Help Center Lessons/learning material unavailability due to Flash withdrawal
On a recent topic "Require valid Help Center links. Edit: Possibly a Flash problem?"
https://community.familysearch.org/s/idea/0874V000000sjacQAA/detail?language=en_US
I said, Nov 28, 2020, "This topic includes the fact that the video lessons need FLASH, which will soon be withdrawn
Are the above videos not available because of problems connected with FLASH?
If so, IT SEEMS A GREAT LOSS IF ALL MATERIAL USING FLASH WILL JUST BE DISCARDED"
FamilySearch Response Nov 30, 2020 said
"You are right about the Flash requirement--that is why they are no longer available. While we do not have plans to redo these exact lessons..."
The Internet Archive, Archive.org has a project to do with Flash
http://blog.archive.org/2020/11/19/flash-animations-live-forever-at-the-internet-archive/
http://blog.archive.org/2020/11/22/flash-back-further-thoughts-on-flash-at-the-internet-archive/
Although these articles are too technical for me to understand in detail, I wonder if it is possible for FamilySearch to upload to the Internet Archive its Lessons etc (which have been withdrawn due to Flash problems) therefore hopefully preserving them from oblivion, and with the possibility they will still be available for researchers to access again.
As I said in the other topic
IT SEEMS A GREAT LOSS IF ALL MATERIAL USING FLASH WILL JUST BE DISCARDED
Comments
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Flash is used overwhelming with old games and a big sore point because it's a vehicle for hacking and phishing. Latest, may videos do not use Flash anymore due to changes made to the codes within the HTML programming.
If there are any old videos still here, then they need to be re-coded be up to date.
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The bugs and security problems have been known about for a long time now and most informed film makers knew better than to keep persisting with these. Most browsers have already been automatically blocking those things for a while now.
The good news is that there are many video conversion tools out there that can be used to covert those FLV files into something like MP4 files. So FS just needs to get it onto their roadmap and it can happen.
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I would also like to point out that there are now MULTIPLE, perhaps HUNDREDS of, FamilySearch Wiki pages which need updating as the URLs for the Lessons, now withdrawn are now effectively dead.
In a previous post about a specific set of three German Lessons,
"Require valid Help Center links. Edit: Possibly a Flash problem?"
https://community.familysearch.org/s/idea/0874V000000sjacQAA/detail?language=en_US
FamilySearch said "The wiki page has been reported and will be corrected". It has not yet been corrected, but I wonder if it was indicated the EVERY Wiki page which has dead information needs the dead information removed and current information written instead?
As an example, the FamilySearch Wiki page Netherlands Languages https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Netherlands_Languages
has links for both German and Dutch lessons which are dead.
I refer to the comment by JeffWiseman below
"The good news is that there are many video conversion tools out there that can be used to covert those FLV files into something like MP4 files. So FS just needs to get it onto their roadmap and it can happen".
Taking into account both my. view that IT SEEMS A GREAT LOSS IF ALL MATERIAL USING FLASH WILL JUST BE DISCARDED and the fact that multiple, perhaps HUNDREDS of Wiki pages will need changing, could FamilySearch please convert these Lessons using Flash, and not discard them.
Edit: I now see the Indexing page Language Resources and Handwriting Helps/Dutch has dead links within it https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/help/handwriting#!/lang=nl&title=Alfabet
If the Dutch page requires alteration, probably all languages in the section need change.
Also there are still Lessons in the Help Center which use Flash, so will soon become obsolete. I have seen two, there may be more.
https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/lessons/reading-french-handwritten-records-lesson-1-the-french-alphabet
https://www.familysearch.org/help/helpcenter/lessons/reading-portuguese-handwritten-records-lesson-1-portuguese-letters
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