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I don't know if you use firefox and tree-style tabs (unlikely, but far more likely here than anywhere else.) If you do, there's an extension for tree-style tabs

I don't know if you use firefox and tree-style tabs (unlikely, but far more likely here than anywhere else.) If you do, there's an extension for tree-style tabs (an extension for the extension) called "Fade Old Tabs." It allows you to color tabs based on how long it's been since they were accessed. You do this by setting a age range for tabs to be painted gray. Tabs not accessed since the beginning of that range are panted dark gray, and tabs accessed after the range are not colored at all. So if you have 700 tabs and 600 of them you haven't opened in a month, you'll see them and it might make a difference in your habits. It also makes it easier to surf your open tabs when you're bored, rather than surfing randomly and adding new tabs.

krackpot 4y ago
Thank you for sharing "Fade Old Tabs". I have the same problem with OP and have 1200+ tabs open across 4 firefox windows. That is after a big purge I did earlier this year where it was 2000+. Tree Style Tabs crashed a lot before but it has been quite good in recent memory. I have a hard time closing out what is essentially my thought process to finding a solution or doing research. Along the way I close out dead branches. What remains is either a solution or where I have left off. I think my mental barrier is what it represents: my time capital sunk. The issue is working around this many tabs and managing it; a time sink in itself to fix. Started documenting completed solutions in Obsidian and I've found that if I can't get over my lazy barrier to even enter it in, it's probably not important. Just have to keep working on improving and refining the way I think and approach this.
- deafpolygon 4y ago
  > have 1200+ tabs open across 4 firefox windows does research get you to have so many open? How do you manage it all? I've only just started using Sidebery but I try to keep my tabs at a reasonable 100-200 open.
  - Arrath 4y ago
    If OP is anything like me, they 'manage' the old tabs by thinking "Oh that's neat I'll leave it open so I can come back to it' and...never do that.
    - goarchive 4y ago
      I fall into this trap as well. My solution to mitigate my tab hoarding has been to set up a blank GitHub repo and use the discussions/issues to just continually post links, descriptions, and notes in a thread format. Then I can just keep commenting to myself. It seems to help break up topic binges that I go on. Plus I like with GitHub it’s all markdown-based so I can throw images, files and whatever else I need in a session in there to keep it all encompassing.
      - pessimizer 4y ago
        Ever thought of productizing that idea? Sort of a personal threaded wiki that you can send bookmarks to?
      - Pavlova8 4y ago
        So you'd use git in a similar way you'd use obsidian, just with the ability to sync online and share easily/collaborate.
      - 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
        My solution is to shutdown my PCs every day.
        qwertox 4y ago
        I do this as well. I have a Python script which I can use to kill all chrome.exe so that next time the machine boots, chrome offers me to restore the tabs which where open before the crash. I only use this when I know that the tabs are really important and I need to continue using them the next day. Else Chrome starts with a single custom startpage which contains links and as well as views to Jira projects (like a to-do list via the Jira API). And during the day I bookmark all tabs I find important and clean up. But it's usually around 4 windows with each around 10 - 20 tabs which accumulate during the day, in addition to dedicated browser profiles which serve specific purposes, like email or developer consoles.
  - weaksauce 4y ago
    I wrote a little webext to help me find tabs in a visual way grouped by window. middle click closes the tab and left click brings the tab you click on to the forefront. It's simple but something I use many times every day. feel free to try it out: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabist/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabist/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tabist/hdjegjggiogfkaldbfphfdkpggjemaha https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tabist/hdjegjggiog... https://github.com/fiveNinePlusR/tabist https://github.com/fiveNinePlusR/tabist
  - krackpot 4y ago
    I end up not managing it at all and it becomes a second brain. Links also rot when revisiting to recall info which is another problem. I use % in the address bar to find the tab what I'm looking for. I like exhaustive deep dives so will explore as many sources as I can find, until my attention wanes, or I find a solution. Have signed up for Readwise beta which will hopefully help me to add a layer to store/consume information before it info gets committed to Obsidian. Other link/article aggregators have not been successful for me as it just becomes another repository to manage. Will have to look into sidebery, haven't seen that before!
namaria 4y ago
People have hundreds of tabs open at the same time?? I get anxiety if it goes above 12 or 15... The times when I just close them all and start opening firefox with no previous tabs are so relieving to me.
- noisy_boy 4y ago
  I have started opening new windows based on tasks; everything related to that task is on that window. Once the task is done, I close the window so all the tabs go with it. Quite satisfying to close a window with 30-40 tabs. Chrome also allows naming windows so I name each window according to the task.

krackpot 4y ago

Thank you for sharing "Fade Old Tabs". I have the same problem with OP and have 1200+ tabs open across 4 firefox windows. That is after a big purge I did earlier this year where it was 2000+. Tree Style Tabs crashed a lot before but it has been quite good in recent memory. I have a hard time closing out what is essentially my thought process to finding a solution or doing research. Along the way I close out dead branches. What remains is either a solution or where I have left off. I think my mental barrier is what it represents: my time capital sunk. The issue is working around this many tabs and managing it; a time sink in itself to fix. Started documenting completed solutions in Obsidian and I've found that if I can't get over my lazy barrier to even enter it in, it's probably not important. Just have to keep working on improving and refining the way I think and approach this.

deafpolygon 4y ago
> have 1200+ tabs open across 4 firefox windows does research get you to have so many open? How do you manage it all? I've only just started using Sidebery but I try to keep my tabs at a reasonable 100-200 open.
- Arrath 4y ago
  If OP is anything like me, they 'manage' the old tabs by thinking "Oh that's neat I'll leave it open so I can come back to it' and...never do that.
  - goarchive 4y ago
    I fall into this trap as well. My solution to mitigate my tab hoarding has been to set up a blank GitHub repo and use the discussions/issues to just continually post links, descriptions, and notes in a thread format. Then I can just keep commenting to myself. It seems to help break up topic binges that I go on. Plus I like with GitHub it’s all markdown-based so I can throw images, files and whatever else I need in a session in there to keep it all encompassing.
    - pessimizer 4y ago
      Ever thought of productizing that idea? Sort of a personal threaded wiki that you can send bookmarks to?
    - Pavlova8 4y ago
      So you'd use git in a similar way you'd use obsidian, just with the ability to sync online and share easily/collaborate.
    - 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
      My solution is to shutdown my PCs every day.
      - qwertox 4y ago
        I do this as well. I have a Python script which I can use to kill all chrome.exe so that next time the machine boots, chrome offers me to restore the tabs which where open before the crash. I only use this when I know that the tabs are really important and I need to continue using them the next day. Else Chrome starts with a single custom startpage which contains links and as well as views to Jira projects (like a to-do list via the Jira API). And during the day I bookmark all tabs I find important and clean up. But it's usually around 4 windows with each around 10 - 20 tabs which accumulate during the day, in addition to dedicated browser profiles which serve specific purposes, like email or developer consoles.
- weaksauce 4y ago
  I wrote a little webext to help me find tabs in a visual way grouped by window. middle click closes the tab and left click brings the tab you click on to the forefront. It's simple but something I use many times every day. feel free to try it out: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabist/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabist/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tabist/hdjegjggiogfkaldbfphfdkpggjemaha https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tabist/hdjegjggiog... https://github.com/fiveNinePlusR/tabist https://github.com/fiveNinePlusR/tabist
- krackpot 4y ago
  I end up not managing it at all and it becomes a second brain. Links also rot when revisiting to recall info which is another problem. I use % in the address bar to find the tab what I'm looking for. I like exhaustive deep dives so will explore as many sources as I can find, until my attention wanes, or I find a solution. Have signed up for Readwise beta which will hopefully help me to add a layer to store/consume information before it info gets committed to Obsidian. Other link/article aggregators have not been successful for me as it just becomes another repository to manage. Will have to look into sidebery, haven't seen that before!

namaria 4y ago

People have hundreds of tabs open at the same time?? I get anxiety if it goes above 12 or 15... The times when I just close them all and start opening firefox with no previous tabs are so relieving to me.

noisy_boy 4y ago
I have started opening new windows based on tasks; everything related to that task is on that window. Once the task is done, I close the window so all the tabs go with it. Quite satisfying to close a window with 30-40 tabs. Chrome also allows naming windows so I name each window according to the task.