RottenPumpkin.com Development | FAQs

How much does a website cost?

How do I get an internet address for my website? Do I have to buy one?

What do I need for an ecommerce website?

What support does RottenPumpkin.com Development offer?

How do I update my website?

When the site is done, what do I own?

Why not Flash?

Flash is not fast. If you have a high-speed internet connection, you probably don't mind waiting the 5 or 10 seconds it takes to load a flash website. But keep this in mind: millions of people still use dial-up access, and for them, Flash downloads are slow and annoying.

Updating a Flash website is not simple. Things change. Maybe you have a new phone number and want to change it on your website. On a regular site, that is a simple matter of changing the text of the phone number. The person or company that built your site could do this, or a new developer/designer could do it. But if that phone number is part of a Flash design, only the person who has the original Flash development files can change it. Then that person has to recreate the Flash page using Macromedia's Flash Development program, and upload the compiled page to your web server. If you don't have those development files, you are out of luck.

On a personal note, I don't like Flash websites. I don't like visiting a site and have music start or things move about. I have talked with many people about this, and I find, quite consistently, that many people don't like this either. So, unless you want to annoy people, Flash is not necessarily a good idea.

Flash does have its uses, but I find they are specific and limited. For example, my son loves the Hotwheels and Treehouse websites because they are full of games and activities—all of them written in Flash. But these sites are owned and maintained by large corporations, which have the money to pay developers to constantly change and update their sites. For the rest of us mere mortals, a Flash-based website is probably not a good idea.