Why we got rid of our Flash-animated snail

I spent ages mastering Macromedia Flash in order to make the animation which used to be on the first page of this site (and which now appears below).

It looked pretty. I was quite proud of it. So why is it now banished to this apology page?

The answer is, quite simply: it was no use to anybody.

Web users hate stuff that gets in the way of the proper content. I certainly never, ever wait to look at an animation myself, if there is a way of skipping past it. So why should anyone else?

It had to go, then. But here it is for posterity. (You'll have to scroll down until it's in the middle of the screen):