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<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>I think it's good to bring down the temperature on this
conversation a little bit. We are not going to stop supporting
add-ons - and there is probably a case to be made for putting
additional resources into helping add-on authors while they
transition to a MailExtension/WebExtension world.</p>
<p>One thing I would like to remind everyone who participates in
these discussions is that our <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/governance/policies/participation/">community
participation guidelines</a> state that while we can disagree
vehemently - we should do so whilst <b>being respectful</b> of
the people we disagree with. Having spoken with a ton of add-on
authors and the people tasked with supporting add-ons working on
Thunderbird core, both sides have a really hard time appreciating
the burden on the other.</p>
<p>I'm pledging, and I know other folks in the project have voiced
their support for finding a way to provide more resources for
add-on developers. We will get this done, in the meantime we
should refrain from attacking each other and come up with where we
can work together to do the most good.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-signature">Ryan Sipes
<br>
<small>Community and Business Development Manager</small>
<br>
<a href="https://thunderbird.net">Thunderbird</a><br>
<br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/1/19 5:41 PM, Andrei Hajdukewycz
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:ddd57855-687c-7863-d076-9c260e4a3fae@thunderbird.net">On
11/1/2019 4:29 PM, Eyal Rozenberg wrote:
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">Also, I suspect there's quite a bit of
under-counting going on. It seems strange that so many extension
authors continue to update their extensions despite supposedly
having no users. And that numerous extensions have dozens of
daily downloads despite having no users at all, or a number of
users under half an order of magnitude of the daily downloads. I
wonder whether some of it isn't a "use-and-disable-when-done"
pattern.
<br>
</blockquote>
Downloads aren't counted, there is no download data on ATN. But
sure, suspect all you like. You haven't done any work to support
any of your assertions or assumptions.
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<br>
These two sentences are an example of the myopia I was talking
about. Take my less-popular extension for example: BiDi Mail UI.
It is all but necessary if you want to read or write email in a
right-to-left language. But - it's only the 103'rd most popular
extension. Why? Because the vast majority of people in Arabic,
Farsi, Urdu and Hebrew-speaking countries simply do not know
about Thunderbird. They haven't tried it, haven't heard of it.
(And yes, computer use is significantly lower in those countries
on average than in Europe and the US, but not as low as some
might think.)
<br>
<br>
So add-ons do and will drive user base growth in countries using
these languages. Which means among 400 Million people or so.
That is, when growth is not prevented by other factors.
<br>
<br>
Now, mine is just one example - I'm sure there are others.
<br>
</blockquote>
Um, this doesn't make any sense. Your add-on hasn't driven any
growth, and it's not likely to in the future. Sure, it might be a
feature that users from those areas would want, if they started
using Thunderbird, but that's got nothing at all to do with the
add-on driving growth.
<br>
<br>
Honestly, the fact that you call this 'myopic' leads me to believe
that I am wasting my breath here.
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<br>
<br>
That's an unacceptable argument.
<br>
<br>
If that's true, then stop wasting your time and ours with this
wild goose chase of extension maintenance.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
OK, you've convinced me. It is not worth engaging with you or
other add-on authors with your type of attitude anymore. That is
my (personal) stance going forward. Sorry. It's simply not worth
the time.
<br>
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<br>
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<br>
</blockquote>
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