Quote: "What a ridiculous thing to say. You think that your opinion is so great that if anyone disagrees with you it means they haven't spent much time doing it? So ignorant."
No, it's just a well known fact that any web developer who has been in the business and knows their way around things will NEVER use Flash. It's one of the golden rules of web development, don't use Flash to base your site around. Like I said, it's only widely accepted for Flash games or streaming video. How am I ignorant for knowing what and what not to do? I didn't invent the rules. I used to design and produce sites in Flash, then I realized that the pros were right, and that it's unprofessional to design Flash-based sites. If you want to limit your options and do it for a hobby, that's fine, but if you do it for mainstream sites that you hope to try to make popular, good luck.
Quote: "Welcome to 2003. Flash will only slow down a browser if the ActionScript developer doesn't know what he's doing (i.e. creating thousands of object instances every frame). Nowadays people don't have to worry about their site taking up more than 100MB of RAM, because most computers have several GBs to spare. We're not living in a world where RAM is scarce, as it once was.
I was a senior web developer for many years, and I've used PHP and jQuery extensively. I have seen improper use of jQuery balloon a website's footprint and slow down the browser. In fact, I've had jQuery CRASH my browser several times. It's more about the programmer as opposed to the tool."
Flash itself doesn't encourage proper coding standards, as it doesn't enforce very much. Yes, jQuery, AJAX, etc. can crash, but I've yet to experience any crashes, though I don't doubt they exist. As for RAM, again, I think like any decent web developer should, for mobile platforms. If you want to get ahead and develop a great site, you NEED to think about the mobile market. People are increasingly using their phones and tablets, and unfortunately they suffer because of developers who think, "Oh I'll do it later."
Quote: "You keep referring to PHP, but that has nothing to do with the issue, because you can use PHP with Flash or with jQuery. When you keep throwing PHP into the topic it makes you sound like you don't know what you're talking about."
Obviously it does have to do with the issue. PHP and AJAX / jQuery can do just enough, if not more than Flash. Flash is a suite, it has everything you seemingly need to make great interactive sites. I won't strip its credit, as it does have a broad spectrum of tools, however it still is geared more toward visual people, and web developers in general hate WYSIWYG editors, simply because they don't teach good coding standard, not to mention they put out sloppy code. ActionScript cannot really be considered by any means "difficult", though it can be annoying.
I used to make Flash games and applications. I hate how people assume that I don't know what I'm talking about, but I've done a lot. Though I don't know everything, and I still have much to learn and put into practice, I don't appreciate people calling me ignorant for not supporting people developing in Flash. As a child, when you're doing something wrong, what do your parents do? Correct you. In another sense, when you see someone doing things the difficult way, you generally advise them and keep reinforcing that they're taking the difficult way.
You've given me no real reason why my opinions (more like facts) are wrong. It seems like some people here have trouble putting up opposing arguments. Instead it's simply watered down by things like, "You're ignorant." and so on. Give me reasons why Flash development for websites is a GOOD idea. Give me at least 3 reasons. I'm going to be flat out honest, nobody is going to want to use a site that is Flash based. I know I wouldn't, and nobody I talked to about the issue (who also web develop) said they wouldn't, etc. I don't care how much hardware you cram in your PC, or how much RAM you get, when you go to a site with Flash content, it STILL takes NEARLY just as much time to load as it did 3 years ago. Flash games still take time to load, videos do, etc. Most of it depends on your connection, yes, but people fail to remember that not everyone has a 25mbps connection that can load Flash content quickly.
While convenient for the developers, Flash is NOT convenient for the end users, the ones that really matter.
Pretty much what I've said is what I've learned and what I've been taught. I go to school for web development, and one of the first things he told us not to do, is develop using Flash or Silverlight. It teaches bad coding ethic, and it also tells us to pretty much ignore cross-browser / system compatibility.
Where credit is due: The site is a REALLY good idea. I myself have a few ideas that I'm going to start to work with, based on yours, because it's a good idea. I don't like iGoogle because it doesn't give you as much freedom, as when I want a homepage, I want a page that'll let me do whatever I want. However, your issue stems from the fact that you're using Flash, and you're using cookies. Once the user clears their cache and cookies, their settings will be gone. The only real way to ensure that the settings will stay, is to make a user registration system, but if you don't mind you can use IP addresses, but the issue still exists with those who have dynamic IP's (the majority of the world).
I just now realized I've had a typo in my signature for the past 3 years.
