You have Shockwave Flash 23.0 r0 installed.

Get the current 24.0.0.186 version here: https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

"Ask to Activate" is standard for outdated versions of Flash, unless the outdated version is too old and too vulnerable. I that case it is just blocked altogether.

But I want the choice to run it and it doesn't give me that, surely what happens on my computer is up to me? I do not want mozilla making decisions for me and not even having the decency to let me disagree. I am not a child and don't appreciate being treated like one. It's for your own good they say, but I want to decide that and not have the decisions made for me.

No, in this case it is not up to the user, without the user "hacking" the blocklist file.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/blocked/ When an older version of a Plugin is added to the blocklist the "choice" is Ask to Activate for a "soft block" (click to play) and no "choice" for a "hard block". https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/blocked/p1422

The way around that is to delete the blocklist.xml contents and lock the file thru Windows Explorer so the empty file can't become updated / populated with freshly retrieved "blocklist" data.

blaydon said

Despite asking firefox to allow and remember to run flash it refuses to do so. IT NEVER REMEMBERS.

If Firefox "forgets" site-specific permissions between sessions, could you check:

Is Firefox set to Clear the Permissions when you Close Firefox?

Firefox has an optional feature to remove history when you close it. This feature covers numerous categories of data, one of which is site-specific exceptions. Let's make sure you aren't clearing those every time you exit Firefox. This is on the Options page:

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options

In the left column, click Privacy. Then on the right side, if you do not see a lot of detailed settings, choose "Firefox will: Use custom settings for history" to reveal them.

If there is NOT a checkmark for "Clear history when Firefox closes" then you do not have this problem and you can close the Options page.

If there IS a checkmark for "Clear history when Firefox closes" then click the Settings button to the right of that. Make sure that "Site Preferences" is NOT checked in this list, or else you'll keep losing your Flash permissions.

I have not got a clear site preferences set up so I am still at a loss as to why it doesn't remember. As to editing and locking files I would prefer that mozilla allows me to decide, suggest certainly but leave the decision to me.

A few versions of Flash Player were not added to list in the past months until it was covered by a newer version range in blocklist.

The vast majority of Flash Player versions since December 2014 has been affected by critical vulnerabilities and many were proven in wild as to why the previous versions can be set to click to play soft blocking sometime after recent Flash update.

Mozilla does not block Plugins like Flash Player because they hate them or for being old. Adobe posts the security bulletins for Flash Player plugin and Mozilla decides if the security concerns is critical enough to warrant adding versions to list. https://helpx.adobe.com/security.html#flashplayer

If the security concerns of the Flash Player versions were minor then they likely would not be put on blocklist like was the case back during March 2013 to December 2014.

The problem with not adding any versions to list is that from Dec 2014 on many were asking why their old versions from early 2013 was click to play blocked.

It's not like its a very old version just the previous one. I have problems upgrading flash because I use both Firefox and Opera so if I try an autoinstall it always fails. I have to download and install manually so I occasionally leave it for a few days till I have time and during that time I want to use the slightly older version without having to have the softblock operate.