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Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

kodfabrik.com

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Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#311

Post by alias_neo »

pvg wrote: post #300
alias_neo wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Pushbullet needed it's permissions for the features it offered, they even tried removing features and permissions just to appease Google. Regardless of that, just tell people what they've done wrong, developers are surely jaded by being told absolutely nothing about what or why some faceless mega corp is trampling all over their day. Is it any wonder people like OP lash out in frustration and just pull all…

I believe Pushbullet needed it's permissions for the features it offered The PB post describes them removing permissions they realized they didn't need, you can check their writeup. Google's handling of this was poor but PB had real problems. In this extension's case, we haven't even seen what notices Google sent.

I'm all for enforcing strong privacy rules, in fact, I stopped using PB very quickly after trying it for the first time, because of the _feeling_ of a lack of privacy/security it gave me (based on no actual evidence), so I'm not defending PB.

That said, calling Google heavy handed is an understatement, and there have been several cases which have made it clear that kicking up a fuss online and being big enough to get some attention is the only means for recourse.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#313

Post by csagan5 »

bartread wrote: post #209

Maybe they're still angry with him about leftpad. Yes, it really is the same guy: https://kodfabrik.com/journal/i-ve-just-liberated-my-modules . And, joking aside it would be wise to bear in mind that we're reading only one side of the story here. As with leftpad, there's another side to this. With leftpad he told Kik, "fuck you" ( https://medium.com/@mproberts/a-discussion-about-the-breakin... ), and then wrought gl…

Nobody can uncritically take his side but what you are implying here is that we should consider him "less" because of an unrelated story.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#314

Post by modernthumb »

otterley wrote: post #278
stevenjohns wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems that lots of people are missing that part. The Kik guys were doing their corporate double-speak b/s about ‘let’s find a solution’ when the only solution is handing over the name. All while threatening with door-banging lawyers. And he did offer them a solution: $30,000 dollars, to which they promptly - albeit indirectly - replied with fuck you .

Because they didn't have to pay him $30k. They had a registered trademark and a right to use the name. And in the end, they didn’t have to spend nearly that amount. All they had to do was send a few emails to the npm maintainers. I’d say they made a logical decision.

I have a hard time seeing your position here. Because of their actions they broke their own build and made a lot of folks in the open source community upset. Was it even worth it to waste the time fixing their broken build? To investigate the failure and replace a dependency of a dependency? To lose credibility in the community they've evidently just decided to become involved with? I really don't see how that's not worth 30 grand. They have a right to use their name but they don't have the right to use someone else's work.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#315

Post by singron »

georgeecollins wrote: post #200
iforgotpassword wrote: post #63

I get it, Google loves to automate stuff to save money. Makes sense, I agree. But I'm seriously wondering if all the people in charge of automating such processes are those delusional ego-programmers who think they can solve anything with machine learning, aka "AI". Really, I cannot understand that there aren't basic safeguards in place like "hey this extension got repeatedly flagged and when a human finally reviewed…

The other explanation is that they don't really want users to have most browser extensions. The browser extensions either become features that google wants to embed in the browser, or things they don't want, for business reasons. In either case it is better if the extension dies after a year or so. BTW, this doesn't have to be a conscious choice of anyone at Google, it could just be the way the incentives turn out.

I think this is unfortunately close to the truth. I think Chrome only entertains extensions on desktop since desktop browsers are somewhat competitive. On Android where their bundling deals ensure Chrome is the default browser, they don't really have to bother. They can just disable extensions and therefore ad-blockers.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#316

Post by mcrittenden »

droitbutch wrote: post #256
mcrittenden wrote: post #82

I maintain a paid Chrome extension ( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/shortkeys-custom-k... ) and I've had a very similar experience with the frustrating repeat automated shutdown emails, except that so far my extension hasn't been actually shut down. I'm just waiting for the day that it happens at this point. I'm surprised it has not happened before now, since my extension requires a lot of permissions to d…

An interesting extension but I am a bit surprised - it seems the target users are developers, which generally have the wherewithal to download the repo and install themselves - how does this result in a "noticeable income"? Sorry, not trying to be obtuse, just curious from a side-income perspective.

It surprised me too. I started charging a few months ago after it was free for ~7 years. Now I'm making $600 a month off of it.

Paying users seem to be part productivity nerds who maybe aren't technical enough to grok installing from the repo, and part people who just choose to pay for the automatic upgrades or to support the developer. Also, lots of users are web gamers who use it for in-game automation.

I wrote a post about it 1 week after monetizing, if you're curious: https://critter.blog/2020/01/14/week-1-of-monetizing-my-chro...

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#317

Post by young_unixer »

bartread wrote: post #209

Maybe they're still angry with him about leftpad. Yes, it really is the same guy: https://kodfabrik.com/journal/i-ve-just-liberated-my-modules . And, joking aside it would be wise to bear in mind that we're reading only one side of the story here. As with leftpad, there's another side to this. With leftpad he told Kik, "fuck you" ( https://medium.com/@mproberts/a-discussion-about-the-breakin... ), and then wrought gl…

In my opinion, the party that behaved the worst in that exchange was npm. Why do Node developers trust such an unprofessional institution?

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#318

Post by scottrice »

stevenjohns wrote: post #264
roadbeats wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With leftpad he told Kik, "fuck you" In response to a threat starting with "We don’t mean to be a dick about it" and ending with "our trademark lawyers are going to be banging on your door and taking down your accounts and stuff like that", I did say "fuck you" to Kik. If that makes me the character in your mind, enjoy your imagination.

It seems that lots of people are missing that part. The Kik guys were doing their corporate double-speak b/s about ‘let’s find a solution’ when the only solution is handing over the name. All while threatening with door-banging lawyers. And he did offer them a solution: $30,000 dollars, to which they promptly - albeit indirectly - replied with fuck you .

With regards to the trademark issue:

> and we’d have no choice but to do all that because you have to enforce trademarks or you lose them.

They aren't threatening him for the fun of it, this is classic trademark stuff.

Also the "solution" he offered them was:

> Yeah, you can buy it for $30.000 for the hassle of giving up with my pet project for bunch of corporate dicks

Would _you_ give this guy $30,000, after he calls you a dick multiple times and tells you in no uncertain terms to fuck off?

No one comes out looking good in this interaction, don't get me wrong, but Azer was super unprofessional and nasty during those interactions. He gets no sympathy from me.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#319

Post by nikodunk »

kristofferR wrote: post #243
lonelappde wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought Google banned sideloading unapproved extensions on Windows and Mac. https://developer.chrome.com/apps/external_extensions

Well, you can enable developer mode, extract the extension, add it manually, re-enable developer mode every time Chrome starts, and manually update to each new version...

No need to re-enable it every time Chrome starts.

Re: Unable to deal with Chrome Extension Team, Kozmos is shutting down

#320

Post by dblohm7 »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #290
babesh wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feels like 1994 all over again. In 1994 you had one dominant software monopoly in Microsoft. Today you have several: Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook with dominance in individual spheres of influence. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In 1994 Microsoft didn't arbitrarily ban applications on their OS.

No, but there was that whole “Windows won’t run on DR-DOS” scandal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code
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