Who are they?
As time marches on, things break. Something you’re watching or playing today might not work tomorrow. Flashpoint is a preservation project, run by volunteers from across the internet, dedicated to capturing web content (primarily made in Adobe Flash) in a more compatible and longer lasting format.
What do they do?
Flashpoint is a community dedicated to archiving web games, animations and widgets. Although they were originally focussed on content made in Adobe Flash, hence the name, they’ve since branched out to HTML5 games, Unity Web Player and even ActiveX, just to name a few.
Things which they’ve grabbed is made accessible on the flashpoint launcher, available on their website: https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/
How do they do it?
Flashpoint is a very organized project with specialized roles.
Content at risk of (or after, in some cases) breaking or disappearing are collected into a pair of Master Lists, usually being submitted through the Requests System. Curators then pick items from this list that they would like to add to the collection, or curate so to say.
Once a curation passes testing (from other Flashpoint volunteers) it’ll be most likely be added in the next release. Depending on whether you’re using the Ultimate or Infinity client, you’ll either be running these locally or downloading what you’re trying to access from Flashpoint’s server automatically.
The process and many other details are further described on their Wiki.
How do I sign up?
There’s always more help wanted! As stated above Flashpoint is entirely run by volunteers, so you can waltz in as you please. Most communication takes place on the massive Flashpoint Discord, which can be accessed from a link on the website: https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/
Besides requesting and curation, there’s always help wanted on all sorts of things from ensuring compatibility to maintaining the project on GitHub. So what are you waiting for? Join Flashpoint to start Flash Freezing today!
Looking to discover other archiving communities? Just follow Data Horde’s Twitter List and check out our other Community Spotlights.
