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Comment by notJim | Hacker News Reader

Cool plugin, but I can't help but think of that quote—“Scrolling is the new flash.” Not trying to hate on your plugin or code, but I really hate all this scrolling stuff people are doing now. I wanted to scroll, not have a bunch of crazy animations explode in my face.

I feel like the popularity of this effect is to some extent a symptom of our society's constant information overload, and the attendant inability to slow down and focus, which then compels sites to compete for our attention with increasingly flashy presentations. Of course, to a much larger extent, it's probably due to cargo-cult website design.

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Unless it's done really well and used properly, I think it's a major case of style over substance.

If anything, I think it could be better used more subtly. For example, a steampunk site that has cogs and gears that rotate when you scroll.

But for a full on website, it makes it incredibly hard to scroll and scan, because nothing's fixed into position. It's telling that on the demo site, the actual content at the bottom has no animated elements.

Not to put it down or anything, of course. I think the worst example I've seen is the SWTOR page (can't find the link anywhere). It feels like it was done just because it's trendy.

Well I worked previously as a Flash dev, so guilty as charged, haha

Personally, I always hated the overdone Flash stuff as well. And the scrolly stuff can get out of hand, that's for sure, but sometimes it is really cool. Ben The Bodyguard is a good example.

I just tried out Ben the Bodyguard [1], and honestly, though I see what they're going for, the interaction is not great. For one, as I scroll into the animation, there's a big spike in CPU and the browser freezes for a second. Then, I have to do my best to scroll at just the right speed in order for the animation to look smooth, and to be able to read the text. I guess this is kind of cool, and maybe many people enjoy it, but for me, it's an awful lot of work you're asking me to do to find out about your product. (Your as-in “one”.)

[1]: http://benthebodyguard.com/index.php

I thought that was cool, then I recognised -- halfway down the page -- that the product being sold is not a game.

Yeah, this highlights another point—the animations (and the effort required to view them) can be so distracting that this may not even be an effective way to educate me about the product.

I scroll with page down so this was really confusing at first.

that's really strange....I'm using chromium on Linux, and i see no performance penalty as you described...

it's a neat effect that just became possible, like morphing. When something new becomes possible everyone wants to find an excuse to try it. Welcome to being human and having joy in what you do. Even if it's not "effective" at "informing" or "achieving business aims". you know. Boring things.

> When something new becomes possible everyone wants to find an excuse to try it.

For some reason that sentence reminded me of the 80s.

Yeah, but I get what the detractors are saying. Its like Uncle Ben said, "With great power, comes great responsibility."

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