of sibling sites and they don't even know the person. They just come to a site, think it's great and want to get hits, thus they e-mail and ask for affiliation. Siblings and affiliation are two different things, and when people consider them the same thing, it really takes the significance out of the word 'sibling.' I generally do no accept offers to become siblings with other sites unless I know them well. By "well," I mean 1 year minimum. (this was established after purchase of AinoyumeNET) Usually, I don't even ask for a site to be my sibling site. If I do ask for someone to be my sibling site, it's usually after I've known them for quite a while. I don't ask for affiliates either, because I don't like putting affiliates on a separate page, they don't feel special enough and then I feel bad. xP So I don't have affiliates altogether.

Ok, I'm finished. (at least for now ^.~)

x kill x