I have had to quickly exit the browser a few times when I've been on a public computer and the handbag loop suddenly blares out loud, much to the annoyance of whoever is nearby. I think you should have the cartoons play by default, but without the loop, just have the normal dialogue. I have bytesize switched off, unless I hear that there's been new ones added. As someone else said (might have been Luis?), if you feel you have to have music it should be something quiter and less sudden.
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So you got around to changing the audio?
It's alright a little more soothing but I supose I'd tire out of the handbag loop eventualy.
Quote Luis. Default the sound on mute but the animations on. And the button for unmute/mute of course.
A MUTE BUTTON TO SILENCE THE MUSIC IS THE BEST CHOICE :)
just put it silent by default, when people scroll down the page and see the animations they'll get their atention and will surely want to turn the bytesize music on :) please dont leave it ALL off sice it would take all the charm of the new frontpage away :C
I have an idea :D. Why not have a mute button instead of a stop button, that again, remembers your settings. BUT, here's where the cunning trickery comes in. Play the animations 24/7 when your on the front page, but start with the sounds OFF, so that the persone visiting the site can turn it on if they find it interesting.
I personally like the bytesizes, they give a great feel to the site that no other flash site does, it makes it feel all homely :). Plus it's a great way to add some quality shorts to newgrounds, without giving them their own submission. For instance, Stampers 'Chinese' short was absolute class, perfect voice acting and crisp art, but it was too short to be a flash on its own.
If you want to update something, i think it would be good if the authors of the bytesizes could see some stats on their work, so they could see how many views it was getting, and for how long people stayed on it. They could then use this and improove their pieces.
Anyway, that's my two cents ;).
For now, I'm just defaulting it to off... So people will have to hit play from now on and it won't save the settings. I just have this bad feeling it freaks too many people out... It's a shame. I might tinker with it later.
I hope people don't mind A-Bot, though. :)
Hi Tom! *Waves*
Well I like the little animations. They do show some part of what is here on NG. The little things in between the cartoons remind me the contests and stuff here, looking forward to Madness day now, and would forget about it if I didn't see that part. The links to the persons user page gets them more acknowledgment for there work. The music info is good also, say looking for a new song for a flash movie, or a new style of music you like. It can get a little loud some times, but then you wonder what it is and look for it. Id suggest putting it on top of the news, if people get linked here they will see what goes on here before the news they might not get unless there already a member, and from the top of the page, we could still see new news. Stopping it would be good for slower computers, but instead of a '...' below the angry face, maybe a message showing you can turn it back on. Having it stay on your preference when you leave is still good, dont want to be loading NG and have it lag other programs while its loading the Bytesize. Also, maybe a quality button in the top corner, people might not know its a flash and have no control over the control of it, which we do now.
Bye Tom! *Waves*
i found the audio to be a turnoff the first time i looked at the redesign frontpage, i'm not a fan of auto spawning sound, but i feel that no one would start the bytesize if the sound was set to off. i do like how it remembers that it's turned off, though :P i think that the audio is a bit overwhelming the first time, but i don't think it would be enough to drive users away. it's not like it's complicated to figure out how to turn it off or anything. Before i would have said "yes, make it start out off" but after putting more thought into it, i've flip flopped. I'll go send the frontpage to some users who aren't that familiar with newgrounds (at least since the redesign), and ask them what their first response was.
With it defaulted to off, people wouldn't even know it's there. Perhaps something showing up on entry to the site that could help them stop the music if they want and are new...
I'd rather the people got to see the work of the artists, because without it defaulted to on, I wouldn't have, despite me reading the news.
Well Tom,i don't think that it causes people to leave,but is an annoyance that doesn't really serve much purpose.It's like a theme song; an advertisement for something you're already watching.As long as it has the stop option i don't think it will turn too many people away(practically everything on NG turns SOME people away!) but you may want to make it automatically stop rather than autostart so that it doesn't annoy people but still gives them the option of having it.
Its better to OFF the sounds as default and play the animation as default...
Don't know of anyone personally turned off by this, but nothing annoys me more whilst on the internet than automatic streaming audio. Apart from automatic streaming audio on intrusive flash adverts
I would say default to off unless someone pressed play, but Advertise it higher so people who don't bother to scrolll down the front page will still have a chance to notice it.
I'm glad that news updates still play from the window when the Bytesize player is off. I find myself checking it as a sort of callendar quite often, especially because your site news posts only show one at a time on the bottom of the front page. That was definitely a good move, and one I remember hoping for.
As for defaulting off, I agree that the sudden music assaulting first-time viewers is a bit intrusive. Honestly, I think the only reason it's no good is because the Bytesize window isn't even visible when you first view the site, so visitors will have to either actively search for the source of the sound and turn it off, or click away entirely. It's probably best not to force them to make that decision.
It's true that we should be drawing attention toward Bytesize, but having sound playing that the viewer has to hunt down and turn off isn't really the best approach. However, it's not really doing Bytesize justice to not havng it play by default - new viewers may never even be aware of it. Maybe the player should default as ON, but its audio should be checked as OFF until toggled by the viewer? That's sure to grab attention the right way.
Remember, the problem is the SOUND, not the Bytesize. It's no good to clump it all together as one big flaw, so nail the sound issue and you're solid.
When I was growing up, Newgrounds was that website we all went to in class behind the teachers back... KIDS ALL AROUND THE WORLD ARE GETTING CAUGHT OUT NOW!
Maybe it should be a click to play thing.. Also is it too late to submit cartoons to the bite size system? I wouldn't mind putting something together if I had the chance. Thought I don't know the dimensions or FPS used.
I like this idea, because yesterday i was sitting on my couch watching T.V. with my dad, and I go to the NG FP and i didn't realize the volume what to the max, and what do you know, a short inappropriate clip comes up and my dad questions what i was doing. But i think you should have a choose of different songs to choose from like you see in flash games!
I turn on the bytesize every once and a while to watch the new toons, but it's off by default for me because when ever I am on my computer, i ALWAYS have music playing . And it's annoying to be halfway through an awesome song, to then have the sounds of the bytesize suddenly start and interrupt the music.
I think Default status aside, you need to have a bigger variety of music tracks on there. Having just Endless Handbag Loop is quiet tedious if you hear it too frequently.
The new music loop is less obnoxious, and less startling... not that i had anything against the old loop, i just think this one will be a lot nicer for people wandering onto the site.
soundin' goood ;)
NegativeONE
I leave it turned off, personally. It's not that I don't like the clips. It's just not what I'd go to the front page to do, so it ends up more invasive to me than accommodating.