On 3/14/2012 4:36 PM, Nicholas Nethercote wrote:
> The three problem areas are
> "Add-ons can hurt performance"
This is the largest problem we face today with add-ons. I count in
"performance" everything from start-up time to GUI and page-load
performance to jank caused by excessive memory usage. Any real solution
to this problem must either prevent add-ons with these kinds of problems
from ever reaching our users or must ensure that our users have real,
actionable information about the problems the add-on can cause before
installing (for new installations) and after installation (for
installations that were in place before the new warning.)
> "Non-AMO add-ons have no minimal quality standard"
Serious problems in this area which aren't covered by performance are
stability, Firefox UX breakage, and site breakage. If the add-on's
features are not well designed for usability, that is a problem, but if
the add-on doesn't cause problems with Firefox and is only a poor
experience in and of itself, I think that's less serious. As with the
first category, any thorough solution to this problem should prevent
add-ons which cause Firefox crashes, or UX or site breakage from
reaching users or must ensure that our users have real, actionable
information about the problems.
> "Foreign-installed add-ons can be unwanted"
If the problems of performance and quality are addressed, either by
preventing those problems from reaching users or by informing users
about the problems so they can make good choices, this area should be
mostly limited to privacy, security, and usability problems. I believe
that we have solved some of this problem with prompts to warn users of
foreign-installed add-ons. I'm concerned that the implementation there
is not as usable/actionable as it could be and I'd like us to invest
more in UX/UR to get that as good as it can be. We also can mitigate
with easier tools for toggling on and off foreign-installed toolbars.
The Australis Firefox re-design includes plans to make this easier.
> Some of the listed ideas are already in place. Of those that are
not, I think the following are both worth doing and likely to be
uncontroversial:
> - offer reviews/QA for non-AMO add-ons
I think we should make this available and we should do pro-active
outreach to push this onto non-AMO add-on authors -- at least any with
substantial user numbers.
> - provide listings for non-AMO add-ons on AMO
This seems like an absolute necessity for providing users with real
choice. Listings, review states, and ratings are all necessary. It's the
only way we can properly warn them about shortcomings with add-ons. We
should surface this information during foreign-install "are you sure"
prompts and we should make sure it's easily accessible for add-ons
installed from non-AMO websites. For users who already have add-ons
installed, we should offer a one-time prompt on a future update that
helps them understand the implications of their current add-ons. We
should also update the add-on manager to grab relevant data from the
listings and display it along side the add-on in the add-ons manager.
- A