Festivus!

In honor of Festivus, an airing of grievances:

1. Blog posts with no date – I find this to be one of my biggest pet peeves on the Internet. You Google some topic, read several articles with conflicting information, so you look at the dates to see which is the most recent, and therefore most likely correct and up to date, only to find one (or more) of the articles doesn’t have a date. Blogs without dates should be wiped from the Internet.

2. Telemarketers who call my cell phone. Especially ones who say they are calling from “Account Services” and there is nothing wrong with my credit card; they are just calling to inform me… I don’t think I’ve ever listened past that part. Oh, and the ones who call during dinner. And the ones who call and won’t stop talking long enough for you to say “I’m not interested.” And the ones who over use sales techniques that try to logic you into buying whatever their selling.

Oh, and the ones who call my work line. I’m working. I don’t have time to talk to you about the free cruise I’ve won if I just go to the “seminar” about a great opportunity.

Actually, I just don’t like telemarketers.

3. Shopping malls between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I really don’t like shopping malls much anyway, but especially this time of year. Christmas is supposed to be all “Peace on Earth and goodwill to all,” but if you go to a store this time of year it’s all “I got it first, kiss my ass, and get out of my way.” It used to be a time when you would get together with family and enjoy each other’s company, and “oh, by the way, I found something that I thought you would enjoy.” Now it’s all about “get me this for Christmas” and “I’m not interested in your life enough to figure out what you might enjoy, so here’s a gift card because I feel obligated to spend money on you.”

Bah humbug? No, I love Christmas. I just hate that it’s become a commercial holiday rather than about family.

Not being Jewish, I really don’t know if the same can be said for Hanukkah, but I suspect it can.

4. And speaking of commercialism, e-commerce websites that don’t tell you where they are physically located. If you have a website, and you sell something on that website, and your website doesn’t have an About page with a physical address, I’m not buying from you. Because if you can’t tell me where you’re located, I’m going to assume you are a scammer trying to take my money.

And you better take PayPal, ’cause I’m not giving you my credit card information unless you’re a multi-billion dollar company that I know I can trust. If you’re a small business with only a few employees, I want to support you, but you’re not getting my credit card.

5. And, as always, SPAM. I don’t like spam. Mainly because it’s such a time-suck, but also because anti-spam techniques frequently block legitimate emails.

By the way, there are stories on the Internet about the origin of the term “spam” that date it to 1994. I distinctly remember discussing and using the term when I was a newbie on the Internet in college. That was 1989/90. I remember reading USENET groups where posts would be called spam long before 1994.

So there they are: a few grievances for Festivus.

Enjoy your holiday, whether celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus, ChriFSMas, or something else.