Why Zotero is not on Firefox's addon webpage ?

joris.muller · August 4, 2015

Why Zotero is not listed on the Firefox's addon webpage?
https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/search/?q=zotero

The link "Review Zotero on your blog or on Zotero's Mozilla Add-ons page" in the "Get involved" page seems to be broken:
https://www.zotero.org/getinvolved/
http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3504

I just found this subject on the forums about this issue but without reasons :
https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/42613/firefox-plugin/

Zotero is my favourite Firefox's plugin, then I was confused not to find it on Firefox website. Is there maybe a technical or licencing issue under this?

adamsmith · August 4, 2015

technical: Zotero is so big and so complex that mozilla's review mechanism simply doesn't work for it, starting with the fact that it breaks the initial automated test by mozilla.
After a number of issues, including versions that took so long to release that Firefox compatibility was broken for users going through mozilla, Zotero decided to remove its code from the mozilla repository.

joris.muller · August 5, 2015

Thank you for this clear answer. I suppose that's no a problem for Zotero audience because it is widely know and easy to find on this website.

emilianoeheyns · December 30, 2015

If you want Zotero on AMO, you'd have to convince the Mozilla crowd to change to post-release reviews rather than (blocking) pre-release reviews. Review lead times vary between weeks and months. We've just fought a huge battle to have non-AMO extensions be exempt from this process. Mozilla shows no signs of changing their policy for AMO-hosted extensions, and my assessment of the situation for Zotero is that findability on AMO is a nice-to-have, but being able to release emergency fixes is a must have, hence no AMO presence.

AMO is OK for developers if you are 100% certain you never have to do emergency fixes. Fluffy-bunny fun stuff extensions. Zotero can't afford to be there. If the policy changes, that might change, but again, Mozilla seems actively hostile to the idea.