The Stimulate website will now be known as www.ai-junkie.com As well as a completely new look, ai-junkie is holding an AI coding competition. Please throw caution to the wind and join in, it''ll be a lot of fun! New tutorials and articles will follow shortly (now I have some free time to write them!)

If I can make a suggestion, please have an alternative navigation system besides the flash menu. A quick text based menu at the top of each page would work well.

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I will not make a list of links... I will not make a list of links... I will not make a list of links...
Invader''s Realm

I agree with Invader X. At this point I'd also like to state that I absolutely hate Flash, even when using a broadband connection. There's no reason to slow down my surfing and even when done well, Flash adds nothing to a site.

Edited to add more ranting: I have quit going to extendedplay.com(video game show on Discovery Science) because I would have had to upgrade my browser just to view the site. As time went on, I got a newer browser, naturally, but to be forced to upgrade just to view their stupid site is beyond ridiculous.

[edited by - RolandofGilead on August 12, 2002 5:20:48 AM]

RolandofGilead: well jee, thanks for the encouragement.I'm overwhelmed.

The menu part of the flash file is 62k and takes hardly any time to load in. The same time as a small image. I don't think that is unreasonable to get away from the clutter of the usual frames/main window format. Especially when it's such a small website. As, or if it grows, then fair enough, I'll reconsider.

And frankly, your point about extendedplay.com is not very farsighted is it? If you like their content then upgrade. If not, don't look at it. Your argument is like saying that you will refuse to listen to CDs, minidisks and mp3s because you still own some vinyl...

Invader X: I can see why that might be useful. I'll try to sort something out. You would like the option to move directly between pages without having to go back to the homepage yes?

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ai-junkie.com


[edited by - fup on August 12, 2002 6:12:42 AM]

not that i have any problem at all with flash, but i think the suggestion was basically to have the option to navigate via flash or using normal hotlinks... i tend to agree purely because, as has been demonstrated, not everyone likes flash and i just think you could be losing potential visitors by forcing flash upon them...

When i looked at the page using mozilla all i could see was a completly blue page with nothing on it. When i tried it in IE it told me to upgrade flash, which i did in mozilla and now it works fine.
So it is not a matter of visiters wanting to upgrade, they also have to know that they have to. It is possible that many mozilla users will find your site and think that it''s under construction or being changed. You will loose these visitors......

smilydon: I am aware of that problem and I will be adding some code at some point in the future to check for non IE/Netscape browsers. However this isn''t a very common occurence. Out of the last 10,000 visitors to my tutorials less than 60 visitors used a browser other than IE/Netscape. (approx half Opera, half Konqueror).

Astonishingly, even the amount of Netscape users is less than 15%. How times have changed!

Yes, a quick way to get between pages without going to the front page is one thing I want. Another thing is that, in all honesty, I find the flash menu a little annoying (most of the annoyance is coming from the sounds). I have no problem with it being there, but I would also recommend having text links under the flash movie to give a person a way to go around it if they choose or if they dont have the current version of flash installed.

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The hackers must have gotten into the system through the hyperlink!!

Invader''s Realm

sorry fup, but I too am a Mozilla user and cannot view your new pages (well, I could if I fire up either NS or IE, both of which are installed... but that''s a pain in the butt). Mozzila, opera and other browsers are still out there... particularly among the non-windows community. Please do something to support them or you risk alienating them.

I definitely concur about providing an alternative to flash for site navigation. Even if it''s a text link to a text based site map.

Thanks,

Timkin

Timkin: If you have IE installed and you can't be arsed to click on an icon and cut and paste an address (or click on a different icon and install the Flash plugin) then that's just indicating you're not really interested in looking at the website. Which is fine, but why should I have to cater for you?

Invader X: The annoying noise has been removed.

To everyone else: tbh, I'm a little disappointed that this entire thread has turned out to be just a long list of criticism. I didn't come here to ask design advice. Some of your points have been useful nevertheless. I'm grateful for them and I shall do my best to keep most people happy but... that Flash menu ain't being removed. If you are afflicted with Flash anxiety then please don't visit my website. My other site had a Flash menu and I've never had one word of complaint in over 20,000 visitors. It's probably only going to get worse too, as I intend to incorporate (where appropriate) animated Flash illustrations to accompany my texts at some point in the future.

Update: There is now some code which checks for the presence of the correct plugin. If it isn't there it will give you an option of either installing it or using a temporary menu. If you are using Mozilla you may still experience problems as it doesn't seem to like URL masking. (a temporary measure while I find a decent host)

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ai-junkie.com



[edited by - fup on August 13, 2002 10:40:20 AM]