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Flashblock is a great example of the problem. Google Music wouldn't work on my wife's computer, causing a lot of frustration for her, until I noticed the flashb
by cheald 15y ago
Flashblock is a great example of the problem. Google Music wouldn't work on my wife's computer, causing a lot of frustration for her, until I noticed the flashblock icon. Google was using a hidden div with a flash player to play the music. When Flashblock shows a big placeholder rather than the Youtube video, you know what's happening. It's not always obvious, though, and it takes someone who knows that Flash players are often used for this sort of thing to solve the problem. If I wasn't home, my wife would have just assumed that the product didn't work on her computer and given up on it.
- uxp 15y agoI agree with your point. Even I took a few seconds longer wondering why Google Music didn't run on my version of Chrome until I correctly guessed that there was a hidden flash player somewhere I couldn't see, and I'm a developer myself. But, I do think the other side of the argument still stands. If someone decides to use a 25 pound sledge hammer to frame a house, that person shouldn't get mad when on occasion his tools end up causing more frustration than the project he's working on. Whitelisting tools like Flashblock/Clicktoflash or NoScript are sledge hammers to the web. When it's just a few things littered here and there on a site that is widely non-flash based, it's not a problem to take everything out at once. Fine tuning at that point requires a bit more care and a lot more effort, but it's hardly the fault of the plugin developer when it doesn't work in every case. Toggle it on off and see if it works, and move on.