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Rant: Lost 3 hours of work because a 2005 Flash website crashed my browser
I was digging through the Internet Archive last week trying to find some old web comics I used to read back in high school. Found this crazy site from 2005 that had this whole animated intro with MIDI music and everything. I clicked play and my whole browser froze. Had to force quit. Lost a bunch of tabs I had open with other old sites I was saving. The worst part? I still didn't get to see the comic. Has anyone else had old Flash stuff cause problems like this? Any workarounds?
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noahward2mo ago
Honestly that Flash situation is a nightmare. I've had the same thing happen with old sites from the Geocities era where they'd have some crazy animated banner or a music player that just kills everything. The Ruffle extension has been a lifesaver for me, it runs old Flash stuff in a sandbox so it crashes the extension instead of your whole browser. But even then some of those really elaborate 2005 era sites are just too much for it. Those old builds were held together with broken code and good vibes, they don't stand a chance on modern browsers.
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reese5502mo ago
held together with broken code and good vibes" is the most accurate thing I've ever read about mid-2000s web design lol. But ok, does Ruffle actually handle sites that auto-play stuff on load or do you still have to click through carefully? Because half my issue is I forget old sites loved blasting you with content the second the page finished loading.
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