Marketplace approvals

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Hey,

Does anyone know the story on getting add-ons approved in the marketplace? I continue to see new submissions that are approved, but it seems like my submissions have been forgotten.

Are there enough volunteers right now? Are they being gone through in order, or is that up to the discretion of each volunteer?

Are submissions being checked to see that they don't have any weird hacks or database calls, or we trying to make sure that they are 100% bug free?

It would be nice to understand a little more how the current system works and where things are at. I've waited six weeks so far, but I'm sure I might not be the only one, and I definitely want to respect the time (especially the donated time) of other developers or volunteers out there.

Thank you!

elyon
 
tbcrowe replied on at Permalink Reply
tbcrowe
I'm one of the volunteers. I had not looked at your modules until I saw your post. There have been some issues reported for your modules and based on that I don't think they will be approved as is (e.g. including 6MB audio file with one). You should have received some emails when people added feedback, but I know there were some problems with the delivery of those messages as recently as last week (I didn't get one for my UPS module, for example).

Check your profile for more information.
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
That audio file was there by accident. Thanks for letting me know! I've removed it and uploaded that package again.

I haven't gotten any emails. I just searched through again but I don't think they came through for some reason. I also checked my profile but I couldn't see anything there ... would it be under private messages? Is there any other part of the site I can go to where I can see the feedback?

Thanks again
tbcrowe replied on at Permalink Reply
tbcrowe
I'm not sure how you get to the messages. I know in my profile I have a "Marketplace Community Review" link that gets me to the right place, but I think only reviewers have that. I don't have any pending blocks at the moment, so I don't know if something else would show up when that's the case. The messages won't appear in your PMB; I can tell you that.
jgarcia replied on at Permalink Reply
jgarcia
I am having the same issue elyon. I'm pretty sure we are supposed to be getting e-mails when a reviewer submits comments on one of your own packages, but I never got an e-mail...I just happen to stumble across the comments one day.

Also - it would be helpful if there was a list of things that were being checked for in the review process. I know there are certain guidelines that are specified in the marketplace submission forms, but it would be nice to know specifically what reviewers are looking for. Some of the comments on my block included both bug-related issues, and well as more suggestion type things...which of course everybody will have a different suggestion/opinion of your block. I think it be nice to have a checklist that it is little more concrete though.
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
I'm sure that the process is better, but I have had bad experiences with client review before.

I worked at Intel for a while, and at the time there was a system where my peers had to approve my updates before they could be released. The catch was that there was an SLA on each change, and SLA wasn't met until it passed client review.

It got to be insane. I had changes where they asked me to remove a broken link on a page, and the client review came back, talking about "generic references" in the phrasing of the grammer of some of the sentences on the page. To make matters worse, the ticket tracker was woefully inadequate, and would only send emails (if at all) several hours (or days) after the fact, which meant that you needed to ceaselessly refresh and navigate through a Java site. I finally used an HTTP debugger to figure out how to make my own client in C# so I wouldn't have to mess with that site anymore.

Like I said, I'm sure that the review system here is better, but you can imagine :)
tbcrowe replied on at Permalink Reply
tbcrowe
I don't think there are any firm guidelines yet for reviewing. I know as a reviewer I haven't been handled a list. Based on my observations, though, I think this the general idea:
1) Any obvious or serious bugs (anything that stops proper execution, causes PHP errors, interferes with other blocks, etc) will result in a denial
2) Anything that blatantly doesn't follow c5 conventions will be denied
3) Anything that could be a legal problem will cause Franz to deny the package
4) Reviewers will provide non-bug feedback (i.e. suggestions and comments). I know I certainly do. I think this is a good thing, though, and I try to point, too, that these are only suggestions.
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
I think that sounds more than reasonable. It's important to catch showstoppers, and non-bug related feedback is great, too.

Now all I need to do is get my hands on the feedback for my blocks so I can smooth things over and get them released! :)
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
I see it now. If I go to my entry on the marketplace and click edit, the comments are showing up at the bottom. I didn't see it there before, but it's there now.
frz replied on at Permalink Reply
frz
this stuff changed end of last week. if your comments are before that, you didn't get email alerts or any way to get to em.. now you should at least get a way to see em if not alerts...

really no alerts this week?
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
It looks like the comments were posted on the 5th, so that must have been before the alerts were set up.

I uploaded my add-ons again and added some comments, so I'll just wait to see if I get any alerts when someone responds to me
bcarone replied on at Permalink Reply
bcarone
I have been gettin all of them Tony.

Bill
Tony replied on at Permalink Reply
Tony
bill: i think the only issue is (or was) the owner of the addon not getting them.
Tony replied on at Permalink Reply
Tony
Elyon: I just added another message for one of your addons. Did you get any email from that?
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
I haven't gotten an email, but I do see it when I edit the block's entry in the Marketplace.
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
Okay, I just got an email. Cool :)
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
Hey, I just wanted to point out a couple of other small things that I noticed through the process:

The subject for the approval email says "Marketplace Submission Approve!" instead of "Marketplace Submission Approved!"

Also, I've had trouble with the example URL before. After I first submitted it it seemed to forget the example URL each time I made any changes to the listing. Now that it has been approved, it still does not appear to show the example link, so I had to add it into my description.

Thanks again! Excited to see the first approved, and looking forward to the second
Tony replied on at Permalink Reply
Tony
fixing the "Approved" thing now.

The example URL thing was fixed a couple of days ago (not 100% sure the fix has been pushed to c5 yet, but will check).

still trying to polish this whole process, so any other suggestions are appreciated. thx.
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
Hey Tony,

Two more questions

First, when you sort the Marketplace by "most recent", should it be based on when it was approved, rather than when it was submitted for approval?

Second, is it possible to get in under one of the add-on sets? "Multimedia" would probably be the right one for this block

The fixes so that I can get the notification emails and see the full thread of reviewer comments have been awesome. I'll let you know if anything else pops up.
Tony replied on at Permalink Reply
Tony
as far as the sorting goes, yeah i agree how it is right now isn't good. i changed your date public so it's on the first page now, and added it to that set.
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
Thanks Tony! That all looks great :)
elyon replied on at Permalink Reply
elyon
One more question ... now that the block has been released, is there any way to determine how many times it has been downloaded, or how payment schedules and such work?
tbcrowe replied on at Permalink Reply
tbcrowe
You should get an email each time the add-on is purchased that tells you that and how much money has been added to your account.
ScottC replied on at Permalink Reply
ScottC
you'll also see sales under your profile then account settings i believe.