The people at Oxford Dictionaries thought it would be fun to do an online survey of the words people most dislike—presumably giving those people who loathe moist an opportunity to vent. But as The Guardian reports, the site had to be shut down almost immediately because people flooded it with obscenities and religious intolerance.
No doubt the editors were aware that the internet is crawling with people who like to proclaim their pet peeves in language, and thought to turn that impulse to advantage.
It is a curious phenomenon that these people would imagine that their individual aesthetic preferences in usage are something the public is hungry to hear. I like Brussels sprouts and dislike goat cheese. I keep returning to Haydn's symphonies but have not consciously listened to rock music since the spring term of 1970. I wear a fedora and shun the trilby. But it does not occur to me to broadcast personal preferences in food, music, chapeaux, and language.
These people who parade their peeves—impactful is vile, irregardless is "like fingernails on the chalkboard," hopefully is infra dig—do they imagine that the world is standing tippy-toe, breathlessly awaiting the announcement of their preferences? They know—right?—that their opinions have no particular weight?
I'll take pie rather than cake, gin rather than vodka in my martini, and silence rather than noise about pet peeves.