Notify users of extensions that are end of life or abandoned

[wolfgang8741]

Extension like any software may reach end of life or end up abandoned. Currently I'm not finding on about:addons or elsewhere that extensions show a visual indication or notice to users when they are considered end of life by the developers or the developers haven't logged into the Developer hub https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/ for some determined period of time. The period of time since last login could be one of a few indicators they have abandoned the extension. While yes some extension may work, it would help to ensure there is an active steward of the extension or enable indicating the extension may need a steward.

For instance the EFF's https everywhere extension is considered sunset as of January 2023. (per https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere/set-https-default-your-browser -> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/09/https-actually-everywhere suggesting just enable it in the browser by default). While it remains functional it is no longer supported and a replacement is available in the browser settings.

The goal here is to 1. keep users informed about the state of extensions support and compatibility monitoring 2. encourage a users to review extensions that may no longer be updated or tested for security, privacy, or performance 3. enable non-technical users know what maintenance users might need to take action to keep the browser performing as expected.

[Jon]

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[MintMain21]

It would be nice to highlight if an extension hasn't been updated in, say, a year? That seems reasonable.

[BethofDeath]

Seconded on highlighting that the extension hasn't been updated.

[xUxSxExR]

There needs to be a field for developers to check "this extension will not be updated anymore". This doesnt mean it is outdated actually, but may be.

Also Firefox could do a compatibility check if the addons apis and whatever are fitting. No technical knowledge here, but Thunderbird has these indicators.

[gltch]

since this one has the most likes i do comment on here, this one and the other 2 should all be looked over, it doesn't only declutter the store, the user also gets a better store experience and doesn't need to think about 2 add-ons that they want to use until they realize that both or one of them are outdated.

clean/remake the add-ons store & remove outdated add-ons (extensions from the store)

maybe the user should get a notification first and some time later it should be disabled until the owner decides to reactive (there should be some good reasoning)/update it, if there isn't any signs of activity for a long time and it becomes a security risk, simply remove it.

ain't easy, there might be a better solution.

[Barkuti]

The fact that an extension is old does not mean it's outdated, as if it works it does not need to be updated (if it ain't broke, don't fix ‌😒‌ it).

As an example, the extension User Agent Editor by Francesco De Stefano, last updated the 21st of June of 2019, works flawlessly on modern versions of Android Firefox (tested on Iceraven 2.24.2, based on Fenix 131.0.3), which is testament to something well done. And it does not matter if it's probably the least popular user agent switcher or editor, for me it's the best.

There are no security risks whatsoever; and yes, I know this thread was last updated more than a year and two months ago.

Cheers.