What happen when changing an addons slug?

Add-ons addons.mozilla.org
#1

Hi all,

For various reason I’d like to change the slug of one of my addons. It’s name changed a little and I’d like the slug to reflect this new name.

However I’m a bit worried about what happen next: is the old slug freed and thus anyone could take it to publish an addon or old slugs are locked indefinitely to the addon, which initially declared them?

Even if I trust the review process, I’d like to avoid one to impersonate my addon by reusing the old slug and confuse user about which one is the legit one.

Thank you very much!

#2

I have the same question. I’ve often been tempted by the editable URL field, but I have no idea how this would affect my extension’s existing users.

Here’s a discussion from 2018 about /privacy-badger17, but they are still using the same URL today.

Edit1:

I’ve decided to try some YOLO research. Renamed https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/ipvfoo-pmarks/ to https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/ipvfoo/ and uploaded a placeholder with "id": "ipvfoo-renamed@pmarks.net" to the old URL.

The placeholder is currently awaiting review. If you can see https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/ipvfoo-pmarks/ then it worked.

Edit2:

The placeholder was rejected:

Due to issues discovered during the review process, one or more versions of your add-on IPvFoo (URL changed) will be disabled on addons.mozilla .org in 14 day(s). Please see the reviewer’s comments below for more information.

Details:
This add-on didn't pass review because of the following problems:

  1. To help users discover your extension and decide if they want to install it, please include more information in your add-on listing. Here are a few tips:
  • Your extension’s summary should clearly and concisely explain what your extension does.
  • Use the description field to describe what the extension does and how it benefits the user.
  • Add screenshots to show your extension in action and to highlight key features.

So Mozilla won’t let you create a mostly-blank forwarding page. I’m trying again with a full description/screenshots/etc.

Edit3:

Mozilla accepted the change. /ipvfoo-pmarks is now published with a forwarding notice at the top of the description, while /ipvfoo retains the original reviews and statistics. I haven’t tried pushing an update to /ipvfoo.

Edit4:

Updates still work. It seems that the biggest problem is convincing Google to prefer the new URL.

Edit5:

Because my extension supports Android (gecko_android in manifest.json), I was able to disable the “Add to Firefox” button for most users by removing “Firefox” from the Compatibility list in AMO. Setting strict_max_version to a lower number had no effect.

#3

Hey all, sorry for the delay on this.

is the old slug freed and thus anyone could take it to publish an addon or old slugs are locked indefinitely to the addon, which initially declared them?

The old slug is freed and another add-on can use it.

Even if I trust the review process, I’d like to avoid one to impersonate my addon by reusing the old slug and confuse user about which one is the legit one.

That’s definitely a concern and part of the reason we encourage developers to not change their slug unless absolutely necessary.

I just opened a feature request to support slug redirects on AMO: https://github.com/mozilla/addons-server/issues/21474.

1 Like
#4

After I’d worked out all the technical problems, my redirector was banned for being a redirector:

This add-on didn't pass review because of the following problems:

  1. As we understand, you’re recommending users to your other add-on which is essentially a Clone/Fork of this add-on. AMO doesn’t allow identical clones of add-ons (add-ons that do not have differentiating features) so we’re disabling this listing.

So this seems like a lost cause. Hopefully I don’t lose too many users.

#5

There are hundreds of clone add-ons on AMO, whose sole purpose is SEO spam.
I’ve given up on reporting these clones, or asking the owners of the originals to report the clones, because Mozilla just leaves them up.

But when there’s a legitimate clone add-on, it fails the review?