Categories: developers

Improvements to add-on review communications

We recently made some improvements to our tools and processes to better support communication between add-on developers and reviewers.

Previously, when you submitted an add-on to addons.mozilla.org (AMO) and a reviewer emailed you, your replies went to a mailing list (amo-editors AT mozilla DOT org) where a few reviewers (mostly admins) handled every response. This approach had some flaws—it put the burden on very few people to reply, who had to first get familiar with the add-on code and previous review actions. Further replies from either party went to the mailing list only, rather than being fed back into the review tools on AMO. These flaws slowed things down unnecessarily, and contributed to information clutter.

Now, add-on developers can choose to reply to a review by email—like they’re used to—or from the Manage Status & Versions page of the add-on in the developer hub. Replies are picked up by AMO and displayed in the review history for reviewers and developers. In addition, everyone  involved in the review of the particular version will be notified by email. Admin reviewers will make sure all inquiries are followed up with.

This long-anticipated feature will not only make follow-ups for reviews more efficient for both developers and reviewers, it also makes upcoming reviews easier by having all information in the same place.

The mailing list (amo-editors AT mozilla DOT org) will be discontinued shortly, so we ask all developers to use this system instead. For other questions not related to a particular review, please send a message to amo-admins AT mozilla DOT org.

The Add-on Review team would like to thank Andrew Williamson for implementing this new feature and our QA team for testing it!

2 comments on “Improvements to add-on review communications”

  1. Sylvain Giroux wrote on

    Thank you AMO team for this awesome new feature!

  2. Ben Bucksch wrote on

    > make follow-ups for reviews more efficient for both developers and reviewers, it also makes upcoming reviews easier by having all information in the same place.

    This is great and needed, thanks. We kept getting the same review comments again and again. We explained why what do do is correct, AMO admins agreed, then 6 or 12 months later we get the same review comment and denial again.

    By keeping better track of this history, I hope this will be prevented now. Thank you!