Originally Posted by cny-bikeman
Above comments are correct. It's much better to have a thick flange than a thin one, but you need to get the spokes seated as much as possible when building to lessen later adjustments.
What these posters are describing is formally known as "stress relieving" the spokes. I.e. you bend them at the elbows so they fall in as straight a line as possible from the hub flange to the rim hole without being held there by tension. That way there are no residual stresses when the wheel is in use and the spoke fatigue life is significantly improved.