How many home 'puters can't read flash ?

[GetCarter]

Hi

Sorry if this has been covered, I ain't been in this room before.

Having resisted putting any flash on my homepage for years (as so many people seemed to have problems with flash 'no show'), I've just spent the past few hours trying to get my head round the prog. (and have just put a banner on my index page). Actually I've been putting it off as it all seemed a bit too blimmin' clever, and life was too short etc... (obvioulsy not today though).

Thing is, If 99% of the world now have no problem viewing flash, I'll probably re-write the rest of the site (oh god, did I really just say that?) as I can see the advantages (mostly cool value) - but if there are still a bunch of people out there who can't view it, I'll wait another couple of years. I really can't be doing with flash/no flash versions.

Any one know the figures? And is it flash 4 or 5 or what? Will any win XP / Mac OSX computer read all flash?

Sorry to be dim and thanks in advance.

Steve
www.stevecarter.com

[PetrolTed]

About 50% of viewers of PH can view Flash.

[Podie]

PetrolTed said:

About 50% of viewers of PH can view Flash.

...or CHOOSE to view / not view flash...

>> Edited by Podie on Tuesday 18th January 15:27

[zumbruk]

Mmmmmm ... Firefox + flashblocker

[Mr E]

Remember, we live in a time of the mobile phone.

And they usually can't read flash.

[GetCarter]

Thanks for the input. I guess I'll leave the site with obvious 'non flash' clues for any that get grey boxes, and wait a while before I get flashy.

Mr E said:

Remember, we live in a time of the mobile phone. And they usually can't read flash.

Luckilly - the sort of person that views websites via a mobile phone will not have the slightest interest in either me, or my site!

edited: either / or - neither / nor

>> Edited by GetCarter on Tuesday 18th January 15:55

[bga]

I found this site a few weeks ago which provides redirection based on flash being detected. I haven't tried it out though.

www.flash.lv/board/?parentid=9614&id=14377

[docevi1]

there are a couple of things to be aware of here when using flash:

1) It's not just the browser capable of having the shockwave plugin but the download speed.
2) some people desire to have flash turned off because they hate animations
3) if you have to have a "skip" button, why put it there in the first place - surely if you recognise people want to skip it why do you have it in the first place?
4) It's very hard to do right - most of the time it wastes the users time as they really don't want a "fancy" interface to your website...

Personally I stay as far away from Flash as I possibly can, it does have it's uses in things like animations (i.e. Weebl and Bob), slideshows... but to make pages look "cool", well generally it doesn't.

Have a look into css as that can lead to many different and decent layouts check out www.csszengarden.com/

[tja]

Before you put flash onto a web page, think about what it actually adds to your page...other than 1 or 2 minutes of download for an animation.

IMHO your flash animation doesn't add anything to your page that couldn't be done with some well designed graphics and a bit of css & dynamic html.

[ywouldi]

I can view flash but rarely choose to do so, its normally a waste of time and takes a while to load. Also people tend to have the flash play sound and not have a mute button which is incredibly annoying, even more so if you are listening to your own music whilst viewing the site.

Ben

[docevi1]

ywouldi said:

I can view flash but rarely choose to do so, its normally a waste of time and takes a while to load. Also people tend to have the flash play sound and not have a mute button which is incredibly annoying, even more so if you are listening to your own music whilst viewing the site.

The worst culprits are band sites - I usually already have the CD playing when I visit the site!

[jsr]

Flash is an amazing piece of kit (as is the whole of Studio MX/2004), i love developing with it.

It's just a shame a lot of people still haven't got past the 'flash intro' phase.

[Zad]

I hate Flash intros even if you can click past them, I would much rather get straight to the heart of the site. I liken it to getting into your car and starting the engine. I don't want a huge fanfare and advert about what a fantastic manufacturer it is, I just want it to start and do what it says on the proverbial can.

Mike

[LongQ]

Don't think your site needs much more than whatever regular updates your are already doing Steve.

Cracking photos btw. What's your kit and are most of them original or 'massaged'?

And the Bealach video reminded me that I must do that run again. Last time was at the end of a long day's haul from Pittenweem to find a very grey August day in progress.

(Sorry to drift off topic ...)

If you really want to go the full show route with the site's front page, why not have two points of entry with the flash one being a proxy perhaps?

Personally I get very pissed off with decorative front pages when I am trying to get to the real site content.

[GetCarter]

Thanks again for comments. I guess I'll leave my site with just the one hint of flash (it's only 30k - and even on Mrs Gets steam driven connection it loads in a few seconds).

Mr Q: Kit: Nikon D1X - nearly all cropped - some added contrast - nothing else I'm pleased to say. It's great kit and I kinda' live in the right places! Speaking of which - shout if you're heading 'over the pass' and if I'm up there we'll have a wee dram. I think there's a bunch of fezzers (some from this place) doing it in May.

Steve

[Plotloss]

Blimey, have you been reading Jakob Neilsen's site?

I think its way over 90% of your averager user audience that are able to use flash. This isnt to say however that purely because of this you should use flash.

[IPAddis]

Plotloss said:

Blimey, have you been reading Jakob Neilsen's site? I think its way over 90% of your averager user audience that are able to use flash. This isnt to say however that purely because of this you should use flash.

I CAN use Flash. However effort spent on a Flash intro will be entirely wasted on me as I'll either skip it or ignore the site.

It may only be a 30K 10 second intro but how do I know it's not a 30MB 10 minute video?

Ian A.

[LongQ]

GetCarter said:

Thanks again for comments. I guess I'll leave my site with just the one hint of flash (it's only 30k - and even on Mrs Gets steam driven connection it loads in a few seconds). Mr Q: Kit: Nikon D1X - nearly all cropped - some added contrast - nothing else I'm pleased to say. It's great kit and I kinda' live in the right places! Speaking of which - shout if you're heading 'over the pass' and if I'm up there we'll have a wee dram. I think there's a bunch of fezzers (some from this place) doing it in May. Steve

Small amounts of relevant flash don't bother me but some sites seem to have gone over the top and, being a dial up user currently and with one eye on people on the move probably staying that way for the foreseeable future, keeping the bandwidth heavy stuff under control seems like a good idea.

I thought the kit might be something special. But your also right about the location. Even my poor old 1.3 megapixel Agfa digital from back in those days came up with some stunning shots despite the variability of the weather.(And the variability of the camera come to think of it ...)

I'll certainly give you a shout when I manage to get that way again. Best do it soon before everywhere in Scotland is converted to a windfarm I suppose.

May would be good if it is in the early part - I think I may be stateside at the end of that month but not confirmed yet.

Cheers.

[Pigeon]

Flash is evil, good on you for deciding not to go with it. Flash navigation is especially evil.

[RobDickinson]

Flash adverts done it for me, I moved to opera just to avoid flash.

Fine if done well, some sites make nice use of it, 99% at a minimum irritate me.