Is flash just a flash in the pan?

[Splinter Freelance]

I am curious. How many of you think flash is going to stiick around and how widely accepted will it become?

I am not a hugh fan of flash and perhaps I will get left behind. It goes against what I have been taught... "Limit the amount of visual distractions".

I think flash is great for a splash img or for interactivity, but I do not like the way some sites use it as visual entertainment.. or for advertising

It has its pros, but I think many sites use it improperly. Perhaps I am too old fashion. I mean dont get me wrong, there are some awesome pages that use flash, but once you are done watching the flash (only if it keeps going), it makes it very hard to move on to the content.

Yes, I know you can stop it by right clicking, but how many people actually know that. Also, there are many people that are still on dial-up and who dont like to download plug-ins for their browser. This restricts those viewers... Many sites do not allow for these viewers by providing a non-flash page.


Well, Im thru ranting and raving... what do you think?

 

[PoorDoggie]

I am curious. How many of you think ...

I hate flash, but I like it at the same time.

It is strange. I don't like annoying flash sites that take ages to load, and I hate making sites out of flash, it takes too long, and its not easilly customisable, ie: every time you want to change something you have to open flash and change it, it just takes way too long. HTML/PHP is much more exciting and quicker.

On the other hand, I do like some people's flash sites. I don't like the time they take to load, but some of them are very artisitic. They are great for games as well.

I think that as internet connections become faster, large web applications, such as flash websites, will become more "the norm" and will be more widely accepted, but while we still have the problems with it, I don't think that people really like it.

 

[supersmashin]

I've never really liked flash sites, they usually seem so restrictive, can look good but often that's about it!

Flash sites must also lose visitors, some people just can't be bothered to wait for the flash to load up. I agree though once most people have fast connections, (as they surely will one day, bar a small minority) that will be less of an issue.

 

[Amnezia]

flash designs are nice to look at but thats about it, flash sites are generally hard to navigate and almost impossible to rank in the search engines.

 

[Zeeble]

You forget that the content may be in flash. Many websites are using flash for more interactive content. Static pages are becoming boring in an ever more visual world.

 

[MichaelV.]

i guess it would depend on what who im targeting for mine. movie websites, for example, i would keep the flash. if i wanted a site for people to stumble across and come back to, i would never do flash.

 

[JustNewbie]

I like Flash very much. You see, you can compress a big-sized image or some audio files into less than 100kb in size. They're interactive too, and the usage of impressive Flash movies keeps visitor to keep on navigating the site (for fast Internet connection of course). I will be bored if the page is full of text and lack of graphics, but how about flash sites? The combination of animations, movies, text effects, audio can make me trapped in that site for several hours. There are a lot of great and impressive flash sites out there, and you can find most of them in Favorite Web Awards site.

 

[Splinter Freelance]

They're interactive too, and the usage of impressive Flash movies keeps visitor to keep on navigating the site (for fast Internet connection of course). I will be bored if the page is full of text and lack of graphics, but how about flash sites?

I think is one of the problems in the world today. People no longer have the attention span to sit and read. They must be entertained. People no longer use the internet for research or reading unless they can be entertained.... I think this could also be a contributing factor in the ever lowering IQ of the average person.


and this is probably the only reason I am against flash... that and those annoying flash banner ads

Just my thoughts....

 

[PoorDoggie]

and this is probably the only reason I am against flash... that and those annoying flash banner ads

Just my thoughts....

argh... those banners are sooo annoying. They all make some kinda noise, which I really don't want. them sitepal things are awful. "Type something to hear me say it". NO THANKS!

:lol:

 

[peter phillips]

Having flash in your site has more disadvantages. The advantages being helpful when you need to show a presentation, for example a demo of your product and to develop interactive games. The disadvantages are sites designed with Flash take a long time to download and consume large amounts of bandwidth. Not all users have a broadband connection. Another problem is search engine indexing, although large search engines like Google now have some Flash indexing capabilities, these are still very limited. You will definitely have a hard time achieving high rankings with a Flash site

 

[crazy]

Some flash websites don't bother me at all, they are actually quite nice. But some flash sites are very annoying because they take a long time to load and sometimes don't work at all.

 

[firestorm]

Simple flash sites are fine with me. I like those with quick loading graphics that just add enough animation to make you say,"hey, that was cool!" Those with stuff moving all about the screen make it too jumbled. We have a written language for a reason. To read. I think flash will become increasingly popular as more people get faster connections. Those who use it sparingly now though are on a good track.

-fire

 

[cocaine]

me too hate flash . I prefer other flash animator softwares like 3dfa

 

[ralxz]

The amazing thing about flash is that no matter what, it will always look the same in every browser. Just imagine a world where you don't need to go through 4 different browsers to make sure your design remains consistent :p

 

[PoorDoggie]

The amazing thing about flash is that no matter what, it will always look the same in every browser. Just imagine a world where you don't need to go through 4 different browsers to make sure your design remains consistent :p

Aha... but what about different resolutions? What happens when someone with a small resolution comes on your site? They will have a big old ugly scrollbar on the bottom of their screen, whereas if you make your site small enough for them to view perfectly then someone else comes along with a massive resolution (the kind you need a magnifying glass to see) and they have just a tiny little blob in the centre of their screen.

It is all a matter of perspective. What we want, flash can do, what we already can, flash can't. For instance, to get stuff from a database and output it in flash, requires a php script. So you still have to go back to the old codeing to complete your site.

I also find that Flash dosen't have enough facilities. So you have to code, design, and import graphics in Flash. You can't make your own clever graphics because, IMO, flash dosen't have the professional graphics capabilities that other graphics programs such as Photoshop have. Flash is just a program for making stuff look flashy.