This is a topic I had raised previously quite a long time ago and it saddens me to see that the moderation for extension reviews is still somewhat unfair and hostile to developers. Here is the situation at hand: yesterday, I released a major update of Context Search based on manifest 3. In the extension’s description on AMO, over a month ago, I had added a warning that version 6 would be a major update and asking them to backup their search engines prior to any update. I also asked users to kindly report any bugs on GitHub.
The same day that I released the update, a couple of users reported a bug here or there and I immediately sought to address them by releasing a minor update (6.0.1). One user, however, gave a 1-star rating arguing that the extension was broken and that essentially it was a terrible extension, which seriously contradicts all the other ratings! (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/contextsearch/reviews/) I replied to the review by asking the user to report any bug he or she may have encountered on GitHub, but I got no response. Therefore, I flagged the review which was thankfully removed. I appreciate that. However, today I noticed that the users 1-star rating has re-appeared and, this time around, I’m unable to reply or flag the review.
So, my question is: do the moderation team feel that they are treating developers respectfully or fairly. The moderation team should be aware that some users out there are just haters and no matter how good your extension might be, they’ll always reward you with a 1-star rating.
I don’t have an issue with a poor rating once in a while if it’s justified and if, at least, I’ve been given a chance to fix a bug if that is the source of frustration. However, I can’t accept being insulted, blackmailed or seeing my work trashed on baseless grounds.
If the moderation policy for reviews doesn’t improve, I’m sorry but I’ll retire my extension from AMO. I sincerely hope that the Mozilla moderation team will show a little more understanding towards developers.
Hey @odebroqueville2. Thanks for sharing this. I’ve passed this on to the team for consideration. While we don’t have any immediate plans to change how AMO handles one star reviews without comments, feedback like you’ve shared here helps us better understand what is and isn’t working for our community and why.
I’m really unhappy that the situation isn’t being considered more seriously by those responsible of the moderation team at Mozilla. By not addressing the issue, they are being disrespectful towards developers and encouraging hateful conduct. I really don’t appreciate seeing a one star rating for my hard work.
I understand that you’re frustrated with this situation. I know it doesn’t feel good to have someone poorly rate your work. That said, users are free to rate items as they wish. That’s a core part of how ratings work. If we only allowed users to post ratings developers agreed with we’d only have five star ratings.
As you said, “some users out there are just haters and no matter how good your extension might be, they’ll always reward you with a 1-star rating.” For better or worse, that’s a fact of life on the internet. It’s true for everything that users can rate. And since it’s universal, it balances out across produces and aggregated reviews.
My advice would be to continue to focus on what the people that like your extension say and look for ways to better serve them. Haters gonna hate, it’s not worth the energy.
Edit: I forgot to add that @Edward_Sullivan no longer works on Firefox Add-ons, which is rather unfortunate. I enjoyed working with him.
Thank you for your answer, Simeon. However, although I appreciate and value your advice, I don’t fully agree with you. The goal is not to oppose poor ratings. I’m just saying that they should be justified and that developers should be given a chance to address whatever concern has been raised if the commenter is honest. So far, Mozilla’s policy has been to prevent developers from flagging unjustified ratings. Mozilla doesn’t make the least effort to help developers understand why their extension has received a poor rating. I also wonder what it takes for an extension to get recommended by Mozilla, because seeing a note right under an extension saying that the extension could be security risk isn’t exactly good publicity. Finally, I’ll remove my comments about Edward Sullivan, because I don’t like criticising absentees and if you value his collaboration then maybe I was wrong in blaming him.
I’d like to add my 2-cents here - hope that is ok.
There are 2 kinds of reviews on AMO which i as a developer find particularly frustrating.
“1 star without a comment on newer addons”: Those hurt the addons reputation pretty badly. - Would be nice if the 1-star-no-comment reviews for newer addons which have few users/reviews would require at least a comment and we as developers could at least appeal those in case the comment is nonsense/spam or something else unfounded. examples reviews: [1],[2]
“Invalid/outdated complains”: when a user leaves a negativ worded review because of something i have no power over or it might have been a valid complain at one point but it has been addressed but the users never changes their rating. I’ve flagged such reviews as support requests and even left messages under them that the issue has ben fixed, but the AMO team frequently doenst seem to think that warrents a removal. I kind of wish there was a way to keep the comments, but remove the rating from the overal calculation, but i guess that would also only confuse users. So not 100% sure how to best deal with these. examples: [1],[2]
I know that the reviews and ratings arent meant to always give an up to date status of the addons state, but more of a “user feelings history” (that should average out over time) but that doenst change the fact that most users take the ratings as a strong guide for deciding which addon to even try out.
I was just about to write something exactly like this.
@dotproto I know the internet in general is infected with destructive and rotten minds/comments. But Mozilla could do a bit to push the tone on AMO by requiring a comment on 1-star ratings. Maybe with a hint about making the comment constructive, so author has an idea of what is wrong with the extension or how the extension (or extension-description) could be improved.
As AMO is right now, the author can also only reply to reviews having a comment, which is another good reason to require a comment on a 1-star rating.
PS. Sorry to hear Edward is not a Mozilla anymore. I have the impression he did a good job. I don’t know why he left, but I know Mozilla regularly has been cutting staff because of lack of fundings. It’s a pitty.
@odebroqueville2, @1gorlogius, and @stig, I appreciate all of your replies. In retrospect, I think my last post gave the wrong impression; I was trying to address a specific situation from the perspective of another forum regular, not to express a position on behalf of Mozilla.
For clarity, the Firefox Add-ons group doesn’t think the current Add-ons rating system is perfect. We’re considering ways to improve this system in the future. I don’t have any additional details to share at the moment.
