Talk:FlashGot

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Perhaps it's just me but neither this entry nor the FlashGot homepage seems to clearly explain to me why this program is needed. Why is download management needed beyond what Firefox already offers. Existing explanations seems to not to offer any concrete, easily understood benefits. Dixon pete 13:08, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

I also am sort of perplexed as to what Flashgot is for. Even searching can't seem to come up with any explanation of what it does that my download manager can't do .

It's popularity is a mystery to me, as well. I'm still not exactly sure what it does or why it's needed. I use FlashGot as a middle-man for GetRight, as it's unable to detect downloads in Firefox. As far as download managers are concerned, some files are capable of being received quicker through them by splitting files into multiple parts. Aside from that, I'm convinced FlashGot is a communist myth. —Ortchel 04:51, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Agreed agreed agreed. I downloaded FlashGot once because it seemed so popular and it was completely useless - I got rid of it in no time. I came here for some answers like all of you - alas! Maybe this extension is some kind of practical joke or something, but I notice that it is STILL available! Bizzare - I thought only Microsoft programs had these kinds of useless features. --DreamsReign 12:06, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

I've used Flashgot for the grand total of half an hour now so I'm no expert but this is what it does to my understanding -

• Adds FireFox support for download managers that don't have it - and by running as a browser Addon, it makes some of the other tricks/hacks redundant eg. some download managers may hook the OS and monitor the clipboard for potential URLs, this in turn improves portability ie. it becomes possible to say run Getright in WINE on a Linux box and use Flashgot as the "glue" to a native binary Firefox (without this glue, getright wouldn't be able interface correctly with the non-WINE firefox (I think))
• passes session cookies/referrer URL to download managers that support it (NB: some sites deny download if a cookie is absent or based on the referrer HTTP value)
• it interfaces firefox to non-gui downloaders cURL and wget which are otherwise a pain to use for us lazy GUI kiddies!

* Probably more, I don't know.......... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.242.17.174 (talk) 07:16, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Most Windows download managers install hooks into Internet Explorer so that clicking on download links invoke the download manager. But as far as I understand, many such download managers do not install plugins for Firefox. As such, clicking on download links in Firefox does not automatically activate the download manager. Therefore, FlashGot fills in this gap by putting itself as the middleman between Firefox and the download manager. Personally I have found it useful.

One comment on the article though. FlashGot by itself has no download manager functionality at all -- it is merely an interface between Firefox and the download manager. This fact should probably be stated in the main article. --unkx80 (talk) 14:24, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Edit summary of revision 466982878

Hi. The following is the list of article changes in revision 466982878 on 21 December 2011 made by me.

1. Established article's notability.
2. Changed "Genre" to Firefox extension". There is no source to believe that works with any other Mozilla product.
3. Added a more detailed overview.
4. Merged two sections ("Metalink support" and "search refinements") into one "Overview" section.
5. Removed stub template, since it is no longer a stub.
6. Deleted "Supported download managers" section per WP:INDISCRIMINATE. (I am open to undo but it was outdated too.)
7. Deleted {{Firefox TOC}} since it was irrelevant
8. Tweaked infobox a bit
9. Applied JS: fixing MoS and other miscellaneous style problems

Fleet Command (talk) 06:26, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I take issue with the "discontinued" description

Flashgot was never "discontinued" by its author.

It was made nonfunctional by reckless bad faith updates to Firefox from the Mozilla Foundation - but that is probably not the way we can describe it here. Reckless because Mozilla destroyed hundreds of good and popular Addons in the process, and bad faith because Mozilla simultaneously engaged in in a campaign of outright lies and doublespeak explaining to the wider public that the new API would be as good as the old one and that authors only had to do some minor adaption work to do, thus blaming the addon authors for the breakage that resulted from Mozilla's malfeasance.

Obviously none of this was even remotely true.

In that context, "discontinued" is a direct acceptance of Mozilla's propaganda and thus NPOV. Also, Flashgot is still available for Mozilla-forked browsers like Palemoon and Waterfox. I therefore challenge "discontinued" as unsourced and will remove it from the lead. Wefa (talk) 22:38, 8 September 2018 (UTC)