blink blink

June 25, 2004 9:15 PM

Before the dotcom boom, before Google (but slightly after Comic Sans)... there was blink. Let me be clear: I am not advocating or condoning the use of blink. Blink is by far and without a doubt the most hated proprietary element ever created. It is bad for the environment. Or, then again, could it be a tag that has the potential to be used to good effect with a bit of creative thought? I'll leave it up to you...
posted by reklaw (43 comments total)

A marquee tag that blinks is pretty obnoxious, too
posted by dhoyt at 9:35 PM on June 25, 2004

There are people still using browsers that render blink tags?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:46 PM on June 25, 2004

Firefox on XP over here. Blink tag is indeed rendering.
posted by Ryvar at 9:47 PM on June 25, 2004

Firefox 0.9 on Win2000 still rendering, too...
posted by dhoyt at 9:50 PM on June 25, 2004

FWIW - the tag may be hated above all others, but I worked with the guy who invented the damn thing, and he's wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice at a very young age, respected as a visionary (he's best known for thinking up the cookie) and one good-looking bastard to boot.

/chews crust of ordinary life
posted by scarabic at 10:02 PM on June 25, 2004

Double Post.

posted by yhbc at 10:05 PM on June 25, 2004

Fave post this week by far.
posted by Salmonberry at 10:23 PM on June 25, 2004

Actually blink was carried over into the CSS model (instead of dying a much-deserved death). I think it doesn't work on IE. It CAN be useful in a situation where you have an old CSS with legacy styles and you want to test and see which ones aren't used anymore, but that's about the only use I've ever had for the damn thing.
posted by clevershark at 10:23 PM on June 25, 2004

...respected as a visionary (he's best known for thinking up the cookie) and one good-looking bastard to boot.

This guy??

I've seen his other more recent pic and indeed he's handsome, now that the hair-pile has been groomed ;)
posted by dhoyt at 10:25 PM on June 25, 2004

I'll see all of you in hell.
posted by mmcg at 10:55 PM on June 25, 2004

blink
posted by Satapher at 11:42 PM on June 25, 2004

These "proprietary elements" are sooooo unimaginative.

I want a "Go fuck yourself" element which - when the user's computer sound is on - will shout out, in a high pitched cartoon character shrill tone, "Go fuck yourself!".

Dream on, Trout, dream on.
posted by troutfishing at 11:57 PM on June 25, 2004

marquee direction="up" scrollamount="30" height="30" scrolldelay="800"

Pretty sneaky, sis.
posted by Guy Smiley at 12:11 AM on June 26, 2004

Classic, dhoyt! I'd never seen that one. I've never hit the Google image search looking for pix o' Lou before, but this mullet shot is worth a peek, too.

Did I mention Mr. Blink is husband to one hot wife, too?
posted by scarabic at 12:12 AM on June 26, 2004

Mullet Invents Blink; Marries Camel Toe.
posted by Kwantsar at 12:47 AM on June 26, 2004

Despite its shortcomings, WML does not support the blink tag.
posted by Kwantsar at 12:49 AM on June 26, 2004

So,areyousayingthatblinkingtextisbad?
posted by dg at 1:30 AM on June 26, 2004

##($*$#*#

Head explodes!
posted by Quartermass at 2:47 AM on June 26, 2004

( @_@ )

dg, you are eveeel. ;)
posted by attackthetaxi at 4:16 AM on June 26, 2004

Seems privoxy just quietly filters out the marquee and blink tags. One of those things that does its job so nicely I had pretty much forgotten I'd set it up. Was scratching my head for a bit wondering if maybe firefox for windows was cursed with blink but the linux verion had been spared. But nay.
posted by adamt at 4:23 AM on June 26, 2004

I always hated blink, with a hatred that surpasseth all understanding. But then, mercifully, it seemed to disappear ... thanks for bringing back the memories, guys :)
posted by kaemaril at 4:55 AM on June 26, 2004

And, of course, it's lethal [uuurggh ... clutches heart]
posted by raygirvan at 5:22 AM on June 26, 2004

dg - goddamn. Thanks for the trick.

Makes me sad I didn't know how to do that during my "politically charged wall of links" Metafilter phase.

I could have made the links flash on and off like the light show from the spaceship in "Close Encounters of The Third Kind".

Seriously though - while we're on the subject of cheesy tricks (though yours was much better than "cheesy") - isn't there some way I could make a tiny little (2-3 sec) audio clip play when somebody mouses over a link?

Farts, shrieks, low voices intoning "It's hopeless. I'll just crawl up my ass and die!", and so on.......
posted by troutfishing at 6:03 AM on June 26, 2004

man, that brings me back to earlier days of the web. And even back then it was considered bad design :)
posted by andryeevna at 6:42 AM on June 26, 2004

Somewhere, the John Waters of web design is reading this thread and coming up with his Pink Flamingoes.
posted by condour75 at 6:58 AM on June 26, 2004

next up on the block: IMPACT.
posted by mcsweetie at 7:06 AM on June 26, 2004

.
posted by Blue Stone at 10:29 AM on June 26, 2004

posted by donth at 11:45 AM on June 26, 2004

Here I was hoping that Safari only renders Marquee until it's on the screen and it doesn't do blink at all . . . apparently that's only late at night, when my computer knows I can't handle it.

(For whatever reason, this page is rendering much better than it did last night.)
posted by thecaddy at 12:12 PM on June 26, 2004

this should really be called zipper
posted by amberglow at 1:08 PM on June 26, 2004

posted by punishinglemur at 5:57 PM on June 26, 2004

BLINK
What?
posted by eddydamascene at 9:39 PM on June 26, 2004

If you could control the speed of blink and "layer" or alternate color effects, one could create a much subtler fade/glow effect without the use of plugins or animated .gifs.
posted by infowar at 9:47 PM on June 26, 2004

I knew this thread would look like this, and I was not disappointed. dg wins, I think, but it was a close one.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:48 AM on June 27, 2004

Cool, I like it when I win by being the worst at something.
posted by dg at 4:47 AM on June 27, 2004

I swear, them rabbits are hypnotizing me.
posted by dabitch at 3:16 PM on June 27, 2004

posted by donth at 10:18 PM on June 27, 2004 [1 favorite]

Its not like blink is anything new: it was the hype ASCII programming trick right after color & bolding when I was a kid.

"Look! Its Cyan -- and it BLINKS!"
posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:36 PM on June 28, 2004

Sorry -- s/is/was/; "was anything new"...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:37 PM on June 28, 2004

10 ? "HELLO, WORLD!";
20 GOTO 10
RUN
posted by keswick at 2:08 PM on June 28, 2004

donth? how do you do that? it's actually cool. : >
posted by amberglow at 5:29 PM on June 28, 2004

I ♥ donth.
posted by eddydamascene at 12:55 AM on June 29, 2004

Have you seen the adverts on the right?

Ads for marquee hire and - get this - a scrolling LED sign "for your car or truck."

Who in their right mind would purchase such a thing?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 6:13 AM on June 29, 2004