Non-Flash versions

CB

What happened to Non-Flash versions. I remember that it was once SOP to make a version of every website which could be viewed without plug-ins for those who could not, or would not, install extra stuff.

Since when? Why did this fall out of use? Do current trends actually show that such an overwhelming number of people have Flash installed, that it's no longer stylistically or practically necessary to create a non-flash version of anything?

More and more frequently, I've been running into sites that I simply cannot view from work because they are fully-flash, and flash is not allowed on the work computers. I always look for a 'view without flash' button, but there never is one.

What gives?

Linc

• Flash became the most widely-used plugin
• Maintaining two versions of a site sucks big time - it's basically twice the amount of time to create and maintain the site
• Flash made some headway with search engines and usability (though there's still a lot left to do)
• Some sites just don't care if they lose 20% (or whatever) of the potential audience

Personally, if I decided to make a site Flash, I would not create a non-Flash version. Of course, I probably would never make an entire site in Flash because I don't think the trade off is worth it.


//Edit:
I made some decisions even here on Icrontic that could impact users negatively. For instance, I use PNG images in a lot of (prominent & critical) places. IE 6 and below can't handle their transparency and makes them a light blue color - major ugly! I also use some Javascript for image formatting that will look very poor in (but not actually break) any browser without Javascript turned on. (Additionally, in the navigation, I used rollover images that have no alt text so vision-impaired users never see that content.)

I made the decision that I expect users to be using IE7 or a new-ish version of Opera/Safari/Firefox with Javascript turned on. That may seem a reasonable assumption, but there are a LOT of people still on IE6, etc. (or even on an iPhone - no Javascript!) that will get a sub-optimal experience on the site. Them's the breaks of web development.

GHoosdum

I use the Noscript plugin for Firefox. The site doesn't look that bad without javascript, although generally I see it the way it was intended since I add icrontic to my trusted sites to allow scripts.

It's really scary how many sites utilize cross-site scripting. That's the main reason I use Noscript in the first place. Many popular blogs have a list of ten or twenty domains from which scripts are running on any given page.

Noscript also breaks Flash, so I can't view a flash site unless I allow scripting for it. I also wish there were non-Flash alternatives out there; I think Flash (specifically Flex) is good for RIAs but really kind of an annoyance on sites that simply present content.