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Well this is awkward. Seems that shortly after I posted this here both Mozilla and Google rejected the extension from their stores. Mozilla's primary concern wa

Well this is awkward. Seems that shortly after I posted this here both Mozilla and Google rejected the extension from their stores. Mozilla's primary concern was that the analytics were opt-out, not opt-in, so I'm patching that in and resubmitting. Typically, Google just said that it "did not comply with their policies" with no additional information, but I'm guessing their concerns are along the same lines. Meanwhile, if anyone is interested in trying it out, the README has instructions on running the extension locally in Firefox or Chrome.

nerdponx 9y ago
Out of curiosity, why did you choose to set up analytics as opt-out? What do you even need them for?
- jdormit 9y ago
  I built this as an exercise in product management - even though it is just a little extension, I want to run it as if it were a revenue-generating product so that I can gain experience in that area. Part of that is looking at usage data to identify what parts are working, what needs improvement, retention statistics, etc. I made them opt-out because I would be pissed if someone made a cool thing that I wanted to use but insisted on tracking me with it :)
  - nerdponx 9y ago
    I think you misunderstood my question. Why "opt out" instead of "opt in"? Or better still, "ask the user at first run"?
    - jdormit 9y ago
      Because DNT was the quickest solution. I'm actually rewriting that part over the next couple of days to be opt in instead (via a popup the first time the sidebar is opened, I think).
    - rhelmer 9y ago
      One problem is the risk of self-selection bias.
  - jdormit 9y ago
    Having given it more thought, and in response to some of the concerns raised in this thread, I removed analytics entirely.
neolefty 9y ago
The build instructions say that it will create ext/js/generated, but I'm only seeing ext/js, with a few .js files, but no "generated" directory.
- jdormit 9y ago
  Did you run `lein cljsbuild once`? If so, would you mind filing an issue?
- jdormit 9y ago
  My apologies, the configuration for cljsbuild was incorrect. It's been fixed now.
staunch 9y ago
It's not awkward to violate people's privacy, it's wrong. Maybe you didn't know that before, but you still don't seem to get it.
- jdormit 9y ago
  It's not a violation if there is consent. I'll grant that I didn't think through the consent process for the extension very well, though.
  - staunch 9y ago
    You did not get consent. You did violate people's privacy. Your extension got removed by Google and Mozilla.
- bluejekyll 9y ago
  Person posts cool tool they wrote, that they find useful. Shows it to the community, this community, which many may really appreciate. Then gets ripped for not thinking through the complex privacy issues with said tool. Not everything is malicious. It would be better to give constructive criticism, like: This is a really cool tool! I might even choose to use it, but I have a few concerns: 1) it sends too much data unfiltered to the algolia search servers. Could you instead make it a button that only then triggers the request or opens another browser window? 2) the analytics are also a concern. In general, you should always make these opt-in; better, ask the user through a dialogue to enable them; even better, request feedback through some other system (github for example). Let’s try and be nice here and give people the benefit of the doubt.
  - jdormit 9y ago
    Heh, thanks bluejekyll. I appreciate this. FWIW, I am taking the privacy and security concerns raised in this thread seriously. In fact, this type of candid feedback is one of the best things about HN. I anticipate it will take me a few days to choose and implement some of the fixes suggested here.
  - staunch 9y ago
JepZ 9y ago
Anybody knows how long it will take before Mozilla will make the new version available (avg. review time)?
- jdormit 9y ago
  I'm still working on making the changes they requested - once I've finished that and submitted a new version, I anticipate it will be a couple days at most until they make the new version available.
- jdormit 9y ago
  @JepZ, the new version has been approved by Mozilla and is available at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/looped-in https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/looped-in
  - JepZ 9y ago
    Thx for the hint. One suggestion that came to my mind: As most pages I visit have no comments, I closed the sidebar again. But that way I don't see the comments when there are some. How about adding a setting to let the sidebar open/close automatically if there are comments for a page?
    - jdormit 9y ago
      The extension icon should have a number on it that corresponds to the number of comments. My thinking was that you could use that to see if a page had comments or not.

nerdponx 9y ago

Out of curiosity, why did you choose to set up analytics as opt-out? What do you even need them for?

jdormit 9y ago
I built this as an exercise in product management - even though it is just a little extension, I want to run it as if it were a revenue-generating product so that I can gain experience in that area. Part of that is looking at usage data to identify what parts are working, what needs improvement, retention statistics, etc. I made them opt-out because I would be pissed if someone made a cool thing that I wanted to use but insisted on tracking me with it :)
- nerdponx 9y ago
  I think you misunderstood my question. Why "opt out" instead of "opt in"? Or better still, "ask the user at first run"?
  - jdormit 9y ago
    Because DNT was the quickest solution. I'm actually rewriting that part over the next couple of days to be opt in instead (via a popup the first time the sidebar is opened, I think).
  - rhelmer 9y ago
    One problem is the risk of self-selection bias.
- jdormit 9y ago
  Having given it more thought, and in response to some of the concerns raised in this thread, I removed analytics entirely.

neolefty 9y ago

The build instructions say that it will create ext/js/generated, but I'm only seeing ext/js, with a few .js files, but no "generated" directory.

jdormit 9y ago
Did you run `lein cljsbuild once`? If so, would you mind filing an issue?
jdormit 9y ago
My apologies, the configuration for cljsbuild was incorrect. It's been fixed now.

staunch 9y ago

It's not awkward to violate people's privacy, it's wrong. Maybe you didn't know that before, but you still don't seem to get it.

jdormit 9y ago
It's not a violation if there is consent. I'll grant that I didn't think through the consent process for the extension very well, though.
- staunch 9y ago
  You did not get consent. You did violate people's privacy. Your extension got removed by Google and Mozilla.
bluejekyll 9y ago
Person posts cool tool they wrote, that they find useful. Shows it to the community, this community, which many may really appreciate. Then gets ripped for not thinking through the complex privacy issues with said tool. Not everything is malicious. It would be better to give constructive criticism, like: This is a really cool tool! I might even choose to use it, but I have a few concerns: 1) it sends too much data unfiltered to the algolia search servers. Could you instead make it a button that only then triggers the request or opens another browser window? 2) the analytics are also a concern. In general, you should always make these opt-in; better, ask the user through a dialogue to enable them; even better, request feedback through some other system (github for example). Let’s try and be nice here and give people the benefit of the doubt.
- jdormit 9y ago
  Heh, thanks bluejekyll. I appreciate this. FWIW, I am taking the privacy and security concerns raised in this thread seriously. In fact, this type of candid feedback is one of the best things about HN. I anticipate it will take me a few days to choose and implement some of the fixes suggested here.
- staunch 9y ago

JepZ 9y ago

Anybody knows how long it will take before Mozilla will make the new version available (avg. review time)?

jdormit 9y ago
I'm still working on making the changes they requested - once I've finished that and submitted a new version, I anticipate it will be a couple days at most until they make the new version available.
jdormit 9y ago
@JepZ, the new version has been approved by Mozilla and is available at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/looped-in https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/looped-in
- JepZ 9y ago
  Thx for the hint. One suggestion that came to my mind: As most pages I visit have no comments, I closed the sidebar again. But that way I don't see the comments when there are some. How about adding a setting to let the sidebar open/close automatically if there are comments for a page?
  - jdormit 9y ago
    The extension icon should have a number on it that corresponds to the number of comments. My thinking was that you could use that to see if a page had comments or not.