Josiah Cole has an excellent rant over what NOT to do when building a website. He’s bang-on for the most part, though I’ll contest no. 6 in that, rather than print designers specifically, he should really be having a go at people who blatantly don’t know what they’re doing but think that they do. While everyone has to start somewhere, and “winging it” a little is part of life, were the individuals he describes to show some humility and admit to not knowing it all, they’d go a long way to convincing people that they’re not assholes.

I’ll add a couple (of tongue-in-cheek digs) to his list:

• Don’t require users to log in to post comments. If they’re first time visitors and have something to say, any barriers to them saying it will mean they stay silent. And if you do insist on logins, implementing OpenID is as good a compromise as any.
• Following up on the “you’re vs. your” common misspellings point, don’t mix up “here and hear”. (See the copy in point 6.)