Editing Blink element (section)

{{short description|HTML element causing flashing text}}
{{HTML}}
The '''blink element''' is a non-standard [[HTML element]] that indicates to a [[user agent]] (generally a [[web browser]]) that the page author intends the content of the element to blink (that is, alternate between being visible and invisible).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=&lt;blink&gt;: The Blinking Text element |url=https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/blink |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510064635/https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/blink |archive-date=2023-05-10 |access-date=2017-09-11 |website=[[MDN Web Docs]] |publisher=[[Mozilla]] |language=en-US}}</ref> The element was introduced in [[Netscape Navigator]]<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Montulli |first=Lou |author-link=Lou Montulli |title=The Origins of the &lt;Blink&gt; Tag |url=http://www.montulli.org/theoriginofthe%3Cblink%3Etag |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331020029/http://www.montulli.org/theoriginofthe%3Cblink%3Etag |archive-date=2022-03-31 |access-date=2017-09-11 |website=www.montulli.org}}</ref> but is no longer supported and often ignored by modern Web browsers; some, such as [[Internet Explorer]], never supported the element at all.<ref name=":0" />

Despite its initial popularity among [[personal homepage|home users]] in the 1990s, it fell out of favor due to its overuse and the difficulty it presents in reading.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Eaton |first=Kit |date=2013-08-07 |title=Saying Goodbye To The HTML Blink Tag |language=en-US |work=[[Fast Company]] |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3015408/saying-goodbye-to-the-html-tag |url-status=live |access-date=2017-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519144714/https://www.fastcompany.com/3015408/saying-goodbye-to-the-html-tag |archive-date=2022-05-19}}</ref> [[Lou Montulli]], often credited as the inventor of the blink element, claims he only suggested the idea, without writing any actual code.<ref name=":1" />
{{quote|text=
... At some point in the evening I mentioned that it was sad that [[Lynx (web browser)|Lynx]] was not going to be able to display many of the HTML extensions that we were proposing, I also pointed out that the only text style that Lynx could exploit given its environment was blinking text. We had a pretty good laugh at the thought of blinking text, and talked about blinking this and that and how absurd the whole thing would be.&nbsp;... Saturday morning rolled around and I headed into the office only to find what else but, blinking text. It was on the screen blinking in all its glory, and in the browser. How could this be, you might ask? It turns out that one of the engineers liked my idea so much that he left the bar sometime past midnight, returned to the office and implemented the blink tag overnight. He was still there in the morning and quite proud of it.<ref name=":1" />}}