RE: FLASH: Flash Player 5

[JGL]

>MM's decision to release a beta is causing crises for your project

First off, this isn't a project - it's a done site - 4 months done with ZERO

problems. All carefully built conforming to the MM rules of building a Flash

Site.


I was pretty upset about that yesterday - damn right! . . . I was

inadvertantly sending people to the download page. It says:


"Flash Player lets you experience animation and entertainment in your Web

browser. Follow the three simple steps below to get your free Web player.


Get Macromedia Flash Player 5 Beta NOW"


This client pays upwards of a $1 per new hit to this site. Yeah I'm pissed.


>What's lacking is much support from other designers,


I have posted several pleas that did not make it to the list . . . as I am

sure there are others that are not here for you to read too Ken.


And BTW, I reported this BUG immediately, 10 minutes after I got the

5player. Look at the archives, Ken.


I have been in contact with MM engineering and QA. The answer is the same.

Big waste of time for me.


It makes absolutely NO SENSE to continue to distribute this player as it is.

No sense whatsoever.


But since I am one of only seven reported sites affected by this . . .just a

law of averages thing I guess.


The client spent a good deal of money having this site made. He spends over

a $1 per new hit. That 1/3 of newcomers that need to upgrade/install don't

get that opportunity - they are being sent straight to the html site. Big

waste of money, Ken


I spent part of my day yesteday helping two people 'FIX' thier computers

after this site I developed locked their system. Nice, uh?


MM is smart about allot of things - this public distrubution of a buggy

player is plain stupid.


-----Original Message-----

From:

ownerchinwag [dot] com

 [

ownerchinwag [dot] com]On">mailto:ownerchinwag [dot] com]On

 Behalf Of Ken

Lanxner

Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2000 3:22 PM

To:

flasherchinwag [dot] com

Subject: Re: FLASH: Flash Player 5



On 8/3/00 at 2:20 PM, JGL <

infodesignthenet [dot] com

> wrote:


> Still curious why the buggy F5 player is available at the download

> center though . . .

>

> Shouldn't it be removed . . like immediately!

>

> I can't see any justification for having it there . . . especially

> since there are known bugs that affect F4 sites.

>

> Isn't that one of the great powers of the web? Instant changes?


You are obviously very upset by this and I respect that. MM's decision

to release a beta is causing crises for your project. You've got a right

to be angry about it.


What's lacking is much support from other designers, or so it appears.

It seems that you have posted similar messages 3 or 4 times -- I could

be wrong, maybe it was someone else -- and haven't gotten a lot of

me-too responses. I only remember a handful of people saying they didn't

notice any problems and a few more praising the speed of the Flash5

player.


I downloaded the player as soon as it was available and I probably look

at a few dozen Flash sites a day. So far, no apparent problems, nor any

with my Flash4 projects.


All this doesn't help you. You obviously have found a bug in the player

that most people haven't yet noticed. But considering the *apparent*

success rate of the beta player, I doubt that your appeal to MM is going

to help you. I would guess that they would thank you for the suggestion

and politely explain why the beta version won't be coming down at this

time.


And if you have indeed found a serious bug in the Flash5 player, then

you are almost obligated as a member of the Flash designer community to

follow John Dowdell's daily pleas that this be reported to the Flash5

design team.


In the meanwhile, you seem to have only a couple of things you can do.

1) Continue to post a warning not to download the wrong player -- word

it so that it is effective without sounding condescending to the

generally uninformed masses. 2) Be very direct in explaining the problem

and its consequences to the site owner. Let her or him know that it is a

bug -- albeit a rare one -- with the Flash 5 player and that you are

cooperating with the Flash design team to fix it.


This may all very well be moot when the final version of the player is

released (just several weeks away?). Is your target audience likely

enough to be without Flash4 to cause a sizeable problem in the short

term?


We've all been in your position at one time or another. It's no fun.


>

.. . . and a webmastermacromedia [dot] com link would be nice too . . . :)

I doubt a Webmaster or the equivalent would be of much help at MM. The

Web design staff probably has more influence over implementation than

content. Why don't you try calling MM to find out which is the most

likely person or department to contact? There's a phone number on the

following page:


http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/cscontact/


Best of luck,

Ken


---

Simplelives * Web design

http://simplelives.com




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