Are 56K "Warnings" really necessary anymore?

[nonameo]

Personally, I say no. There's hardly a person with dial-up anymore.

edit: added poll

 

[adairusmc]

I say yes. More people use dial-up than you think.

 

[Alone]

There are plenty of people with dialup.

 

[KoolDrew]

My grandma uses dial-up. I couln't stand fixing their computer. Only took almost an hour to download anti-virus. Next time I'll remember to bring everything on a USB flash drive.

 

[olds]

Yes.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Yup!

 

[spidey07]

50% of the US is on dial-up.

I call OPs post bullcrap.

 

[nonameo]

OK OK... this calls for a poll

 

[jdoggg12]

Meh.... the warnings are lame - if a dial-up person doesn't want to wait, just click the back button.

 

[herm0016]

hell yea. some of us live in areas that only have access to dial up!

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: nonameo
OK OK... this calls for a poll

I'm not even a web developer and know that you don't publish non-56k pages.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: jdoggg12
Meh.... the warnings are lame - if a dial-up person doesn't want to wait, just click the back button.

And toss away 50% of the visitors.

That's bad business.

 

[swtethan]

i have dialup at work, its cheap since all i need is just to visit here... its my crack

 

[Atheus]

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0607/top20broadband-household-596x413.gif

I also stumbled across this from 2001 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1270242.stm

lol... that didn't take long.

 

[txrandom]

I don't care about 56kers.

 

[w3stfa11]

Do you mean on forum posts? If yes, then I agree with you. I'd say most people who are members of certain forums usually have broadband and if not, then as you said, they can always hit the back button.

 

[CKent]

No. While there are a decent number of people out there on dialup, I don't think we need warnings plastered all over the place.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: CKent
No. While there are a decent number of people out there on dialup, I don't think we need warnings plastered all over the place.

What part of half your visitors do you not get?

 

[jdoggg12]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: jdoggg12
Meh.... the warnings are lame - if a dial-up person doesn't want to wait, just click the back button.

And toss away 50% of the visitors.

That's bad business.

umm... how do you figure? If you put the warning on the page, they're more likely to skip it, if theres no warning, they are likely to think "well, i've waited this long...'

besides, i believe by now 56kers have come to expect their internet experience to suck, why remind them? :laugh:

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: CKent
No. While there are a decent number of people out there on dialup, I don't think we need warnings plastered all over the place.

What part of half your visitors do you not get?

The part you fail to realize is that just because 50% of the country is on dial-up, doesn't mean that 50% of a target audience is.

While 50% of google's audience may very well be on dial-up, I'd imagine that only 5% of NewEgg's traffic is.

Current AT Poll: 27 to 2. Forget the Dial-Up people. Sucks for them, but they shouldn't have to be told by now that their internet service sucks ass.

NO reason to make uncessarry sacrifices to cater to 5%, IMHO. I design standard-compliant sites, but I don't waste my time checking in browsers other than IE and Firefox. MAYBE Safari, and that's only because it's easy to check if I have my mac turned on.

Now if you can design just fine with small files, great, more power to you. But there is NO reason to do it otherwise.

 

[Maximilian]

HAHAHAHA TWO PEOPLE!! HAHA Ah what a shame, i feel for you two i really do.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: CKent
No. While there are a decent number of people out there on dialup, I don't think we need warnings plastered all over the place.

What part of half your visitors do you not get?

The part you fail to realize is that just because 50% of the country is on dial-up, doesn't mean that 50% of a target audience is.

While 50% of google's audience may very well be on dial-up, I'd imagine that only 5% of NewEgg's traffic is.

Current AT Poll: 27 to 2. Forget the Dial-Up people. Sucks for them, but they shouldn't have to be told by now that their internet service sucks ass.

NO reason to make uncessarry sacrifices to cater to 5%, IMHO. I design standard-compliant sites, but I don't waste my time checking in browsers other than IE and Firefox. MAYBE Safari, and that's only because it's easy to check if I have my mac turned on.

Now if you can design just fine with small files, great, more power to you. But there is NO reason to do it otherwise.

This is why I completely and totally hate developers. They don't understand computing and believe resources are infinite.

I see it every day - very bad programming, bad developer, inefficient, back to your hole

 

[angminas]

Don't forget that people with older internet often have older computers. Huge images can lock up a slow computer, especially if it's running, say, Win98. There's nothing wrong with warning people. A helpful hint is not an "unnecessary sacrifice", and I cannot comprehend that kind of attitude.

 

[jdoggg12]

At some point in time, you just gotta stop bending over backwards for dated tech. I feel for dial-up people, but, the internet is a luxury, not a necessity.

 

[angminas]

Typing "56K beware" is bending over backwards? A sacrifice? Reality please.

I'm not saying everyone should still be expected to always do it, at least on a tech site. I'm just saying it's not some kind of hardship to tell your therapist about- it's 11 keystrokes to help your fellow ATOTer. The OP has spent enough keystrokes on this thread for several 56K warnings, and some others have done considerably more.