Most of those sites (worth their salt) have a button that says "skip intro".  That way you have a choice.

Are you using dial up, or do you have cable? This makes a difference.
My website: www.seductivesedona.com uses a flash intro, but you can certainly go directly to where you want to go. At least I think so. Let me know.
Some of the things I wanted to put up, I decided not to, for those who may still use dial up.

The webmaster I know builds beautiful sites and keeps those things in mind.

Thanks for the reminder,
Sedona

I agree that flash intros are a total waste of time.  Usually, even with a skip intro button, the flash intro takes up too much memory and slows down the user's ability to get to the info fast.  

On another note, I also hate when links to provider's websites from reviews do not then allow you to get back to the review by hitting the back button.  Some examples of this are the Exotica-2k website and tastefullytaylor.com.

Several problems

There are several problems with flash sites:

1.) Macromedia does not make their flash product available for all OS's and
platforms. If your using one of the new more secure platforms and browsers., ie linux and mozilla, you are pretty much out of luck or have to use one of the older versions. I generally SKIP sites that use flash.

2.) In order for you to use flash, your IE settings must be set to generally insecure . if you do not set them back, you can be exposed to all sorts of nasties.

3.) Not everybody has broadband, who wants to wait for a couple of minutes for flash to load at 56k, so you can show us how artsy-fartsy you are. This is not why we came here LOL.

Good reasons why providers should consider NOT using flash for their sites

BC