diff --git a/web/SitePreview.tsx b/web/SitePreview.tsx
index 0ccbd67..336b1be 100644
--- a/web/SitePreview.tsx
+++ b/web/SitePreview.tsx
@@ -227,29 +227,21 @@ export const SitePreview = ({
   }, [reloadToken, changed]);
 
   /*
-    Reload by NAVIGATING the frame, not by replacing it.
+    Reloading, as a URL.
 
-    The frame used to carry `key={reloadToken}`, so a reload was a new element: React unmounted the old
-    one and the panel went white until the new document arrived. On a page whose crop has just changed
-    that is not instant — the site is asking av-club for a fresh ladder — so every framing adjustment
-    flashed an empty panel for a second or two, which reads as the preview breaking.
+    Three versions of this, and the reasons are worth keeping.
 
-    A browser keeps painting the current document while the next one is being fetched. So the same
-    element stays, and the old page is on screen until the new one commits.
+    `key={reloadToken}` replaced the ELEMENT, so React unmounted the old frame and the panel went white
+    until the next document arrived — a second or two after a crop change, because the site is building
+    a fresh ladder. That reads as the preview breaking.
 
-    Same origin, through the dev proxy, which is what makes `contentWindow` reachable at all.
+    `contentWindow.location.reload()` kept the element but did not reliably re-fetch.
 
-    Skipped on the first run: the element has only just mounted and is already loading its document.
+    A changing `src` does both: the browser navigates the SAME element, so it keeps painting the current
+    document until the next one commits, and the URL is different so nothing is served from cache. The
+    parameter means nothing to the site and is ignored.
   */
-  const first = useRef(true);
-
-  useEffect(() => {
-    if (first.current) {
-      first.current = false;
-      return;
-    }
-    frame.current?.contentWindow?.location.reload();
-  }, [reloadToken, changed]);
+  const reloadKey = `${reloadToken ?? 0}.${changed}`;
 
   useEffect(() => {
     if (!loaded) return;
@@ -379,7 +371,7 @@ export const SitePreview = ({
                 applyTheme();
                 setLoaded((n) => n + 1);
               }}
-              src={`/api/dev-proxy/${port}/${path}`}
+              src={`/api/dev-proxy/${port}/${path}?_=${reloadKey}`}
               title={`The site at /${path}`}
               className="border-0"
               // The device's real width, and the room's real height. No transform: see the note above.