After several tweets about Flash tonight, I’ve realized that it’s nearly impossible to make any real point in 140 characters. Flash has been a hot button issue for web developers since it first emerged. On the one hand, it provides reliable, cross-browser functionality, on the other hand, it’s in-accessible, overused, and a go-to option for people too lazy to learn javascript.

Overall, I would be very happy to see most Flash content die a horrible death, doubly so for sites that are 100% Flash. The idealistic side of me would love to see a rich, interactive web that runs on standards alone. However, the pragmatic side of me accepts that browser plug-ins aren’t going any where for a while.

While ranting about how horrific Flash is has become very popular, it’s important to keep the following points in mind:

1. Flash was the only cross-browser animation option for years. While we have an arsenal of slick tools at our disposal today, 5 years ago Flash was pretty much it.
2. Most of the people with bad Flash content likely don’t know it’s bad. We web developers tend to forget that 99% of the people online have never heard of web standards or accessibility. We tend to be the most vocal on the web, so we assume we represent the majority, but we don’t.
3. Most of the people with bad Flash content likely don’t care. Most businesses would consider 90% of users good enough. Especially given that the anti-Flash crowd is still demographically similar. A website for tech-savvy 20 somethings will lose money with a Flash site. A site selling infomercial crap to boomers probably won’t.
4. Finally, HTML5 is not only a year or so away, it’s also not 100% on par with Flash or Silverlight. Want to access a webcam? Want 3d graphics support and inverse kinematics? Want to display a video that isn’t square? If so, a browser plug-in may still be the best option.
5. Every obnoxious thing developers do in Flash will be done in HTML5. It’s only matter of time before you see obnoxious mortgage ads, animated splash pages and lame navigation systems using the canvas tag instead of the embed tag.
6. Most business owners don’t care about losing business from iPad and iPhone users. Chances are, if they have a 100% flash site, they lost your business years ago.

I know that any comments posted here will likely be telling me why Flash sucks, but that doesn’t make me wrong. I would love to see Flash and SilverLight limited to a few rich experiences, but it’s not going to happen any time soon. How many table-based websites do you still see out there?

Like the transition from tables to CSS, the transition from Flash will be long, painful and expensive.  It will be worth it, and we will all be better for it, but this battle will be won by even-tempered education. If we want the web to get better, we need to tone down the whiny “It doesn’t work on my iPad” bullshit and build a solid argument that business owners and content-providers can understand.