21 October 2011

A retort to a Mozilla Add-ons review

UPDATE 1 November 2011: The review of Clippings that I was retorting to has since been removed by the Mozilla Add-ons editors, at my request.

Hi gishpuppy,

I read your flattering review of Clippings which you left on the Mozilla Add-ons page. It is reproduced below for the benefit of the readers of this blog:
Lost (all) my clippings twice. Does not backup to file or cloud. May not even save your clippings in your profile folder, but somewhere else.

The interface and usability are very good, if you don't need your clippings saved.
Normally, I would sympathize with data loss complaints. There certainly have been reports from users of them losing their clippings data from time to time. There's no denying that. Unfortunately, it is hard to isolate the cause of the problem, which is why there is a backup mechanism available in the event of data loss, which I happen to have documented just recently. But I certainly don't sympathize with you, given your rather scathing, and very unhelpful, comments.

Have you made any effort to do a little troubleshooting to figure out WHY your clippings data isn't being saved? Did you check out the Clippings FAQ to learn where your clippings data is being saved to? I assume that the common clippings feature is enabled; that is the default for users since Clippings 3.0. Here's a hint: do you have permissions to the folder where your clippings data source file is located? Ever thought of that?

You allege that Clippings doesn't back up to a file. You are dead wrong. Have you checked out the blog post I just mentioned describing how to restore your clippings data from backup? As for backing up to the cloud -- well, there is no such feature. Not yet. Have you suggested that as an enhancement request in the AE Creations forums?

If Clippings was such an unusable piece of crap, as your so-called review implies, then why is it that over 32,000 Firefox and Thunderbird users around the world continue to rely on it every day at home, at work, and at school, to save themselves from repetitive typing and make their lives easier? And just how on earth would it have become a featured add-on?

And finally, I took the liberty of checking out your reviews of other extensions you left on Mozilla Add-ons -- most of them filled with similar hyperbolic garbage. I'll be happy to reproduce a few of them for my readers' viewing pleasure and amusement.

For Xmarks Sync (rated 4 out of 5 stars on Mozilla Add-ons as of the time of this writing), you wrote, "Horrible, awful, painful sh1ty crap erases your writings forever. Smoke a turd in he11!"

That extension seems to be your all-time favorite, eh? Here's another little gem of yours, again for Xmarks Sync:
xmarks kills the human spirit. It is so dangerous it should be banned. It is the worst functioning addon ever and can led to broken keyboards, monitors, and minds. xmarks is the Al-Qaeda of browsers, terrorizing the user with every possible review. Dangerous and immutably destructive.
Not bad for someone who lists his occupation as "Unsatisfied."

It also gives me even less of a reason to take any of your nonsense seriously. Either come back to me with helpful, pertinent troubleshooting information to help narrow the cause -- or quit spewing your asinine hate and move on. Don't worry, I won't feel bad if you uninstall Clippings.

05 October 2011

Problems when going to My Account from the AE Creations forums

Due to a recent, and clearly botched, Mozdev site upgrade, users going to their My Account page will see error messages, and are not able to do anything.

I have brought this to the attention of the Mozdev admins, and am awaiting word on resolution.