Thank you all for engaging in this conversation.
I can confirm that we currently have the longest queue that we have had in the last six months. The size of the new add-ons in the review queue has been increasing rapidly.
And that’s due to a lot of different factors, but the ones that are affecting us the most are the following:
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It’s easier than ever for someone to write a new add-on and publish it.
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It’s easier than ever for people to build bots and fake users.
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As a result, malicious attacks have become more common than ever, with a recent example publicized last week.
Our top priority is the safety of our users and developers; that’s why we are continuously working to address the issues that have arisen recently while protecting them/you. Our manual review times currently vary from a few days to a few weeks, but it is worth mentioning that only a percentage of the daily submitted add-ons are added to the manual review queue. And that’s because the majority of the versions submitted to addons.mozilla.org, are fully compliant with our policies.
I am not saying that the add-ons going to the manual review queue are not compliant, but sometimes it’s difficult for our automated tools to validate that our policies are fully met; that’s why they are sent to manual human review. Also, it is worth noting that manual review times depend on the nature of the add-on, its implementation, and the instructions provided to our reviewers for building it. We have had many cases in the past where reviewers took way more time to build the add-on than to review its code and logic. Lastly, when the code is obscured, it’s always more difficult for our reviewers to read, understand, and review it quickly.
That said, we all appreciate the patience you have been showing as we work to improve our processes, identify and restrict malicious users and add-ons, and ensure the quality and safety of the ecosystem. I am confident that we will soon stabilize the situation and drastically reduce waiting times, allowing you to ship changes faster.