Very long extension moderation process

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

In Firefox the moderation process is also pretty slow but at least they display a review queue position, so you get an idea how long it will probably still take.

Is there any way to contact the guys who are responsible for the review directly?

[imtranslator]

imtranslator last edited by

Hi, I submitted the new extension , Translation Comparison, on Apr 19, 2017, and after seven weeks and still awaiting moderation. No one replies my message. Please help.

Thanks.

[jerrykrinock]

jerrykrinock last edited by

I submitted updates to my two extensions on Saturday 2017-06-17. They were approved and published two days later, on Monday 2017-06-19. "It works for me."

[pcloudextension]

pcloudextension last edited by

In order to avoid a duplicate discussion I'll try my luck here.

My extension was accepted on Chrome and Firefox stores almost instantly.
While waiting for the Opera review, several fixes on the extension occurred. So I submitted each version in Opera as well.

Jun 10, 2017 - Version 1.0.0 Submitted

Jun 20, 2017 - I have 6 submissions.
On that date I have received 6 automated replays from Opera:

"Hi! xxxxxxx posted on your wall:

Status has changed for EXTENSION_XXX
Rejected.

You can view your wall here: https://addons.opera.com/developer/package/xxxxxx/

This e-mail was automatically generated.
To respond to wall posts please visit the above URL."

Several things here:

1. This auto generated email didn't gave me the slightest hint of what is wrong with my extension
2. The email suggested that I can see more information on my developer wall. NOTHING was changed on my wall: no rejections, no messages, no nothing! Everything is in "Awaiting moderation" state.
3. If the extension was first reviewed and rejected by an automated script or something and it found problems why I didn't receive any automated errors?

July 04, 2017 (today) - The extension version is 1.0.10 and preparing for major 1.1.0 update on Chrome and Firefox stores while Opera don't want to give me any help on how to proceed.

What the duck Opera?

[kuchkan]

kuchkan last edited by

Submitted my Extension on May 9, 2017. It's been 2 months.
Still awaiting moderation. On messages no one answers. X(

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Submitted my Extension on May 30, 2017. I sent new versions regularly, but nothing done with moderation. Still waiting it. There is no message to know if started or just nothing append !
How could we answer to our users with no information ?
Is there a day you will check and approve it ?

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Submitted my Extension on Jun 15, 2017. Still Awaiting moderation. And there is no reply from Opera moderators. Any Idea how long it would take for feedback/approval.

[walkmansurf]

walkmansurf last edited by

Yeah! I have 3 extensions and 3+ month of review. In Mozilla it takes only 1 week.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Well if the extensions are OK - it shouldn't take that long..

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Is there a way to know my submission's placement in the moderation queue? If I could see my place in the queue and check it periodically, I could estimate a time. Firefox does this and it gives me comfort. This Opera moderation queue is like a black hole.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Hello,

I submitted a new version of my extension Night Video Tuner on August 14th. Surprisingly is has still not been published almost three weeks later.

I have tried following up using the moderation conversation window of the extension ten days ago, but to no avail. The update only includes minor changes, and the source code of the extension is relatively small. Even a thorough review of the new version could be completed within seconds, and most of the extensions in the moderation queue are probably in a similar situation.

It's really disappointing to see how updates can be delayed by several weeks, whereas they are systematically validated within minutes on all other browser platforms. Such a lack of support, news or official reaction from the Opera team is really damaging for Opera. Why would users want to use a browser where they get updates several weeks or even months after Firefox, Chrome and others?

[nirantali]

nirantali last edited by

Here my experiences with Mozilla, Chrome and Opera so far:

Mozilla: v1.2 reviewed, signed and published within an hour and got a 'Thank you for your contribution' Email from
the Reviewer; Mozillas Review Process is the best experience so far and the Dashboard is of high quality.

Chrome: v1.1 Public published; 100% identical v1.1 Unlisted Taken Down?
v1.2 Public Update wating for days now; v1.2 Unlisted Update Taken Down and in manual Review for days now?!
Also no Emails why one was Taken Down while the other identical one wasn't. No Email with any confirmations,
No Emails at all, the Google Developer Dashboard is like a Lottery-RNG-Blackbox ... very frustrating!
Also their Dashboard has the lowest quality of all so far. And it took tons of tickets to even get that v1.1
published ... utter most frustrating!

Opera: v1.2 submitted 7 Hours ago, nothing happens, no queue like on mozilla, almost same blackbox as Googles Dashboard
but at least of better quality, still below mozillas but definitely better than Googles.

And that Extension/Addon is so small and easy a child could review it in 30 seconds.
It's also open source on Github i even provided the Link to the Repo as support and open source link.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Where are our extensions???

[jerrykrinock]

jerrykrinock last edited by

I must update my June 19 post to report that I am now having the same problem as the rest of you all. I submitted very minor updates (1 or 2 lines changed) to my two extensions on August 25 and am now still waiting after 31 days, with not even any communication. Very sad.

(I too get instant reviews for all other browsers. Chrome's reviews are instant, Firefox' are instant for me because I distribute on my own, and Vivaldi's are instant because they use Chrome's Web Store.)

[kkmserver]

kkmserver last edited by

I submitted my extension Jun 20, 2017.
It took 13 weeks.
Still nothing happened.
How can I find out when my extension will be reviewed?

[nirantali]

nirantali last edited by

Submitted Sep 5, 2017 12:18:12 PM UTC and still Awaiting moderation, no messages, no queue, simply eternal silence.

But if i see that some are already waiting 13 weeks, it's probably better to abandon opera for now and to check next year or so if something did change.

[dvil]

dvil last edited by

1 month waiting for the first version of my extension, 7 new updates already published in Chrome and Firefox.

Bravo Opera, you are gifting devolpers to the others browsers, I'm done with Opera.

[nirantali]

nirantali last edited by

My Extension now was finally published Sep 29, 2017 8:43:08 AM UTC so it took 24 days.

I also got this message from moderator:
'Sorry it took so long, unlike Chrome we have a manual review process to make sure that all extensions are safe for our users.'

[jerrykrinock]

jerrykrinock last edited by

Well, my two extensions were also published today, after 35 days.

The first one was published 45 minutes after the extension of @nirantali, at Sep 29 2017 9:28:19 AM UTC, and the second one was published 3 minutes later, at Sep 29, 2017 9:26:13 AM UTC.

Thank you to the Opera Extensions Team.

[gmiazga]

gmiazga Opera last edited by

Hello,

Here are few things we would like to share with you.

All our moderation is currently done manually. We have two queues: the first is for updated extensions, kept with minimum delay, and the second is for new extensions. The second takes time, as you have already noticed.

To help us speed up the extensions moderation process, here is what you can do:

• Prepare small updates for extensions. The less code submitted, the faster the updating process will go.
• Give us a detailed changelog, if possible
• When attaching screenshots of the extension, use ones made in the Opera browser
• Make sure you provide the correct Summary and Description in all languages
• Descriptions should be in a declared language rather than English (i.e. Russian extensions should have description in Russian)
• In manifest.json, use minimized set of permissions
• Use content script only for needed domains (i.e. use "://youtube.com/" instead of <all_urls> for a Youtube-only extension)
• Remove all unnecessary files
• If you use third party libraries, use versions from official sites (best to add specific links) or add versions from cdnjs.com
• If you obfuscate or minify your extension, add on a wall URL to your source code and give us the exact instruction on how to build it - best if you provide the building script

We are currently trying to work on a better first time experience and on ways to get initial versions of extensions into our store. Stay tuned.