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Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-03-04, 04:35
by mintoyatsu
Now that authors can submit extensions with the Phoebus 2.0 panel, I believe it would be convenient to have a way to easily find new additions to the site. Currently, extensions are only sorted alphabetically so it's difficult for me to figure out what's new without memorizing all of the older extensions. I'm always looking for new Pale Moon extensions to try, so this would be useful for me (and maybe others too).

Some various ways to go about this might be:
  • side links inside each category to sort by date added, updated, etc. to go beyond just alphabetical sorting.
  • a small dynamically updated page of the latest five or so extensions that have been added to any of the categories.
  • small dates next to extension names/descriptions without having to view each extension's page.
Either way, I'm happy with the direction of the new add-ons site and hope many more extensions will be added.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-03-04, 08:00
by vannilla
I'm in favor of a way to sort extensions inside a category.
In theory it could be done entirely client-side, but let's hear Tobin's opinion on the matter first.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-03-04, 09:51
by yami_

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-03-04, 10:35
by mintoyatsu
Thank you for the thread, yami_. I apologize for the duplicate post on this subject. I understand if Tobin or Moonchild do not have the time or interest to implement more sorting features right now. It is not essential to operation anyway.

Cheers.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-03-04, 11:38
by Moonchild
A good answer is given in this post:
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=20487#p153015

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-11, 05:30
by moonbat
Would it be possible to just have an RSS feed for each category, so we can know when there's a new extension?

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-11, 05:41
by New Tobin Paradigm
Requests are forbidden. Dancing too.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-11, 07:33
by Moonchild
moonbat wrote:
2019-09-11, 05:30
Would it be possible to just have an RSS feed for each category, so we can know when there's a new extension?
Moonchild wrote:
2019-03-04, 11:38
A good answer is given in this post:
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=20487#p153015
Why are you still asking for an RSS feed which is the exact same thing already answered, only in a more cumbersome (for the web server) format..?

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-11, 07:37
by moonbat
Moonchild wrote:
2019-09-11, 07:33
Why are you still asking for an RSS feed which is the exact same thing already answered, only in a more cumbersome (for the web server) format..?
I meant category-wise feeds. Maybe have it not retain changes right from the beginning, only for the last couple weeks or so. Not sure if it works that way.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-11, 07:50
by Moonchild
There's no real point in doing this. It will still create bias for people who incessantly publish new versions or "shitfork" (not my term but... applicable) another extension every time they have an itch or "because it's a new week", which we want to avoid.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-11, 07:53
by moonbat
But can't it be set to only show new addons rather than new versions of existing ones? And I thought blocking IDs from AMO would take care of shitforking. New versions would anyway get updated from within the browser if one has them installed.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-11, 08:00
by Moonchild
You can still shitfork while slapping a different ID on them and present them as "the Pale Moon alternative to extension X" and get it promoted through any sort of feed system that is set up that way. I agree with Tobin that any sort of feed/web promotion of one extension over another really isn't in the best interest of users.

As an alternative though, I'd suggest a newsletter-type setup that people can subscribe to if they want to know about newly-added extensions to the addons site. I can set up the distribution and subscribing easily enough with my mail server. Explicit opt-in and all that.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-23, 06:03
by 1210_bex
vannilla wrote:
2019-03-04, 08:00
I'm in favor of a way to sort extensions inside a category.
In theory it could be done entirely client-side, but let's hear Tobin's opinion on the matter first.
These sorting request threads have been going on for years, and for their valid reasons, the folks who create the extension categories and choose how add-ons are listed are not going to change. The easy alternative is to create a spreadsheet, which you can sort any way you wish.

I did that and posted it back in early March. Go here:viewtopic.php?f=44&t=21585
and download the attachment to the 1st post. I was told my spreadsheet would be out of date within hours. It might have been. But I just compared what I listed then, which was 6.5 months ago, to the list today. There have been about 12 additions and 3 deletions. That is less than 10% of the 188 add-ons on the list in March. So it is not a big task to keep the spreadsheet up to date if one wants to.

I did not list the date each add-on was last updated, but that is just another column.

What user-created spreadsheets do NOT do is notify you if an add-on has been updated. But I find the spreadsheet makes it much easier to look for an add-on to perform a specific function that one might want, rather than guessing what category the Pale Moon staff put it in.

Harry

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-23, 06:13
by moonbat
I have a better solution to those who just want to know if there's anything new since apparently even an RSS feed either on the main page or for each category is out of the question. SiteDelta from CAA works great on PM and can monitor specific regions of a page. I use it right now to monitor the unread posts page here, and for new builds for my phone's custom ROM since both lack RSS.
Use it to monitor individual category pages to be informed of new addons; the ones you have installed will auto update themselves anyway.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-23, 15:15
by Michaell
Uh, how is that better though, from the server side? It still requires every category page to be retrieved in the background on a daily basis (could be weekly I guess?) by every interested user. (I have used Update Scanner for this but haven't tried Site Delta.) This is the only site/organization I've ever heard complain that a RSS feed or similar was too heavy a load on their server. But anyway, the lightest load I can think of is if one user would take on the responsibility of checking each category and posting update notices somewhere not owned by the dev team. (I don't have my own site.) We could make a github project though like they did for user.js and then we could have more open discussion on extensions there as well.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-23, 17:38
by Moonchild
Michaell wrote:
2019-09-23, 15:15
This is the only site/organization I've ever heard complain that a RSS feed or similar was too heavy a load on their server.
We never said that. What we -do- say is that any such setup will inherently lead to favoritism and bias towards certain extensions and no longer keep things neutral.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-23, 22:36
by back2themoon
Moonchild wrote:
2019-09-11, 08:00
As an alternative though, I'd suggest a newsletter-type setup that people can subscribe to if they want to know about newly-added extensions to the addons site. I can set up the distribution and subscribing easily enough with my mail server. Explicit opt-in and all that.
Sounds good.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-24, 01:03
by moonbat
Moonchild wrote:
2019-09-23, 17:38
We never said that. What we -do- say is that any such setup will inherently lead to favoritism and bias towards certain extensions and no longer keep things neutral.
If it's possible for a feed to only show newly added extensions, not updates to existing ones, that would address the bias since no one can try to make it to the front page by making a minor change to an existing extension. An existing PM user would already have installed the extensions they want and those would auto update anyway, the idea is to get to know if a new extension has been added. New extensions are as it is vetted by the team, so there's that as well. Maybe the feed can expire the last x items or older than x days so that it stays small and current. I don't know how RSS is set up on the server side, but maybe this would work.
If it's about high traffic for the server, that's another topic altogether.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-24, 08:31
by Moonchild
Fair enough; considering all that (especially the vetting) would prevent manipulation of this list.
I'd say see if you can contribute to Phoebus then.
Whether it's technically possible in Phoebus is another question (and a chat with Tobin just now indicated it is NOT possible). I don't think RSS would work since it won't be a static state, anyway, and I don't think he'll be amenable to any such change if it needs rearchitecturing of the database schemas to cater to this. Remember the addons site is not AMO and it WILL NOT get things like comments, rating stars, sort by newest, popular and all the AMO stuff, or statistics on everything for the developers.

Ultimately though, extension devs should take the extra steps and simply post in relevant fora that they ported something -- that way people immediately also have a support channel to the author in case of issues. People wanting to knwo about new extensions can simply keep track of these forum announcements.

Re: Discovering new extensions for Pale Moon

Posted: 2019-09-25, 11:44
by vanowm
Moonchild wrote:
2019-09-24, 08:31
Ultimately though, extension devs should take the extra steps and simply post in relevant fora that they ported something -- that way people immediately also have a support channel to the author in case of issues. People wanting to knwo about new extensions can simply keep track of these forum announcements.
Devs already have to manage multiple versions on multiple platforms (ɟirefox, Tunderbird, Palemoon, soon Waterfox), now you want them post something on forums in addition :wtf: ? Good luck attract more devs...just saying.