Add-on Store: "Community reviews" action should be available in Installed add-ons tab too

[CyrilleB79]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

"Community review" action is now available in beta for some weeks. Though people do not seem to use it.

There are two use cases to use it:

• read reviews from other users to decide to install (or update) an add-on or not
• write a feedback to let other people know what you think of an add-on that is already installed.

Or maybe sometimes people open the reviews page to gather opinions on an add-on but these pages are desperately empty.

I wonder if one reason why the feature is not used is that it is not visible enough.

Describe the solution you'd like

To encourage the second use case, i.e. writing feedback, I'd ask that the action also appears in the context menu of add-ons in the "Installed add-ons" tab.

Indeed, if I am satisfied with the add-on, I will interact with it in the "Installed add-ons" tab.
If I am not satisfied, I will also launch the removal from the Installed add-on tab.
At last, the Installed add-ons tab is the most important because it's the one that open when starting the add-on store.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Other solutions to promote the feature may be:

• a better integration of the feature in the store, i.e. have the review page displayed in the store, without the whole GitHub menu
• An automatic translation of the reviews page with a translation widget, automaticially using NVDA's language.
• advertising the feature on the lists or in In-process

Additional context

The feature will be launched generally with NVDA 2024.1. I'd suggest that this request be integrated as soon as the feature is available, i.e. have it implemented in beta (cc @seanbudd). Indeed, it would mitigate the risk of a bad first impression.

Also cc @nvdaes

[nvdaes]

I think that the main reason because this is not used is that reviewing add-ons implies a great responsibility and it's something hard to do. Furthermore,there's no standardized process and people may not be sure about what to include in reviews.
For me, the best way to promote this is to participate in add-ons review. I reviewed Windows App Essential and MathCAT.
But imo this shouldn'tbe included in the installed tab,since add-ons from externalsources cannot be reviewed in the store. GitHub has buttons to translate discussion.This maybe promotedin In-Process, @Qchristensen . Anyway, for example I use just a few add-ons, and many of them are maintained by me, so I shouldn't review other add-ons. I think that this won't be very used since reviewing add-ons is really difficult. But regarding your request I think that the only tabs where it can be implemented for all add-ons are Available and updatable.

[CyrilleB79]

I am not sure to understand what is expected in this reviews discussion:

• opinions on the add-on, such as the comments that we can find on Google Play Store
• or an add-on review, such as what was required a few years ago to accept an add-on on the community website

[nvdaes]

according to the user guide, users can provide feedback, so this is not anything technical. In the Windows App Essential addon I left an horay reaction,, and in mathCath, I higligted the support for braille CMU. But imo putting this in the installed add-ons tab maybe confussing, since an add-on maybe deleted, in addition to be installed from external source, so we may be sure that the reviewed add-on is available (or updatable).Enviado desde mi iPhoneEl 15 feb 2024, a las 22:05, Cyrille Bougot ***@***.***> escribió: I am not sure to understand what is expected in this reviews discussion: opinions on the add-on, such as the comments that we can find on Google Play Store or an add-on review, such as what was required a few years ago to accept an add-on on the community website —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[CyrilleB79]

OK, thanks. So I had understood the concept correctly.

My proposal is that the action also appears in the Installed add-on tab, but also still remain in the available tab (and the updatable tab). To summarize, I want to add it in one more tab.

[nvdaes]

Imagin that I"m interested in reviewing charInfo (probably I"ll do it this weekend), and you decide to remove it from the store. Even if the add-on metadata has a reviewUrl, I think that the add-on doesn"t need to be reviewed if it"s not longer available, and the only tabs that provide info about currently available add-ons are available and updatable. So I"m not sure how this can be implemented to select the add-ons that should show the review option in the installed tab, and if the cost of implementing this, without a previous strategy to promote this feature, is useful in terms of prioritization.Enviado desde mi iPhoneEl 15 feb 2024, a las 23:04, Cyrille Bougot ***@***.***> escribió: OK, thanks. So I had understood the concept correctly. My proposal is that the action also appears in the Installed add-on tab, but also still remain in the available tab (and the updatable tab). To summarize, I want to add it in one more tab. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[XLTechie]

@nvdaes I would suggest, that even if an add-on is removed from the store, past reviews should not be deleted. The add-on may be re-added to the store at a later time. In fact, if there are bad reviews, this may be a method for an author to cause bad reviews to be deleted and start over with a clean review history. They will not be linked from anywhere if an add-on is removed, but a record should be kept to re-associate the old reviews with a new add-on of the same name and submitter. This may have to be a manual process, but this situation should be rare.

[nvdaes]

of course reviews aren"t deleted: they remain forever on the GitHub discussion page. But here we discuss if the review action should appear in the installed add-ons tab. I argue that this may not be very convenient, since this tab can include add-ons installed from external sources, and add-ons removed from the store, that in fact cannot be reviewed, since reviews are related to the store, not to external add-ons, and so if an addon is not longer available, I think that the review action shouldn"t be presented. So, imo this maybe closed as not planned. Anyway, we may promote this feature, that in fact I contributed since i read complains on a mailing list about the lack of security of the store due to add-ons submitted without reviews. people previously complained about the slow flow of the previous system, probably due to reviews, so these complains shouldn"t be the main reason to implement a feature, but this was also requested by constructive people years ago, and if we want to promote it, the best way, imo, is to participate in reviewing add-ons ourselves.Enviado desde mi iPhoneEl 16 feb 2024, a las 7:23, Luke Davis ***@***.***> escribió: @nvdaes I would suggest, that even if an add-on is removed from the store, past reviews should not be deleted. The add-on may be re-added to the store at a later time. In fact, if there are bad reviews, this may be a method for an author to cause bad reviews to be deleted and start over with a clean review history. They will not be linked from anywhere if an add-on is removed, but a record should be kept to re-associate the old reviews with a new add-on of the same name and submitter. This may have to be a manual process, but this situation should be rare. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[XLTechie]

@nvdaes either we have a failure to communicate, or I am confused. If an add-on has been removed from the store, what prevents a user from *reading* reviews of it? If the answer is "nothing"--that is, if the action would still work in that circumstance--then I do not understand that as a reason to disapprove of this feature request. That would leave only the external add-on question. For that, I think the answer is simple: don't offer the action if the add-on is external.

[nvdaes]

If an add-on has been removed from the store, what prevents a user from
reading reviews of it?

Nothing. You have convinced me with this argument.
Anyway, we should promote this feature, since working on it if the existing feature is not very used may not be grateful. And for me the main reason cause people don't use this is that it's a very difficult task.

[CyrilleB79]

@nvdaes you write:

I think that the main reason because this is not used is that reviewing add-ons implies a great responsibility and it's something hard to do. Furthermore,there's no standardized process and people may not be sure about what to include in reviews. For me, the best way to promote this is to participate in add-ons review.

and:

according to the user guide, users can provide feedback, so this is not anything technical. In the Windows App Essential addon I left an horay reaction,, and in mathCath, I higligted the support for braille CMU.

and also:

And for me the main reason cause people don't use this is that it's a very difficult task.

Could we clarify what is difficult in the task of writing reviews? @nvdaes have you something very specific in mind?

Having an opinion on an add-on does not seem something very difficult: there are many people talking of add-ons on the mailing lists, and why they love them or not.

[nvdaes]

Could we clarify what is difficult in the task of writing reviews? @nvdaes have you something very specific in mind?

Maybe my own experience from about 2013. Maybe comment from people saying that they didn't want to receive comments about how to write add-ons, or people making bad criticism about reviewers who say that a particular add-on maybe dangerous. Maybe my own experiences. Hope I'm wrong. But the fact is that this is not used, I think.
For me reviewing add-ons is difficult since I try to look at the code, total or partially, though I don't provide technical opinions. I have dedicated many hours to review add-ons in the past, so I may be talking about myself 😃

[CyrilleB79]

But we are mixing two things here.
I was not active in 2013 in NVDA add-ons community; but I guess it was more a matter of technical review. The community reviews action instead is meant to be opinions from user, as I understand it.

[nvdaes]

The community reviews action instead is meant to be opinions from user, as I understand it.

Yes, but if a person can analize the source code, it may be considered in the opinion.
At least personally I look at the code, in case performing the proposed commands, for example, has something not expected and not shown inmediately.

[nvdaes]

Also, if a person doesn't like an add-on, probably she or he won't use it and so it won't be reviewed.
I'm thinking about an add-on that for me would get a bad review, but simply I won't use it. Hope this feature can be more used.

[lukaszgo1]

IMO the main barrier to reviewing add-ons is the simple fact that they are done on GitHub. For a standard user this means they have to create an account on the website they will never use, which also is not in their mother tongue for many. In other cases i.e. Apple or Google stores the entire reviewing interface is localized, but you also have to create an account to use the store at all, so there is less intermediary steps before reviewing.