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> Keep in mind that it's not "Here's some money, please let us roll out an evil update to your extension," it's "Our company loves your extension and would like

> Keep in mind that it's not "Here's some money, please let us roll out an evil update to your extension," it's "Our company loves your extension and would like to acquire it." I get messages like this every now and then for mobile apps and browser extensions I manage and they're painfully obvious to spot. They're often from sketchy looking generic email addresses, have no information about the buying company, don't even attempt to demonstrate knowledge of the app, and most importantly mention nothing about how they plan to grow the app. It's always just "would you like to sell?" and "how many users do you have?". A recent one: > From: *@gmail.com > My name is John. > I have noticed your google extension "https://checkbot.io/ https://checkbot.io/ Checkbot: SEO, Web Speed & Security Tester ", its looks interesting would you considering to sell it? > Best regards I've had more elaborate ones but they're always generic with no obvious business interest in the specific app they're asking to buy.

dessant 7y ago
Same, I get an offer every month or so for some of my extensions. One has quoted an offer of $0.25/user for the Firefox version of Search by Image in their introductory email. That kind of money would significantly improve my life, but it's all too obvious what they would do with my users. Most extension developers are not getting any significant income from their work, despite serving millions of users, and unless browser vendors will begin to recognize the value of that labor and provide better tools for sponsoring developers, we will continue to be vulnerable to such offers.
- seanwilson 7y ago
  > Most extension developers are not getting any significant income from their work, despite serving millions of users, and until browser vendors do not start to recognize the value of that labor and provide better tools for sponsoring developers, we will continue to be vulnerable to such offers. Any ideas what specifically could be done to help? You can integrate your own payment systems into extensions and there's some ad vendors that support browser extensions.
  - luckylion 7y ago
    Make paying for them simple and easy. The app store concept works very well for a reason, a billion individual one-software web stores don't.
  - dessant 7y ago
    I'm specifically talking about extensions that strive to be free and accessible for everyone. A great example for how Mozilla is deprioritizing contributions for extension developers is the new design of Firefox Add-ons. The contribution button was pushed down below the fold. Previously it was at a very prominent place next to the install button, and several modes for requesting contributions before or after installation have been deprecated. Yes, adding a donation button to your extension is a possibility, but it would send a whole different signal if Mozilla would encourage users to support developers, from a unified and trusted user interface, and experiment with better ways to ensure that users are aware of support options for their favourite extensions. Mozilla directly supporting extensions which they consider to be of great value could also be explored.
  - fwip 7y ago
    Google could pay developers for popular extensions. The money doesn't have to come directly from the users.

dessant 7y ago

Same, I get an offer every month or so for some of my extensions. One has quoted an offer of $0.25/user for the Firefox version of Search by Image in their introductory email. That kind of money would significantly improve my life, but it's all too obvious what they would do with my users. Most extension developers are not getting any significant income from their work, despite serving millions of users, and unless browser vendors will begin to recognize the value of that labor and provide better tools for sponsoring developers, we will continue to be vulnerable to such offers.

seanwilson 7y ago
> Most extension developers are not getting any significant income from their work, despite serving millions of users, and until browser vendors do not start to recognize the value of that labor and provide better tools for sponsoring developers, we will continue to be vulnerable to such offers. Any ideas what specifically could be done to help? You can integrate your own payment systems into extensions and there's some ad vendors that support browser extensions.
- luckylion 7y ago
  Make paying for them simple and easy. The app store concept works very well for a reason, a billion individual one-software web stores don't.
- dessant 7y ago
  I'm specifically talking about extensions that strive to be free and accessible for everyone. A great example for how Mozilla is deprioritizing contributions for extension developers is the new design of Firefox Add-ons. The contribution button was pushed down below the fold. Previously it was at a very prominent place next to the install button, and several modes for requesting contributions before or after installation have been deprecated. Yes, adding a donation button to your extension is a possibility, but it would send a whole different signal if Mozilla would encourage users to support developers, from a unified and trusted user interface, and experiment with better ways to ensure that users are aware of support options for their favourite extensions. Mozilla directly supporting extensions which they consider to be of great value could also be explored.
- fwip 7y ago
  Google could pay developers for popular extensions. The money doesn't have to come directly from the users.