Mozilla Add-ons Community Blog
Categories: developers

Contributions stats and first run pages

7 responses

For those of you who request contributions for your add-ons, you can now track your contribution amounts on AMO via the stats dashboard.  Like the contributions pilot itself, the enhancement to the dashboard is still evolving, so it’s pretty basic for now.  To see the contributions dashboard, simply go to your statistics dashboard and select “Contributions” from the graph selector.  Please note: even if your statistics are public, your contributions statistics won’t be.

Also, we’ve launched a first run template for your developer profiles.  You can use this template to request contributions from your users post install.  Simply go to the Developer Profile section of Developer Tools to get the URL.

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Remember: with great power comes great responsibility.  Inundating users with requests for contributions can result in uninstallations and general user unhappiness, whereas judicious use of this feature can help your users understand how they can contribute to the future development of your extension.

Have any other ideas on how we can improve Contributions?  Drop us a line on the AMO Newsgroup or via the comments in this blog.  Thanks!

7 comments on “Contributions stats and first run pages”

  1. Archaeopteryx wrote on

    Post install is IMHO too early, the user should first be able to try it and maybe after 14 days been asked to donate. That would result in a higher contribution rate, I guess.

  2. Nils Maier wrote on

    Are the contribution stats public if the general stats are marked public?
    This is kinda sensitive information, and I don’t think that all add-on authors with public stats would like their users to see the donations they are receiving.

  3. Nick wrote on

    No, as mentioned, contributions statistics are never public. We’re updating the ui to make this more clear.

  4. Mark Cramer wrote on

    @Archaeopteryx – I would tend to agree. It might be best to request a donation on an auto-update confirmation page. If the user still has the add-on installed, there’s probably a greater likelihood that he/she likes it enough to donate.

  5. zamaan wrote on

    “You can use this template to request contributions from your users post install. ”

    This looks like a great idea. Better have an option to prompt after the installation of the addon and when say wow !

  6. tech4computer wrote on

    I was all excited about “contributions / donation ” thingy but then found out that its Paypal / USA only thing. Any plans or work in progress to bring this feature for Canada, eh?

  7. Axel Grude wrote on

    Any news on the Paypal alternatives front? Could somebody come up with a suggestion. Paypal have raised their fees recently especially affecting the minor amounts ( 2-10 $) typical for contributions.

    To lower feeds, it also might be possible to get non-profit status on paypal, I recently rang them about it; the question is what kind of business model still fits into the “non-profit” frame. Voluntary donations, registration fee for a “pro” version?