Winkin, Blinkin and Nod
by Kukla Fran and Ollie <weblists2001(at)yahoo.com>
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Date: |
Wed, 05 Sep 2001 16:51:45 -0700 |
To: |
hwg-basics(at)hwg.org |
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todo: View
Thread,
Original
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It's good to see when pushed, some clear and succinct responses come out of
the netherworld.
The consensus seems to be that the Netscape <.BLINK> tag is disliked
because it's visually annoying. Fair enough. Mike's comment is
particularly clear, "I think of it like living is a an apartment and having
a flashing neon sigh outside you window blinking "Eat at Joes" all night
long." At least with <.BLINK>, it doesn't automatically come with the
BZZZZZZZT, BZZZZZZT sound every time it blinks. (Don't you *dare* embed
that sound!)
Then again, the visual annoyance can be a blessing on rare occasions. I do
recall using <.BLINK> when requested by the brass because an emergency had
occurred (this was in a large university) and we needed our users attention
NOW! It only lasted for a few hours and we felt use of the <.BLINK> met
our needs and our users needs.
Chuck's comment that the <.BLINK> tag could trigger epileptic attacks sent
me to some research. It's called photosensitive epilepsy and it only
occurs in less than three percent of all people afflicted with
epilepsy. Since epilepsy occurs in 1:200 of the overall population, this
comes to about 1:4,000 in the general population, or 1:100,000 incidence
per year. (Don'tcha just love statistics?) With Section 508 requirements
for web work affiliated with the US Government, it stands to reason that to
not use <.BLINK> when working for or contracted by the government for web
design work.
BTW, 96% of people with photosensitive epilepsy are sensitive to lights
flashing at between 15 and 20 flashes per second.
When I pursued this further, I found another tag with about the same level
of annoyance as the Netscape <.BLINK> tag. It's the IE <.MARQUEE>
tag. Both are proprietary, non-standard tags. They each probably stem
from some programmer's delight in adding a "feature" to a tag set.
One site even proclaimed using both so as to not ignore anyone.
<.BLINK><.MARQUEE>How Rude!</.MARQUEE><./BLINK>
So for the newbies out there, it's not really hated, just annoying. There
is a difference. :)
'Nuff said.
Dennis
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