Anytime you put down a piece of writing and your experience was anything less than positive, then that author has failed.
Good content writing should always fulfill something in the reader. It must impart something; be it knowledge, entertainment, or emotion. How well it executes this will decide the reader's ultimate impression of your writing, the vehicle for the information you've just imparted.
And this is important. If a reader doesn't like the impression they've formed, they likely won't come back.
Just ask anyone who's tried reading the instruction manual.
Don't bother asking which manual. We all have had at least one instruction manual we didn't bother to read. Could be for the car, the DVD/BD player, the satellite receiver, or your new tech gadget (if it even comes with one). The question that matters isn't which manual we avoided reading, but why.
It's simple really. Instruction manuals are long and haphazard. They're very technical and confusing. They're boring. Reading them cover to cover is the responsible, rational thing to do, and yet we skip over this step almost every time. Probably because you tried reading one at some point, got tired of the endeavor, and now don't wish to repeat the experience.
If you weren't willing to do that for something as important to your day-to-day life as your car, it should come as no surprise that people will equally avoid something that has very little everyday value to them: what they spend time reading online.
Writing has to impress positively. Does that mean all writing must leave the reader feeling good? Not necessarily, just ask James Joyce. But the reader must feel like their time spent reading was not a waste, regardless of whether they liked or hated what you had to say. If the reader walks away feeling like they wanted their five minutes back, then they're not likely to return. The writing has failed, and probably won't get a second chance.
Instruction manuals have a bad reputation, and for that they suffer greatly. And we, the intended readers, probably suffer to some degree because of our ignorance by not reading what was in those manuals. If more manuals were written with all the enjoyment of an animated YouTube video, then perhaps more people would look forward to reading them..and more importantly continue onwards to read others.
What are some of your favorite/most despised pieces of writing, manual or otherwise?