Flashback.org Scraper

Flashback (flashback.org) is Sweden's largest online discussion forum, known for its strong commitment to free speech and anonymity. The platform hosts millions of posts across a wide range of categories such as technology, politics, culture, lifestyle, and science. Flashback is a valuable source for Swedish public discourse and community opinions.

Introduction

The Flashback.org scraper crawls forum listings and thread pages. Provide search/list URLs or a query, and it will paginate through results, capturing structured post data with user and thread metadata.

Use Cases

• Community research: Analyze discussion trends by category or keyword.
• Content monitoring: Track new posts and updates on specific topics.
• User analytics: Gather user activity details like post counts and registration dates.
• Data aggregation: Build dashboards for thread volumes, categories, and timestamps.

Input

Provide the following fields:

• startUrls (array, optional): Listing or thread URLs on flashback.org. Example: { "url": "https://www.flashback.org/sok/?so=pd&query=ai&sp=0" }
• query (string, optional): Keyword to search (used to build the search URL).
• maxThreads (integer, optional): Maximum number of threads to process (default: all).
• maxPostsPerThread (integer, optional): Maximum number of posts per thread (default: all).
• proxyConfiguration (object, optional): Apify proxy configuration. Example: { "useApifyProxy": true }

Notes:

• Use Flashback search/listing URLs or provide a query; thread detail URLs on the same domain are also supported.
• The crawler stops when maxThreads is reached or there are no more results.
• Off-domain links are skipped automatically.
• You must provide either startUrls or query to run the scraper.
• Proxy usage is recommended. If possible, use residential proxies in Sweden (SE).

Input Examples

1) Start URLs

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.flashback.org/sok/?so=pd&query=ai&sp=0"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.flashback.org/t3714541"
    }
  ],
  "maxThreads": 25,
  "maxPostsPerThread": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "SE"
  }
}

2) Query

{
  "query": "artificial intelligence",
  "maxThreads": 10,
  "maxPostsPerThread": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "SE"
  }
}

Output

Each dataset item contains fields like:

{
  "url": "https://www.flashback.org/p94033708#p94033708",
  "urlThread": "https://www.flashback.org/sok/?so=pd&query=ai&sp=0",
  "totalPosts": 8,
  "title": "AI generated legal cases?",
  "categorys": [
    {
      "name": "Society",
      "url": "https://www.flashback.org/f8-samhalle-60120"
    },
    {
      "name": "Law",
      "url": "https://www.flashback.org/f26-juridik-60120"
    }
  ],
  "id": "94033708",
  "username": "example-user",
  "userUrl": "https://www.flashback.org/u1460889",
  "userType": "Member",
  "userImage": "https://static.flashback.org/img/avatar/356/1460889.jpg",
  "registeredAt": "Sep 2021",
  "postCount": 1382,
  "postUrl": "https://www.flashback.org/find_posts_by_user.php?p=94033708",
  "postDate": "2026-01-15, 13:37",
  "postNumber": "1",
  "content": "Example post content extracted from the thread.",
  "quote": null,
  "lastEditedAt": null,
  "lastEditedBy": null
}

The scraper paginates through results and stops when there are no more threads or when maxThreads is reached.

Why use the Flashback.org Scraper?

• Fast: Efficient crawling with smart pagination.
• Easy to use: Start from listing URLs or provide a query.
• Reliable: Built on Apify Actors and Crawlee (Cheerio).
• Flexible: Supports search and category listings.
• Comprehensive: Captures thread, user, and post metadata.
• Community insights: Optimized for forum data extraction.

FAQ

• How many posts can it extract?
  Set maxThreads and maxPostsPerThread to limit results; If not provided, the scraper will use the default limit.

• What if the website changes?
  Site changes may require updates. Please report issues or request updates.

• Does it support proxies?
  Yes. Configure proxyConfiguration to route traffic through your preferred proxies.

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