1289806 - Dismissed "Trending" Highlights items reappear after the browser is restarted

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: New Tab Page, defect)

Description

[Cosmin Muntean [:cmuntean], Ecosystem QA]

Attachment: screencast of the issue.mp4

[Affected versions]:
- Firefox 45 and up
- Activity Stream 1.1.1-dev

[Affected Platforms]:
- All Windows
- All Mac OS X
- All Linux

[Prerequisites]:
- Latest Activity Stream add-on (v1.1.1-dev) was previously installed on a clean profile.

[Steps to reproduce]:
1. Open the browser with the profile from prerequisites. 
2. Click on "+" to open a new tab.
3. Dismiss a few Trending articles from Highlights.
4. Close and restart the browser.

[Expected result]:
- The dismissed "Trending" articles are no longer displayed after the restart.

[Actual result]:
- The dismissed "Trending" articles are redisplayed in Highlights after the restart.

[Notes]:
- If all "Trending" articles are dismissed, the next number of fetched articles is not constant. Sometimes I got just 1 new article, sometimes I got more, but always the number was lower than the ones firstly displayed. 
- Also, when second batch is displayed, some of the articles are repeated even if they were previously dismissed.
- This issue is reproducible 5/5.
- A screen recording describing the issue was attached.

Comment 1

[Paul Oiegas [:poiegas], PM for (Ecosystem QA, Services QA, WebCompat QA, Ads QA, and Solo QA teams)]

Filed in GitHub as https://github.com/mozilla/activity-stream/issues/979

Comment 2

[Haard Panchal]

Hey! Can I take up this bug?

Comment 3

[Paul Oiegas [:poiegas], PM for (Ecosystem QA, Services QA, WebCompat QA, Ads QA, and Solo QA teams)]

Hi Haard, I'm sorry but this is no longer of actuality since the Activity Stream team removed this functionality. 
Anyway, this issue was not on the browser itself, but on a separate platform where experimental features are tested. You can find out more details by visiting https://testpilot.firefox.com. You can contribute there in  some way if you want.

Comment 4

[Graham Perrin]

Attachment: Firefox 60.0,1 on FreeBSD-CURRENT

Firefox 60, here's reappearance of a story that I dismissed earlier today. 

Can you reopen this bug? 

Thanks.

Comment 5

[Graham Perrin]

… dismissed twice, appeared three times now …

Comment 6

[Ed Lee :Mardak]

Does it only happen for that story? It looks like the url is https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/upshot/anonymous-owner-llc-why-it-has-become-so-easy-to-hide-in-the-housing-market.html

Comment 7

[Graham Perrin]

I haven't noticed the bug with any other story. However, my use of Firefox is infrequent (at the moment, it's almost solely for testing Activity Stream stuff) – I began testing these features only after I learnt of the sponsored content side of things. 

I wonder whether the bug will recur, with a different story, if I'm more aggressive with quits and starts of Firefox today. 

Side note: my perception of things may be clouded by bug 1459431, which is, in itself, puzzling (I have no idea whether it's proper for saved stories to reappear, repeatedly, as non-saved, and so on).