…Annoying!

I visit Slashdot every other day, and one of the things that irks Slashdotters the most is a linked article with multiple pages. Inevitably, someone will find the link to a printer-friendly version and be praised and worshipped by all.

You’ll mostly see multi-page posts on “newsy” sites like Slate, or tech-heavy sites such as Wired. But every now and then, you’ll find a blog that does it too.

Now when I’m talking about multi-page posts, I’m not talking about its related, but twice-removed, cousin called a series. I am actually a big fan of a decent blog series and have written quite a few myself.

Here’s why I find multi-page posts annoying:

• I’m a big fan of instant gratification. Forcing me to click through pages for content is just working against me.
• I don’t like swarms of ads and pop-ups (I’m looking at you Sitepoint).
• Page loading still takes a lot of time. Even in high-speed bliss, some pages still take a looong time to load.
• It’s an inconvenience to readers. Multi-page posts are not a convenience. They’re a nuisance. I can hear it now, “Look mom, clicking through all these pages is so much fun!”
• It’s disrespectful to readers. Do page views and advertisers really matter that much? I suppose so.

Lorelle VanFossen has also expressed her feelings towards multi-page posts.

Blogs are about communicating and interaction. They are about creating and maintaining relationships with your audience. If you are doing anything that interferes with their ability to read your blog posts and access your blog, you are just putting barriers up between your content and your readers.

Amen, Lorelle!

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