AMO/Featured Board Process
Please see https://addons.mozilla.org/developers/docs/policies/recommended for the latest information.
Mozilla needs your help selecting Featured add-ons
Since the beginning of AMO, we’ve had a set of featured add-ons that are displayed prominently on the homepage and an ever-expanding list of other areas. Being featured guarantees downloads and notoriety, and many add-ons, especially start-ups, see it as crucial in order for their add-on to succeed.
End users see this list as a safe place to start with add-ons and trust Mozilla to feature great add-ons that work perfectly. However the selection process until now has been a pretty objective one, handled randomly by a small number of people, and the list has not been updated as frequently as we would have hoped.
We would therefore like to reach out to the Mozilla community to be part of an Advisory board to review new add-ons, and maintain a set of featured add-ons that are updated each month. We think this is a fair, and novel way to overcome some of the hurdles involved outlined above, and a chance to hand the responsibility over to the community that actually use and develop add-ons on a daily basis.
The Featured add-ons advisory board
Every 6 months, a call will go out via the Add-ons Blog for volunteers to participate in choosing featured add-ons. Volunteers must commit to trying the add-ons that apply to be featured and attending a monthly conference call to discuss suitability.
Each Board’s term is 6 months and will be comprised of 5 community members and 2-3 members of the Mozilla Add-ons team.
A note on member requirements:
Members must abstain from voting on add-ons that they have any business or personal affiliations with, as well as direct competitors of any such add-ons. Members must be picked from the add-ons community: power users, developers, and evangelists of add-ons
Featured Add-on selection process
First, all currently-featured add-ons will be reviewed to ensure their active user count is growing at an acceptable rate in relation to downloads. Add-ons that don’t show excellent growth will be removed from the featured list.
Selecting New Add-ons
Next, all applications submitted since the last meeting will be reviewed individually to discuss the merits of each add-on and experiences using the add-on. A vote will be taken for each add-on and the decision will be placed in the meeting notes, along with any reasons for rejection if applicable.
Removing old featured Add-ons
We regularly prune the featured list to keep it up-to-date and make room for new featured add-ons. Some of the reasons for removal include:
- Does not have wide appeal to consumers
- User experience is lacking
- Quality or security issues
- Too similar in functionality to another featured add-on
Add-on Requirements
1. The add-on must have a completed and informative listing on AMO. This means:
- 64 pixel custom icon
- clear name without lengthy SEO keywords in it
- screenshots of the add-on’s functionality
- a short, clear, and concise summary of the add-on’s functionality
- a detailed description describing additional details of the add-on’s functionality
- fully approved by AMO editors
2. The add-on must have excellent user reviews, and any problems or support requests should be promptly addressed by the developer.
3. The add-on should have gained some popularity on its own prior to being featured; a recommended minimum of 15,000 active daily users is sufficient.
4. Most importantly, the add-on must have wide consumer appeal to Firefox’s users and be outstanding in nearly every way: user experience, performance, security, and usefulness or entertainment value.
5. If an add-on is rejected, it is ineligible to apply again for 3 months.
Finally
Members of the Mozilla Add-ons team may veto any add-on’s selection because of security, privacy, compatibility, or any other reason, but will seek the Board’s approval before featuring any add-ons.
This featured policy only applies to the addons.mozilla.org global list of featured add-ons. Add-ons featured in other locations are often pulled from this list, but Mozilla may feature any add-on in other locations without the Board’s consent. Additionally, locale-specific features override the global defaults, so if a locale has opted to select their own features, some or all of the global features may not appear in that locale.