User:Shaver/AMO Extension Policy

Guiding Principle

Users should get what they expect from add-ons.

Descriptions and names should set expectations (and not mislead), manipulation of personal data must be subject to informed user consent, and add-ons should be updated promptly to resolve significant bugs or version compatibility. Ratings and reviews and categorization should fairly and reasonably describe the behaviour that the user will see if they install the add-ons.

Veto rule

All listings, content, positioning, and availability of add-ons and related material on AMO is at the discretion of Mozilla, and Mozilla reserves the right to remove or modify such material as it deems necessary and appropriate to serve the interests of the project and its users.

Descriptions and add-on naming

Descriptions need to clearly inform the (potential) user of

• the purpose of the add-on
• what, if any, other software or subscriptions/accounts are necessary to use the extension
• how to activate the add-on's functionality, if not obvious.

Descriptions, names, and related text must be in the interface language of the site (currently English for AMO, other languages as those come on line).

Relevant AMO bugs:

• bug 338271 Need support for optional shorter summary, with length cap

Add-on names should not:

• inappropriately use trademarks held by people other than the author
• be confusingly similar to other add-ons or software
• be chosen to "game" or otherwise manipulate sort/display order, search, rating systems

OK: "Wibblotron for Firefox" Not OK: "Firefox Wibblotron" OK: "Network Explorer" Not OK: "Opera 9"

Collection of user data

• description of the add-on must clearly indicate that such collection occurs
• description of the add-on must include a link to the privacy policy for the organization/site to which the data is reported

Relevant AMO bugs:

• bug 335707 Permit developers to provide a link to a privacy policy for their extensions
• bug 335708 Display privacy policy link for extensions in listings

More detail: EffectiveBrand toolbars

EffectiveBrand toolbars are only permitted if they meet both of the preceding requirements, *and* are based on version 1.0.1.13 (or later) of the EffectiveBrand code. Toolbars based on older versions of the EB code should be denied, with a comment indicating that the developer needs to update to use at least 1.0.1.13. The version number of the extension (as from install.rdf) will match the toolbar code's version in virtually all cases, but if you want to check more closely:

• The drop-down menu next to the toolbar logo has an "About" entry which will show the version number.
• You can unzip the inner chrome/*.jar and look in about.xul and/or ebToolbarJS.js for the version strings.

Rating systems

AMO employs various rating and weighting systems to help users find the add-ons most likely to please them, and to profile and reward the best add-ons. Attempts, successful or otherwise, to "game" the rating systems in order to artificially increase or decrease the ranking or visibility of an add-on are not permitted, and may result in measures such as removal of an add-on, resetting of statistics for an add-on, or various blocks and bans.

We encourage people to give positive and negative ratings wherever they feel it's appropriate, and add-on creators are free to encourage fans of their add-ons to rate it highly. Encouraging indiscriminate positive ratings ("everyone go make a bunch of AMO account and rate our extension 5/5!") will be cause for scrutiny, and virtually all cases of encouraging negative reviews of other add-ons will be considered to be abuse.

Abuse of AMO's listings, comment system, or other facilities to manipulate other rating systems is also prohibited.

Creator responsiveness

We expect that add-ons on AMO will be maintained to ensure compatibility with new stable/security releases (e.g. 1.5.0.5, for add-ons that are released for use with Firefox 1.5), and that add-on creators will respond appropriately to feedback regarding major issues (especially security and stability issues).

Failure to respond to requests for fixes to significant issues, especially those related to security or application stability, may result in an add-on being removed from certain listings, having warning text added to the description, or having the add-on removed from the site altogether.