yellow or red alert for 'Legacy'

[grahamperrin]

For users of 56.x – and until mid 2018, users of ESR 52.x:

• there should be an upfront indication wherever an extension is legacy.

Precedents

Established use of a yellow rectangle for LEGACY at about:addons within the browser.

The subtle new look yellow alert alongside Restart required at, for example, https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/quick-locale-switcher-2/

Thoughts

The requirement for Legacy extensions to be clearly identifiable as such probably arises primarily from the new look disappearance of clear identification (green badge) wherever an extension will be compatible with Firefox 57+

As there's space for the subtle yellow ⟲ for the relatively rare extensions that will require a restart of Firefox, there must be space for an unmistakable yellow alert for the relatively commonplace extensions that will be unusable with Firefox 57 and greater (all of which will, I guess, disappear from AMO sometime in Q4 2018).

It's highly desirable to have the distinction at a time of increased likelihood of people 'shopping' for extensions ahead of the mid-November release of 57.

Urgency

If you can (please):

• Monday 2017-11-06 for a Tuesday freeze and push on Thursday 2017-11-09

– TIA.

Related

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/7adng2/did_the_addon_page_change/dp9833c/ (9 points, recently up from 7):

How can I see if an addon is FF 57+ ready now?

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/7adng2/did_the_addon_page_change/dp95kcl/ (17 points, rising):

… can't tell anymore … 57 or not.

[Mark12547]

Also, in Firefox 56.0.2, about:addons → "Extensions", the legacy extensions installed have a yellow "LEGACY" warning. Clicking on that label takes them to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-add-technology-modernizing?as=u&utm_source=inproduct that includes this bolded text:

We recommend that you install add-ons with the "Compatible with Firefox 57+" label to ensure compatibility with Firefox beyond November 2017.

Unfortunately, following the link to AMO from that page and then searching for an extension winds up with extension description pages that give no clue whether or not those extensions are "Compatible with Firefox 57+", which will lead to further user frustration, especially if they install a new extension to replace their old LEGACY extension and then find out 10 days later that extension will likewise cease to operate.

[grahamperrin]

Thanks @Mark12547:

• Mozilla bug 1414626 - kb/firefox-add-technology-modernizing outdated direction to seek the "Compatible with Firefox 57+" label on addons.mozilla.org (AMO)

I have marked the knowledge base article as confusing, with reference to bug 1414626. Also I'll ping someone on the SUMO side of things.

[muffinresearch]

I'm marking this as p1 and I'll raise the question with our product people to determine if we can mirror the legacy labelling in Firefox rather than follow the same labelling used on the old AMO frontend or vice versa.

[willdurand]

Say we want to show a "not compatible with FF 57+" badge, we would need an icon for that (we only have an icon for "compatible with FF 57+" but not the opposite).

Only web extension add-ons are compatible with FF 57+ or is there something else?

[grahamperrin]

Not compatible with Firefox 57+

Thought-provoking, thanks. It's precise, but maybe visually too wide for some purposes.

Reading this alongside chat in IRC, first a bunch of 56.0.2 screenshots then I'll add a link to a very brief screen recording.

tl;dr toying with the idea of an icon, with some yellow, to imply that something will stop working (I do already have in mind an icon, but (for myself) I need to post this, step away from the computer to the kitchen for a few minutes then come back to get some perspective) …

Expand for screenshots

[muffinresearch]

For the record @willdurand here's a copy of the icon [1] - the copy as provided by @devaneymoz is "Not compatible with Firefox Quantum"

[1] not-compatible-min.svg.zip

[grahamperrin]

Thanks! Exported lazily to PNG (not for reuse):

Consider the possibility/likelihood that this will be confused with other meanings of the red no entry icon. In particular, the fifth screenshot above (the first in German) where I point at a red no entry icon for a greyed-out extension that bears the green badge of compatibility with Firefox 57+. Yep, I'm focusing on the visuals without paying attention to the words …

[grahamperrin]

Extensions for Firefox: a new-look scroll through two pages of 'Stop…' -named extensions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhvBq8yNW2w (fifteen seconds)

– a 56 recording. Those two pages:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search/?page=18&q=stop&sort=name&type=extension
• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search/?page=19&q=stop&sort=name&type=extension

[grahamperrin]

/me finishes thinking aloud in IRC. Quote:

… gut feeling about the red no entry icon is that it'll be not as effective as … say, a yellow 'stop' hand (palm towards the viewer).

There might be a whole lotta red going on already when e.g. people hit some of the key pages. Like, AdBlock and its variants. Yes it's a no entry sign and its red but there's some subconscious tuning-out from the red, I reckon. Consider https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/ …

… speeds through https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search/?&sort=relevance&type=persona&q=yellow https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search/?&sort=relevance&type=persona&q=summer https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search/?&sort=relevance&type=persona&q=red https://addons.mozilla.org/search/?sort=relevance&type=extension&q=YouTube and https://addons.mozilla.org/search/?sort=relevance&type=extension&q=blocker

[grahamperrin]

… as effective as … say, a yellow 'stop' hand (palm towards the viewer). …

(I changed my mind about yellow when I saw contexts – another, more significant, adjacent use of yellow. Red is fine.)

[ValentinaPC]

Verified this on AMO-dev FF56(Win 7).
The new label was added.
As the issue #11130 was logged separately, I think we can mark this as verified-fixed.
Postfix screenshot: