Flash sucks.

[rubber30]

Any company using Flash is wasting their money. Flash is slow, hogs up too much CPU resources and finally, who really wants to see Cartoonish type images anyway?
:mad:

[Admin]

There are a number of sites on the web that utilize flash in great ways. You might want to check out: http://www.coolhomepages.com for a list of them.

[boris]

There are a lot pages that use crappy Flash stuff (like about 85603975893475 pages of crappy CS clans that split up after 2 weeks; I guess everybody has seen such a page), and extremely cool Flash animations. Star Wars Gangsta Rap (http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/atom_1403), anyone?

[-TheDarkEye-]

i kindof agree. it is very uncommon to see flash used in an effective and non-annoying manner.

[Josh]

yeah flash really sucks,even if I use cable,It still wastes me a lot of time.:mad:

[Admin]

Take a look at a site like http://www.2advanced.com Nice use of Flash and besides it doesn't look cartoonish ;)

[-TheDarkEye-]

sigh... how did i know someone would mention 2advanced? its just eye candy. id like to see those guys actualy pump out some useful content with that design.

[Admin]

true :) In terms of usability its like 1/10 :)

[Dynasty]

I have to go along and say flash is pretty useless website wise, but it does allow people to make occasionally funny movies, which we have all laughed at, one time or another I'm sure.

[-TheDarkEye-]

yeah, flash movies are cool. for example...

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/mbobowik/stickman%20fight.swf

:D

[EDIT] the url had a swear in it. :rolleyes:

[Josh]

404 error page not found:(

[-TheDarkEye-]

works now

[Josh]

Thanks a lot:p

[EnwTheGood]

Yeah, I couldn't figure out what 2advanced was from the homepage; that's a problem. Also, I bet it doesn't actually take that long to load.

Flash movies are good for presentation; they're a lot more dynamic than powerpoint.

[Kilia]

Hmm i don't actually agree with you. Flash is just a program, what ones create is important. I've seen so ugly HTML(only) pages, but i just can't say that HTML sux, because if not HTML than WHAT? :)
I think you've got my point.

[Dynasty]

That may be true, but using flash in webpages has numerous effects, including very increased load times. That and I have noticed Flash tends to crash lower spec machines quite regularly.

[EnwTheGood]

Flash doesn't crash lower-spec machines any more than any other graphic-intensive program would. It's what I call the "inevitable gradual degredation", where a computer just gradually dies.

[Dynasty]

Saying that doesn't make it the right thing for a program to do does it ;)

[EnwTheGood]

What I'm saying is, the probability of Flash crashing an older computer is no greater than the probability of Word, IE, Solitaire, or Photoshop crashing the same computer, even if they're the same versions that were on the computer originally.

If you were to reformat the hard drives (because by that time they've added one or two) and do a fresh install of the OS, I bet you everything would work flawlessly, though slowly.

[Dynasty]

I won' t disagree with the format making things run better comment, but saying the likelyhood of flash crashing a computer is the same as Solitaire is completely wrong.

Photoshop and IE maybe but not solitaire. Also flash can crash not just because of degredation in the os itself, believe me I've seen it happen many times.

[EnwTheGood]

Okay, solitaire was a bit extreme. Replace it with Paint or HyperTerminal (your choice).

[Dynasty]

It's sad because paint really does crash computers.

[Ghandi Eximius]

correction...Flash MX sucks...what the hell is the point of Flash MX? Especially when its like the exact same thing as Flash 5?

[drak]

Flash 5 and Flash MX

Humm did you ever consider the idea that MX can reduce the size of your projects even better than 5?

Thats the big difference with 5 and MX.

:D Deploying a 165kb shockwave(swf) intro/picture/movie/project can be reduced big time.

Also there are people that actually develop in flash so that ignorant little code rippers don't come along and snag the code away that they worked on.

Locking down images so they can't be ripped off.

[Ghandi Eximius]

I never understood the whole code rippers concern. THey usually suck at making web pages, thats why they do what they do, so its not like anyone will care what the hell there oputing to their crummy web sites. I used to steal peoples codes and images in my very first year of web design, and I beleive that it taught me alot about what goes into a site, and its not like anyone ever saw any of my first web pages...they were all wack! So I say screw it, let the fools steal your damn code, everybody gets theirs sooner or later.

[drak]

I gave up on this lots of negitivity. No open minded things here. humm thats too bad.

Try this seems to be a waste of time =) the more you get the better.
How to be a Pimp (http://wolf.webcruiser.org/index.php?ref=72040)

[keggerator]

Flash Rocks. You can make many a things that you can't with html. At my last job we made training programs on flash. How cool is that.

www.summitlimo.net I made this website for a friend that had a limo company. I know the design is weak, but I got the cars to animate pretty cool with the doors opening and closing.

[Ghostfist]

The trick to flash is to break up large movies into scenes and swf's. Fine tune your swf's for minimum size and loadMovie as needed (scenes as well).

Also since Flash is a progaming tool as well you can develop applications other than web pages.

He who knows not and strives to know is a seeker... aid him.

Ghostfist

[animgirl]

Okay, foremost, what is the point of making a forum saying that flash sucks and then everybody agreeing, I mean, 'wow'?
It's a bit deep to just throw off the fact that you think any company who uses it is wasting their time and money. I don't mean this rude or anything, it's just really degrading to make an assumption that flash and all of it's uses are bad just because there have been instances of bad use.:D

[alittlebitnumb]

If Flash is done right under the right circumstances it can be a nice, even useful addition to a web site. Of the MANY web pages I have come across over the years, I have only seen a handful that did that.

To see some "wow," and "how'd they do that?" stuff, I visit Macromedia's Site Of The Day. There, you see what flash can really do, however, how in the world do they accomplish that stuff anyway?

Here are some I thought were pretty cool:

http://www.hp.com/country/us/eng/msg/corp/flashdreamworks.html -Usefulness is nil, but is a powerful advertising tool in this case. The "wow" factor here: How did they make the pages turn like that?

http://www.nasdaq.com/about/index.html -again, nice advertising. Notice a trend? It's not part of the overall site, but an additon.

http://www.sonystyle.ca/webapp/commerce/servlet/sony/index.jsp -slow but impressive.

I have to agree on some points. Too many people crash and burn on Flash and the load times (in most cases) are deplorable unless you are sitting on a fat pipe. That's why it is a good idea to make your flash content an additon.

[storekit]

Your kidding right? Macromedia and Flash are the best things to ever happen to web design. Yes the learning curve is steep but I challenge you to do ANYTHING on a web page that I cannot do using the Macromedia product line. Web pages audio, video streaming media and broadcasts e-commerce you name it. Used correctly and skillfully you can create pages and media with much faster load times than traditional HTML media. Let's face it there are a ton of crappy web pages out there and also there are a lot of bad flash sites but also some of the coolest sites on the web are done in Flash. I have to totally disagree. Flash Rules!

[D856C]

I challenge you to do ANYTHING on a web page that I cannot do using the Macromedia product line.

How about new interaction models which use the unique strength of animation? How about new usability models which, testing the Flash site against HTML, users have less trouble and greater task efficiency than plain HTML?

Put simply, Flash ID hasn't yet developed -- how shall I put this -- a unique interactive design language. (Which has nothing to do with code, we're talking human-centered communication here).

I think Flash has potential for great things, and has some interesting interface designs. For example this "content scope" (http://www.hellocode.com/frm_01.html) is interesting. It is interesting, not "wowing." A difference which escapes most Flashers. (...and probably why it wan't called "Substance," but Flash.)

It is the difference between web pages which scream "Look At Me!" like an over sugared four-year-old, and the user saying to themselves "look what I can accomplish."

[storekit]

Please expand on the idea of "Flash ID" I don't quite get what you mean but I am very interested in what you are saying.

Also please clarify when you say How about new interaction models which use the unique strength of animation? How about new usability models which, testing the Flash site against HTML, users have less trouble and greater task efficiency than plain HTML? Are you saying these are things flash can or cannot do? If I understand you correctly and you are saying "cannot" I would argue that Flash does both of these things very well.

[MikeParent]

Flash has its uses, but dissemination of large amounts of content/information is certainly not its strengths.

It is a tool suited to providing rich media content with low user interactivity. i.e. slick marketing stuff. brochureware

[D856C]

ID interaction design.

I do not say Flash can't do pretty much anything HTML can, but why limit Flash to simply emulating HTML?

Flash will change, "evolve" as it matures. And more examples like the content scope example will emerge because of it. This has little to do with either the tool, or the developer, but how the two interact as a system.

This is a long thread. All the other posts, excepting mine, is accompanied with "...usefulness is nil" and "wow factor." Highly telling.

I suspect this thread could get ten or twelve times as long without either pro or con side listing Flash usability sites like Flazoom (http://www.flazoom.com/). As has been mentioned, sure, anybody could look up and list these examples. ...but nobody did.

Flash has its uses, but dissemination of large amounts of content/information is certainly not its strengths.

Don't think about it like that. Think about Flash as a overview tool for showing the relationships between otherwise disconnected particles of text. Okay what in the heck does that mean? See for yourself with .Flash based search results from Kart00 (http://www.kartoo.com/)

Again, if you aren't lookin' for this stuff you ain't findin' any.

[storekit]

I did this entire site in flash! All the functions are Flash driven. I believe it demonstrates the power of Flash when used properly and goes way beyond creating nifty little animations...

See site here (http://www.planetnetwork.com/demo)

[D856C]

Splash Pages: Pros and Cons (http://webdesign.about.com/library/weekly/aa020303a.htm) is a pretty balanced review. "Many readers don't like splash pages - and in some studies 25% of visitors left a site right after seeing a splash page."

I'm not against splash pages. Splash pages whose sole purpose it to introduce Flash, I am against. Seeing This once is too much. Seeing it every time I want to post to a forum is tiresome, and I simply wouldn't put up with it. Also, there is no task priority to links on this splash page. Make the ENTER button dominant ...it's so close and similar to the download flash player button it is bound to cause errors.

Question: Why should I download anything when nobody has bothered to describe why? Don't tell me Flash is cool, tell me what it brings to THIS forum. If you don't explain the reason why first, I won't download the plugin (if I haven't already) ...I'll just leave.

As for the rest, there is nothing Flash brings to the forum which couldn't be done with other tools. I don't dislike the forum, and it doesn't seem to load particulary slowly, so it matters little. The need for Flash tips it into the negative.

I want a usefully visual interface. I care little about Flash. I do care about new ways to visualize conversation "hot spots" more quickly. ...I care about relationships between threads which allow me to keep from posting a question which has been asked a zillion times before.

I did this entire site in flash!

This pretty much makes my point for me. "I" did this in "Flash." Nothing about what users can do because of Flash they couldn't do otherwise. Nothing about a special feature of the site -- just about Flash. As if its mere existence somehow imbues a forum with some special quality.

If you are tempted to say "Flash site," before anything else the implication is that is the most important thing about the site.

And I find that vaguely disturbing. I never (ever) go to a site because it is HTML, or PHP based. This, I think, tells me there is a difference between Flash and other types of sites.

[storekit]

Splash pages whose sole purpose it to introduce Flash, I am against. Seeing This once is too much.

The site features voice, text and video chat features that require Flash to function. As a splash-phobic... How would you address this without a page to tell the user they need flash in order to use the site?

[D856C]

Macromedia Aftershock plugin detection (http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/how/shock/wizard/wizard03.html)

Your site needs three things just for the basic functionality of the site: broadband, popup killers "off", and Flash.

I think you may want a splash which has, say, "the best of" excerpts, thread transcripts and so on. In good, old fashioned, HTML. And only barely mentions the flash part.