therube wrote:the same addon (with a subtly different name) could be installed twice
Could you imagine the nightmares that would cause.
Every discussion would have to start out with, where did you get it (install it) from?
Well, geez, I don't know?
Well, not 'would cause', but will cause. I already have precisely that situation with my Tab Overflow Scrollbar extension.
When a user installs the new signed version, they still have the previous version! That's because 8 years back it was on AMO and the only way to get it signed was to make a slight change to the name and GUID.
People should remember that most extension/theme authors actually make this stuff originally for themselves and then think that they might as well share it with other people. It's one of the founding principles of the Open Source community after all.
Years pass, you update it and tweak it when needed, even with ones that the authors are not personally using, which is not a problem as 99% of users are really nice people.
Along comes signing - if you don't get it signed then I guarantee that some mouth-breathing cretin will be dissing your stuff all over the Net, saying 'the author can't be bothered' or calling it 'abandonware'.
Get it signed and, in this case, add a note on the install page advising users to uninstall the previous version. Luckily, that one has less than 10,000 users, but even so I know I'll get a flurry of Support requests asking me to explain what is going on, even though the note already explains all that.
As Shaver once said to me, 'That is the heat in that particular kitchen' and he was right. But yeah, with the combined assault of signing, cretins and the T-shirt giving Mozilla I wouldn't be surprised to see some extension authors just pack this game in now.
Can't say I would blame them either.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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