Why these mostly empty hidden files?

[joe at actionline.com]

Today, I was shocked to find a thousand-plus empty hidden directories and
files on my system and I don't know how they got there or why there are
there.

Is there any reason why I should not delete them?

There may be more in other places, but the ones I just discovered are
buried deep in these two sub-directories:

/home/joe/.macromedia/Flash_Player/#SharedObjects/2ETARA88
/home/joe/.macromedia/Flash_Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys

I hate flash for a lot of reasons, but now even more as it seems to be
hiding things on my system -- 310 mostly empty directories in 2ETARA88 and
another 1227 mostly empty directories in flashplayer/sys

Very annoying.