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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

#371

Post by downerending »

sneak wrote: post #116
downerending wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I've noticed working for a variety of companies is that highly profitable companies generally do not have consequences for even fairly dramatic failures, both in terms of how they treat customers and how they treat employees. They simply have too much money, so there's little need to do so. In a tiny company, a large failure can easily be the end of the company, so they're far more motivated to care about t…

Relevant: https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2020/05/23/gap/ This story is about infra, but it applies just as much for product.

Interesting read. I've never worked for a company that tried to do a reasonably serious post mortem on a disaster. Or perhaps I was simply never one of the cool kids that were invited.

It's pleasant to think that that's actually happening somewhere. Usually it's probably more like Google+ (gosh, we did everything right, but somehow it just didn't work out--oh well, it wasn't that much money after all, and hey, we can keep using it internally).

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

#372

Post by ianwalter »

thread_id wrote: post #347
ianwalter wrote: post #296

It's a shame that so many of the comments have to do with left-pad. Kozmos was a great piece of software and I will miss it even though I haven't used it in a while. It came very close to how I personally think a bookmarking service should work, which is pretty incredible for something made by a single person. Seems like a lot of people have been complaining about the Chrome extension store lately. I wonder what's go…

I would really benefit from this product. I'm working across three computers and I have book marks all over the place. A central repository that enhances searching and categorization would be awsome.

Yea, I actually offered to take over development of Kozmos, but wasn't taken up on the offer. I'm going to build my own solution one day, just because I am so interested in it, but until then I use Raindrop.

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

#373

Post by sakoht »

llampx wrote: post #58
lykr0n wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop worshiping the ground Google walks on, which seems common on HackerNews.

According to a lot of devs and CTOs I've met, Google and Apple can't do anything wrong while Microsoft can't do anything right.

Google is clearly guilty of neglect because they like to do everything in an automated way ...even if it can’t possibly be done well at this point.

But that is way different than Embrace, Extend, Extinguish from MS. I would not trade, say, Chrome for the world of IE. the tension between Google and Apple is far healthier for developers and consumers.

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

#374

Post by sb8244 »

doc_gunthrop wrote: post #312

One important thing that's missing from the author's story is the why . What is it that's triggering the robotic take-down notices?

I've been on the receiving end of cryptic takedown in the past and there was absolutely no indication of why. Had to just start trying different things to see what stuck.

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

#375

Post by chris_wot »

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.

This is why I try very hard not to rely on Google, with the exception of Gmail.

I don’t use Google extensions on Chrome, and increasingly I don’t use Chrome.

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

#376

Post by finnthehuman »

ziftface wrote: post #338
acituan wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I only have two data points, so the behaviour here is a coincidence rather than a pattern, but I will guarantee you whatever you think of Google there is more to this than meets the eye. You seem to want us to question the narrative based on the likability of the developer, but is it really relevant? Can you really imagine a data point that we don't know that will change the narrative of "solo developer getting ste…

To add to this, I think the reason this particular developer is seen negatively by some is that he does kick up a lot of dust in these situations. Most developers would (understandably) feel like this wasn't worth their time and just silently give in to the bigger company's wishes. So while his "likeability" is completely irrelevant, how else would we even hear about these issues if he didn't make a big fuss about it…

>this particular developer is seen negatively by some is that he does kick up a lot of dust in these situations

Developers are often pushovers (no disrespect, I'm often one myself). Anyone who isn't gets passive aggressively labeled with terms that make them easy to conflate with actually bad people.

Give 'em hell, Azer.

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

#377

Post by bosswipe »

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…

This comment is just straight ad-hominem.

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

#378

Post by otterley »

chris_wot wrote: post #370
otterley wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a principle of American and English law that the person who uses someone else’s property unlawfully is responsible for the foreseeable injuries caused to others by its use - not the lawful owner of the property.

You are being downvoted because you fundamentally misunderstand and mischaracterise the situation you are referring to.

I am referring to naming an npm module “Kik” that has nothing to do with the service of the same name. What do I misunderstand?

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

#379

Post by sensible123 »

cutemonster wrote: post #368
georgeecollins wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A bookmarking service sounded to me like something Google wanted to operate themselves, and I was thinking maybe that was related to why it got taken down. At the same time, it seemed to not have had that many users yet, so, a bit early for Google to pay attention?

Imagine all the semantics you could extract from lists that people curated. The early web used to be human curated content and then Google came along and extracted all the associations they could out of those curated lists (links) and became the juggernaut it is today.

So your theory about Google wanting to run a bookmarking service I think is correct. Human curated links continue to be the only source of semantically relevant content. Everything else is algorithmic extraction of the relevant associations created by humans.

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

#380

Post by chris_wot »

CathedralBorrow wrote: post #244
IggleSniggle wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be perfectly reasonable to promote Firefox to your friends and family as "simply the better choice" irrespective of your own interests. When Chrome was better, I suggested friends and family use Chrome. Now I think most people would benefit from using Firefox as their primary driver.

Are you including the change cost here, which will be many times higher for most of the population vs. HN? Even if I thought that Firefox was a better choice, I'd recommend to my friends and family to keep using whatever they are using unless they have to switch for some reason.

What, precisely, is the cost?
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