Actually Doomgaze, I was a part of a team who were one of the first web design outfits to embrace Flash and use it in mainstream websites. Unfortunately, the lack of users with the latest version of the Flash plugin always caused problems for us, and we ended up with a good number of disgruntled clients who didn't understand why they needed an inaccessible technology in their site.

As for your '100,000 hits a month' site, can I hazard a guess that it's a site which mainly appeals to the Internet-savvy audience who are more likely to have a desire for the latest versions of their browser? It all comes down to context. If you're creating a site which you hope will attract a broad range of viewers, you don't tailor it to the users who have the technology, you tailor it to those who don't. There's very little point in creating a website to sell a product if a large percentage of your viewers will never even be able to see the first page.

I'm by no means against the use of current technology in the appropriate context, but blindly spouting the benefits of the technology for all potential applications is both irresponsible and self-harming to a web designer.

Perhaps the root of your attitude is the fact that you're a coder and not a designer. You see everything from a purely technical point of view, and if it works for you it must work for everyone. If it doesn't work for everyone, then it's their own fault and they need to make sure their software is up to date. As a web designer, I consider myself fully versed in web standards, and having created sites for several government projects aimed at a non-technical audience I'm only too aware of the dangers of alienating potential viewers.

Anyway, sorry for hijacking your thread PixelCargo, but there's nothing that gets me more angry than a misinformed developer telling a designer how to do his job.

Ima gene have to go with grayhaze on this one. Even the tech side of web design goes well with the KISS theory. Techs and Designers are real opposites. Here at work the techies would choose win 2k over win xp. A designer... well I think you can guess