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Unfortunately, it probably even makes sense that they'd want that for non-nefarious reasons. If you shut down your extension and they had to put up their own c

Unfortunately, it probably even makes sense that they'd want that for non-nefarious reasons. If you shut down your extension and they had to put up their own copy, they'd have to re-acquire your installed base. That could be a sharp decline in value to them, particularly if the extension mostly got popular off a one-time front-page feature rather than via gradual discovery with active word of mouth. The chance that people jump through all the hoops to impulse-install again twice is low. They'd have to really like your extension, even if your version notified them of shutdown of yours and availability of the new one. Growing an installed base is generally more a factor of not chasing your users away than explicitly doing things to retain them. That change would chase them away. In an ideal world, you'd be able to officially transfer the single extension to a new owner while keeping all the installed users--preferably with a notice dialog enforced by the browser popping up to tell the user the ownership changed and offering them a chance to uninstall. That would also chase some users away, but it's sort of the ethical minimum (hence this HN post). But I doubt many browsers, if any, work like that.

Ajedi32 3y ago
> a notice dialog enforced by the browser popping up to tell the user the ownership changed and offering them a chance to uninstall Couldn't the extension do that itself? Why does it need to be a browser feature? Edit: Quoted portion of comment I was responding to.
- dotproto 3y ago
  To my knowledge no browser supports transferring an extension's user base from one extension to another. If you want your users to switch, the only think you can do is show them a link of where to get the new extension they should install.
  - Ajedi32 3y ago
    The GGP suggested "officially transfer the single extension to a new owner" which you can obviously already do (by giving the new owner your account, if nothing else), and "tell the user the ownership changed and offering them a chance to uninstall" can already be done by any extension that has any sort of UI. You don't need to "[transfer] an extension's user base from one extension to another".
- michaelmior 3y ago
  The extension could do that itself, but it's possible that the new owner of the extension has hijacked the extension or otherwise has nefarious intent. Forcing the browser to announce this change alerts the user of this possibility.
- deanishe 3y ago
  > Couldn't the extension do that itself? Why does it need to be a browser feature? The reason for wanting such notifications in the first place is because new owners often do dodgy things, and a company that specialises in buying up popular extensions and cramming them full of spyware typically doesn't want you to know about the change of ownership. So extension authors can't be relied upon to provide this feature. The ones you particularly want to know about go out of their way to hide their involvement.
  - Ajedi32 3y ago
    But then wouldn't those new owners just avoid the notification entirely by buying the original developer's account so there's no way to tell that ownership changed? I'm pretty sure that's how it usually works already, so any notification system would necessarily have to be voluntary.
dotproto 3y ago
Both CWS (Chrome) and AMO (Firefox) supports this. It's part of Chrome's One Stop Support[1] form and Forefox's developer hub UI. At the moment I don't believe any browser has features that notify end users of ownership changes. [1]: https://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/contact/one_stop_support?hl=en https://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/contact/one_stop_... [2]: https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/add-on-ownership/#:~:text=Sign%20into%20your%20account%20on,new%20author's%20email%20address https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/add-on-o....
thisislife2 3y ago
True, I understood that the userbase was more important to them as my extension code was already released under GPL open source license. I was concerned about the following: 1. It was a grey area if the Terms of Service allowed such transfers of Opera account. 2. I had many other extensions that were being distributed through the same Opera account. 3. My suggestion to them was that I would release a new version of the extension from my account that explicitly informs the user of the change of ownership, and also inform them to install the extension from the new owners Opera account. They weren't interested in that.

Ajedi32 3y ago

> a notice dialog enforced by the browser popping up to tell the user the ownership changed and offering them a chance to uninstall Couldn't the extension do that itself? Why does it need to be a browser feature? Edit: Quoted portion of comment I was responding to.

dotproto 3y ago
To my knowledge no browser supports transferring an extension's user base from one extension to another. If you want your users to switch, the only think you can do is show them a link of where to get the new extension they should install.
- Ajedi32 3y ago
  The GGP suggested "officially transfer the single extension to a new owner" which you can obviously already do (by giving the new owner your account, if nothing else), and "tell the user the ownership changed and offering them a chance to uninstall" can already be done by any extension that has any sort of UI. You don't need to "[transfer] an extension's user base from one extension to another".
michaelmior 3y ago
The extension could do that itself, but it's possible that the new owner of the extension has hijacked the extension or otherwise has nefarious intent. Forcing the browser to announce this change alerts the user of this possibility.
deanishe 3y ago
> Couldn't the extension do that itself? Why does it need to be a browser feature? The reason for wanting such notifications in the first place is because new owners often do dodgy things, and a company that specialises in buying up popular extensions and cramming them full of spyware typically doesn't want you to know about the change of ownership. So extension authors can't be relied upon to provide this feature. The ones you particularly want to know about go out of their way to hide their involvement.
- Ajedi32 3y ago
  But then wouldn't those new owners just avoid the notification entirely by buying the original developer's account so there's no way to tell that ownership changed? I'm pretty sure that's how it usually works already, so any notification system would necessarily have to be voluntary.

dotproto 3y ago

Both CWS (Chrome) and AMO (Firefox) supports this. It's part of Chrome's One Stop Support[1] form and Forefox's developer hub UI. At the moment I don't believe any browser has features that notify end users of ownership changes. [1]: https://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/contact/one_stop_support?hl=en https://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/contact/one_stop_... [2]: https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/add-on-ownership/#:~:text=Sign%20into%20your%20account%20on,new%20author's%20email%20address https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/add-on-o....

thisislife2 3y ago

True, I understood that the userbase was more important to them as my extension code was already released under GPL open source license. I was concerned about the following: 1. It was a grey area if the Terms of Service allowed such transfers of Opera account. 2. I had many other extensions that were being distributed through the same Opera account. 3. My suggestion to them was that I would release a new version of the extension from my account that explicitly informs the user of the change of ownership, and also inform them to install the extension from the new owners Opera account. They weren't interested in that.