AMO Deployment bumped to March 22nd

By Mike Morgan

Due to a delay in the pending Firefox release, we will be pushing AMO deployment to the evening of Thursday, March 22nd.

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About Mike Morgan

Mike Morgan is the Director of Web Development for the Mozilla Corporation. Mike joined the Mozilla community as a volunteer in 2003 and has worked on Mozilla's mirror management software, update system and addons.mozilla.org. These days he spends most of his time on strategy, recruiting and helping his team embrace their inner nerd.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 12:42 pm and is filed under AMO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

47 Responses to “AMO Deployment bumped to March 22nd”

Argh…
So close but we never reach it.
Tonino on March 16th, 2007 at 12:01 am
i hope to join this company …..
keep on
copa on March 16th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Thanks for all the work…See you in four days’ish
slyfox aka aldreneo on March 17th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
I love Firefox, but the AMO team is pathetic. The beta site is less usable than the current site, and you’re a month and a half late AFTER telling reporters about the release, therefore creating a bigger disappointment than if you’d been silently behind schedule. I’ve been trying to bite my tongue, but this is just ridiculous now. Really bush league work, guys.
Creon on March 19th, 2007 at 7:47 am
PLEASE change the listing order back to “last updated”. The current alphabetic listing is horrible. It makes the site look like a phone book!
FXF on March 19th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
agreed. unfortunately, excuses like ‘we volunteer’ or ‘on our free time’ or the like do not make up for grade A incompetence. sorry to be so harsh; better that than a repeat.
justauser on March 19th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Please do not forget to add the Italian localization (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=373808) before to start with the new version of AMO.

Many (Italian) thanks!
mozillaitalia.org on March 20th, 2007 at 5:33 am
Sheesh Creon, what’s your beef? You obviously don’t *want* the new site, but you’re acting like it’s a huge dissapointment for humankind that it’s late. Get over it. They’ve delayed for good reasons in each case. This is software. Almost nobody releases “on time”, and everyone expects that. They’re a heck of a lot more on schedule than the Vista team were…and frankly, a heck of a lot more on time than we are, but we do have a pretty awesome addon ready to drop shortly.
Seth Wagoner on March 20th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
I agree with Creon; this is just getting ridiculous. I won’t hold my breath tomorrow; I would bet right now there will be more delays. Next time I suggest handling your PR better and announcing a realistic update schedule that takes into account unexpectedly arising difficulties.
chris on March 21st, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Shut up Creon. Better late than never.
Stvbec7 on March 21st, 2007 at 1:18 pm
I was referred to the “NEW” ADDONS SITE but … Was that a scam?
Nd too all Patience is less than A virtue, This my friends is FireFox … and it will well … it is the #1 Browser In the world.
John C. Y. on March 21st, 2007 at 9:45 pm
You have to be kidding me! You are planning on deploying the preview site today with only 160 extensions that look like they were selected randomly!?

And of the thousands of extensions in sandbox, most have no downloads visible at all. Some have versions older than available from the current site, but I cannot even download them without getting an error!
john on March 21st, 2007 at 11:56 pm
22 March my a**.
Joe on March 22nd, 2007 at 1:40 am
I usually make a point of refraining from leaving notes here or there because I (a) always have lots to do and (b) always tend to ramble on at unnecessary lengths when a few short words would do the trick, but that is irrelevant now, I have finally been motivated to speak.

AMO team: I think, from my perspective, the way you conduct your work is absolutely top-notch. I am not a member of your team and have no idea what sort of programmers or designers or whatever-elsers you are, but I am a consumer. As such, I always know what’s going on (via your blog) and I am confident when your new product is released it will have been measured by quality, not deadlines. Thank you for practicing business in this way.

Creon: You call the AMO team pathetic. You whine about the usability of a !beta! site and the disappointment of missed deadlines. Trying not to over-react here but MY GOD have you never used a product which was released before being ready? I suspect you have and have not been satisfied else you would not have made the switch to Firefox. Two things I can personally guarantee you about software development: +You’ve probably never used a product which was released by it’s original deadline (I doubt such a thing exists) and +developers are almost never clear or upfront when they publicly miss deadlines.

I for one am content just to know work is being done. Perhaps you could try and remember life before Firefox, then think about how much you paid for the product, and then perhaps try and attain just a bit of civility to temper your incredibly rude tone.

Just my two (or twenty) cents.
Zak on March 22nd, 2007 at 2:20 am
Hello
I have a question I could not find an answer for, on preview.amo (but may be it was so obvious that I missed it !!)

Where is it explained in a obvious way that you have to download the extension for Thunderbird, go to the TB Extension Panel and install it there ?

This explanation should be available next to every install button, but I’m missing it.

I hope it will be there in brand new AMO tonight !!
klint on March 22nd, 2007 at 9:01 am
Sad… You should not set a date if you are not going to accomplish it.
JaRa76 on March 22nd, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Yeh looking foward to a new shinny amo tonight.
good work guys
Byron on March 22nd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
still over two hours of evening left!
Mark Brown on March 22nd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
DST on the eastern seaboard of the United States, that is.
Y’all sure don’t need *my* help. lol
Mark Brown on March 22nd, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Okay, it’s the 22nd, where is the new site?
MASA on March 22nd, 2007 at 6:18 pm
It’s live. 9:55 CST.
Thomas on March 22nd, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Is there any way to search for extensions for a particular version?
E.g. search for all extensions for Firefox 3 alpha 2 (aka Gran Paradiso Alpha 2)?
Josh M on March 22nd, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Its live. Gud one.

When i log in as a developer, it does not direct me to the developer’s panel.

Also old extensions are not detecting automatic updates to new extensions. I installed ColorfulTabs 1.9 (old amo) and checked for updates multiple times even after clearing cache. Still no go. Hope this will be fixed.

Regards
Sharma
Varun Sharma on March 22nd, 2007 at 9:45 pm
All my favorite Extensions are missing from the site. Is this just temporary?
I hope so. There are going to be a lot of pissed of people.
Ghoulardi on March 22nd, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Where are all the extensions gone???
A lot of developer spend a lot of time to create their extensions and to share them with others. And all you do is kick their extensions in the sandbox where no one will find them and dropping their sites without any notification! This isn’t fair. I don’t understand why previous reviewed versions of those extensions aren’t accessible anymore. You create a lot of broken links…
Can’t call this an update
chalcedon on March 23rd, 2007 at 12:35 am
I don’t understand how the sandbox is supposed to work. I can’t get access to any of the non-public extensions (except my own, via the developer control panel). How then are “regular users” supposed to be able to evaluate extensions in the sandbox? If they can’t, how can those extensions get enough downloads and reviews to make them good candidates for promotion to the public site?

According to one of the AMO developers: “While in the sandbox, regular users will be able to install and test the add-ons and then write reviews as to whether the add-on works and should be pushed to the public site. After several of these reviews, an AMO editor will review the add-on and the public reviews and make a decision to send it to the public area or keep it in the sandbox.”

http://blog.fligtar.com/2006/11/21/reviewing-the-review-process/

Can someone please explain how regular users are able to do this? It isn’t at all obvious, if it’s possible at all.
James on March 23rd, 2007 at 2:27 am
Where is the Basque version? I thought you were going to add it to website. When will it be added?
ibai on March 23rd, 2007 at 2:28 am
Will the sorting by date, rating, etc. actually work? I was thinking it was only not working in the preview version, but apparently that is not the case.
TowerStorm on March 23rd, 2007 at 5:09 am
i don’t think it’s a good idea to distinguish between a sandbox and a public archive… i don’t understand how this system is supposed to work and can’t find the hidden extensions …
Steve on March 23rd, 2007 at 6:11 am
Now what? It is back to old one?
Milos on March 23rd, 2007 at 6:34 am
What happened to all the comments/reviews and download counts? Thousands (millions?) of users had taken the time to share their thoughts and now it appears that it was all for naught. My extensions alone had accumulated hundreds of comments that have not been carried over from the old AMO. Are we starting from scratch?
Chuck Baker on March 23rd, 2007 at 6:36 am
All the extensions, except a select few, have been “apparently deleted”[1].

See bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=374406

[1] I say “apparently deleted” because that’s what it looks like. They are actually still there, but hidden from view except to people who:
1) Create a login account
2) Login
3) Click on their email address in the upper right corner
4) Click on the “show sandbox” option.
5) Save
6) Click on “sandbox” in the loginbar.

Ciao!
docwhat on March 23rd, 2007 at 6:42 am
I can’t believe it. How can they possibly make this half-baked site public?
Just a snapshot – go to the most popular theme (Blue Ice) and open it. Here’s what you get:

“Blue Ice 1.2.4 Homepage
by firefoxreloaded

A crisp, simple ice blue theme…

A crisp, simple ice blue theme.

>>> TO INSTALL: Download, restart and go to Tools -> Add-ons and Themes. Click on Blue Ice then on "Use Theme". Then restart. You should now be running Blue Ice.

>>>> Email me if you want a response: ffreloaded@pixelscape.net

>>>> Black XP theme – if you want the look seen in the screenshots download here”

Same for all themes: description repeated twice (which makes it look really unprofessional from the first glance); >>&gt jibberish; all previous comments are gone; no ratings; no download counters.
And even if all these issues were fixed – can anyone tell me in what way the new site is superior to the old one?
Andy on March 23rd, 2007 at 7:00 am
So, it’s the 23rd. Did I miss something? The site hasn’t changed. Good gravy.
K on March 23rd, 2007 at 7:14 am
It changed, But it appears they rolled back to the older version due to problems of some sort, I expect there will be a blog entry some time today explaining it.
CP on March 23rd, 2007 at 9:14 am
The new site was indeed up, but has been taken down (replaced with the old one) due to (I believe – it’s 2nd or 3rd hand information) too high load on the servers. I am sure the AMO team will be disecting whatever information they have about the problem and working on making it all work soon.
James Ross on March 23rd, 2007 at 9:39 am
Dear AMO admins:

I know you are all probably really busy fixing the things that didn’t go so well last night, but please communicate with the developers and users about your plans.

Also, I’m sure you probably realize this now, but invalidating millions of existing links to (sandboxed) addons on your site was a bad idea.

Good luck on the fixes,
kiroset on March 23rd, 2007 at 9:54 am
Awww damn! The little boys building their tree house strike (out) again

It’s a good thing that none of you work for large corporates that require working (As in relatively bug free) systems to be delivered on time.
Fred on March 23rd, 2007 at 10:14 am
I agree with Chuck Baker, you cannot simply throw away past comments and ratings. Overall, it must represent thousands of hours of review and writing. Even if many ones are not pertinent, most have been written by honest people who just wanted to share their opinion without date limit.

Now the point of view of the extension developer: most of their extensions have been removed from amo. I say ‘remove’ because no-one (
Zed on March 23rd, 2007 at 10:31 am
why did they need a new page anyway?
someone explain please?
clyde on March 23rd, 2007 at 10:54 am
… my previous message was cut down …

Now the point of view of the extension developer: most of their extensions have been removed from amo. I say ‘remove’ because no-one (
Zed on March 23rd, 2007 at 11:36 am
follow-up cut down message:

Now the point of view of the extension developer: most of their extensions have been removed from amo. I say ‘remove’ because no-one (
Zed on March 23rd, 2007 at 11:38 am
All right, the ‘lower than’ sign ends the message

Now the point of view of the extension developer: most of their extensions have been removed from amo. I say ‘remove’ because no-one ( LOWER THAN 1%) will ever configure his/her amo account to be able to view sandboxed extensions. Developers have spent many nights and week-ends trying to produce their best code and make a popular extension. All of them were sure their program will stay there for the eternity. Many linked their amo page from their site as they were told “Submit you’re extension to this site ensure to be always downloadable and automatically updated”. Now, their work has gone ! Please do not underestimate the frustration it will cause. How long will it take before many of them will pass directly their angry users requests to amo-editors@mozilla.org ? Or worse, decide to stop developing on mozilla because the whole distribution system cannot be trusted ?

I agree, there are many improvements that can be done to the existing (2.0) system, like allowing comparisons between equivalent extensions, amo reviewers giving a quality label, wider than the recommended addons. If you want to cleanup unsupported and obsolete extensions, ping by mail the developers to do an action to avoid the removal of their add-ons, but please, please do not ‘remove’ the work from so many active developers.

You just rolled back from amo 3.0. Please, do not put it back. Errare humanum est, perseverare autem diabolicum.
Zed on March 23rd, 2007 at 11:40 am
Is there anyway users can vote for inclusion in the new AMO site? I noticed that the theme I use, flawless execution, 4.65 rating, was not included. I would never have found it through the new site. Why is less more – isn’t user choice an essence of the internet?
James on March 23rd, 2007 at 11:41 am
Welcome to March 23rd…Good Effort Guys…..*Shakes Head*
slyfox on March 23rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I’m not sure if all those criticizers here have ever actively developed an extension and published it on AMO. I agree that finding the sandbox is pretty hard, I think registering is enough so that “one time” people like Your Mom (TM) don’t find it.
* Wrong descriptions (like having 2 lines twice) is NOT a problem of AMOv3 but of the developers that don’t update their description.
* Your extension can be pushed to the public site even when there aren’t any reviews available because they can still get reviewed like they did before. The only action the developer gotta take is clicking a link in the new dev panel. If the developers were “active” they would’ve updated their descriptions and would’ve clicked the “nominate” link but they haven’t… so they’re not really active then… want to blame AMO for that?
* Keeping the comments… Zed, are. you. serious!? Most of them are one-liners like “nice extension” or “works great, thanks” “bugs xyz sucks”. It’s just the rating put into words and doesn’t provide real info to a new users. Some add requests for new features or insults because they don’t like the extension. Just have a look at “Download Statusbar”‘s comments: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/26/comments/ Only really useful comment is by 徐孟瑞, and it doesn’t provide information that wasn’t already obvious from the description. Ratings aren’t lost by the way, so I don’t see any disadvantage here. No one really read the comments anyway. How do I know? Because people keep asking for the same issues answered a few comments earlier. So having class instead of mass is a pretty nice idea.
* “Work gone”. That’s plainly wrong. Considering that Your Mom visits the site for the first time, it’s a pretty good idea to only offer high quality extensions that are unlikely to break anything. It depends on the devs as well, they need to be honest to themselves and not public buggy extensions. Keeping extensions in the sandbox is a great way to only serve extensions to advanced users. I just don’t want one of my extensions to be on the public pages because I can admit to myself that it doesn’t meet the required high quality standards even though I put much work into it and I’m not angry about it at all.
* “All of them were sure their program will stay there for the eternity” Wrong again. Developers know that they have to obey the maxVersion limit set by AMO. So devs are forced to upload version bumps every new Firefox version as AMO only allows maxVersions for builds that already exist. E.g. entering “5.0″ as maxVersion for Firefox is NOT possible. As almost no one knows about nightly tester tools or how to version bump an extension, there’s little to no difference if they are on the public site where no one* can install them or if they are in the sandbox where no one* can find them (*: no one excludes advanced users).

I think v3′s concept is pretty fine, even though the discoverability of the sandbox should be improved (having to activate a checkbox in the settings is pretty hard to find).

I don’t know where you all draw your information from, but it’s a clear improvement, especially for the USERS. If developers don’t care for their extensions you really can’t blame AMO for it. When browsing the preview I can see many extensions that already updated their descriptions, some even provide translated versions and so on. These are caring developers, not the ones that don’t even update their descriptions although it’s been long known now that AMOv3 will replace v2 sooner or later.
Greetings
xeen
xeen on March 23rd, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Shut up Creon. Better late than never.
filim on April 30th, 2008 at 7:48 am

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