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TomFulp
Hi there! In case you didn't know, I created newgrounds. No, it wasn't made by some giant company - just some dumb kid who now has help. I also co-founded the Behemoth; we made Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers. Icon by Pegosho, banner by OmenaKettu.

Age 45, Male

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Bytesize - Default to off?

Posted by TomFulp - September 12th, 2007


Something that I've always been nervous about, is whether or not Bytesize is a turnoff to the general public. Namely, the fact that it plays by default when you visit the front page.


The player is programmed to remember your settings, so if you hit the STOP button and leave, the player will no longer auto-play. A lot of general internet users probably never figure that out, though.


So it makes me wonder... Are there a lot of people who come to the NG front page, get bombarded with audio, and simply leave rather than stick around? Does anyone know of any examples of this happening to people? Please share... I'm looking for some real serious feedback, since the result could be dramatic for bytesize - defaulting to OFF means a lot of people will never enjoy all the cartoons there. Also, maybe some people take MORE interest in NG after being forced to watch a sample of what goes on here. It's hard to get feedback here on NG, because everyone who posts here is obviously a fan of the site, and not someone who left. :)


Thoughts?


Comments

Well, maybe it's your choice of audio. Although the Endless Handbag Loop is a great track, it's a bit loud and quite sudden. Perhaps if you were to change the audio to something a bit more soothing, then people won't be frightened off. And give it a while before any animations play, let them explore the front page first, give them, say, 30 seconds or so?

I have mixed reactions about the bytesize player. It's great the first time, but gets old after awhile. I thing turning the default to off is a good idea, but if someone new comes to the site, they might not even reconize it since there is no sound to alert them that it's there.

I like the bytesize but it does get a bit boring,about new people who come here im not sure,maybe you should start it with a cartoon instead of the song

It scares the hell out of you, really.

I've set it off, and the result was that I haven't seen Stamper's bytesizes until yesterday.

Maybe, making the loop (which i'm starting to hate by the way) fade in slowly would be a solution.

I LOVE the bytesizes, I always love to see new ones, but it does tend to scare you when you first enter the page. I liked the ideas of silenter songs to play, or fading them in when you start. Maybe you choose to mute the music in the background, but not the videos themselves? I doubt it forces people to just leave, but it is annoying. But whatever you choose, just don't get any stupid ideas of taking off bytesize. It's honestly made me love newgrounds so much more that I can just watch stupidly awesome shorts right when I enter or when I don't feel like looking around.

It's great to check out the bytesize clips now and then, but I always have it off since I just wanna quietly check the frontpage.
I actually rewind through the clips whilst it's paused so I can just watch them without the music.

You should consider switching the tune btw, Endless handbag loop only goes so far. (Btw, what happened to the other clips I sent you?)

Come on, everyone enjoys the mini-cartoons on ByteSize. They're great. It's just the "Endless Handbag" loop that makes them hit the stop button. They, like me, don't really want to hear it all the time. Can't you have a button to just turn the music off? Or even better, the option to switch between tracks, like a sort of Audio Portal bytesize? I noticed that you didn't include any such option and I really wish you did, because I'd like to continue watching the little cartoons without having to listen to that grating 5-second loop over and over again. It's shitty and irritating. Please fix this.

You gotta have an option of turn the music off while you're watching them!

I love the music, but sometimes & can't hear the great mini-flash things

i wouldnt mind it if it cycled silent by default.. i find that while im scanning through the front page itd be cool to have my attention called on by some sillly clip playing and as a result then turning on the sound to hear what its all about.

I think that theres not enough of em right now and i dont want to hear the same ones so i leave it off most times.. itd be nice just let it play silently like a banner ad and if i dig it i can go and interact with it.

I think it should be on but whay did you think of our BYTESIZE COLLAB?? look at my profile to see it

The Bytesize Collab was cool. Some day if we ever retire Bytesize movies, I want to package them into fun little collabs for the Portal. :)

Bytesize is awesome, why I'm going to lie... But I would say it's actually something that gets boring, I mean, It was really fun and I have been watching it for hours when the redesing was something new, but the thurth is that now I have it right now off, but that dosn't means I turn it on sometimes to see if there's something new. Bytesize would be something that calls the attention to new Newgrounds users than never visited the site yet. In fact, Bytesize needs more clips and more background music (let's say it weekly, featured from the audio portal). Can people still create clips? Glad to help.

I don't know, the first time I get anything like this on the front page of any site, I would look for a way to turn it off, I doubt the advage user is so stupid that they can't find a way. Maybe a simple intergrated popup for people who haven't visited before asking if they want the Bytesize player on or off?

the Bytesize scares you at first when you first enter this place, I even wanted to leave when I found this place but it made stay because this was the only place with sound (I don't really like the internet that much)
but you shouldn't take it off, some of my friends liked that and they visit your visit your page sometimes and they are not members and don't know that much english

I do find that it is somewhat annoying when I come here and that handbag loop suddenly comes blasting though my headset.

I usually clear my browser information after using the internet. This conflicts with the ByteSize, since it usually scares the shit out me.

It's just that the sound is "right on", and sometimes I forget that the ByteSize is there.

I wouldn't suggest removing it though. It's a nifty little addition to Newgrounds, and has talented work in it.

Well, it's a problem. I agree there. The clips are all funny. One of them even played my music - which suprised me like hell at first.

Anyways, I think the bytesize player is something that makes NG unique but it's still a problem to get it appreciated to the crowd. Sure, you watch the cartoons for the first time, have a good laugh BUT then - the cartoons aren't something new when you watch them the second time.

Maybe it would be a better idea if you could just set the player on MUTE not OFF in general. That way, it would still be there for the audience, they could tune in whenever they like. Though the most important part is that the player has to vary. Get more short clips from different authors.

Other than that, the bytesize player is damn nice feature! :)

We had an AP contest for front page songs, but we ended up with a bunch of submissions with big filesizes... I want to keep the front page music to under 500k... Still, I finally updated it with a 1.5 meg song... The AP needs to make it easier to find loops and specific file sizes. :)

I think I'm gonna just default it to OFF for everyone, so it will never autoplay anymore.

that happened once. you should really think of getting that button.!!!!!!SMICO RULES!!!!!!!!

You should leave it on as a default but the damn Handbag loop is too loud when I first enter the site if you'd lower it I'd leave the bytesize on all the time. Besides that it's a great component to the front page.

I'd say having it playing automatically would be a turn-off to the general public. When I've been at other people's houses showing them NG and I'm looking for something on the front page not realising the sound is up a bit and the Bytesize starts going off its like "aaah what do I do!" and...yeah...I say "default to off."

-Dim

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