1370350 - Write article about Flash blocklists and Click-to-Play by default

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(support.mozilla.org :: Knowledge Base Content, task, P1)

Description

[Abe - QA (:Abe_LV)]

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open Nightly and go to Add-ons Manager > Plugins > Flash Preferences
2. Click "Learn More..."

Actual Result:
Page Not Found

Expected Result:
Link suppose to work

Comment 1

[Benjamin Smedberg]

What is the URL?

Comment 2

[Abe - QA (:Abe_LV)]

(In reply to Benjamin Smedberg [:bsmedberg] from comment #1)
> What is the URL?

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/flash-blocklists

Screen capture is here: https://testing-1.tinytake.com/sf/MTY2NjMxM181NTg2MjEx

Comment 3

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

This link was added there by bug 1348089. We now need to write a page on SUMO about it before this goes out to release.

Comment 4

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Is there a SUMO bug/issue?

Comment 5

[:Felipe Gomes (needinfo for replies!)]

(I'm not exactly sure where to file one.. I'll try moving this bug to a different component, but it appears to be obsolete..)

Comment 6

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Updating user story to cover all the SUMO requests for plugins.

Comment 8

[Benjamin Smedberg]

With the landing of bug 1377036 and bug 1379175, we may need additional updated screenshots.

Joni, Firefox 55 release is approaching quickly: will this be ready?

Comment 9

[Joni Chan]

We can have screenshots ready on Monday morning.

Comment 10

[Joni Chan]

Here's a draft of the article that's going to be linked from the UI: https://support.mozilla.org/kb/flash-blocklists

The in-product link should work now. Please let me know if it's not.

Is the article accurate? Will users be able to edit the blocklist or is it more like a checkbox toggle that applies across the board? Please let me know if it needs any changes and I will pass on to our L10N community.

Comment 11

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

(In reply to Joni Savage ("need info" me) from comment #10)
> Is the article accurate? Will users be able to edit the blocklist or is it
> more like a checkbox toggle that applies across the board? Please let me
> know if it needs any changes and I will pass on to our L10N community.

Users can not view or edit the blocklist directly on their computers. The "Blocking By Domain" MDN page [1] links to the list of blocked websites on GitHub [2]. There is no checkbox UI to disable the blocklist either, though there might be an undocumented about:config pref.

[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Plugins/Blocking_By_Domain
[2] https://github.com/mozilla-services/shavar-plugin-blocklist/

Comment 12

[Joni Chan]

Thanks for the info, Chris. I've removed instructions on how to edit the block list. We typically don't include about:config instructions on SUMO unless it helps with data loss or security issues, since it might backfire for the average user, but we can make exceptions if you think we really need it.

Instead, I've included a section on what kind of sites are on the block list.

Please let me know if the article needs any further changes.

Comment 13

[Joni Chan]

I've also updated the "click to activate" article: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/why-do-i-have-click-activate-plugins
* Described "click to activate" as the default state.
* Instead of dedicating a whole section to "always activate", I put in a blurb instead.

Please let us know if it needs further changes.

Comment 14

[Benjamin Smedberg]

There *is* checkbox UI to disabled the blocklist: it's in the addon manager -> plugins -> Flash -> options and it's labeled "Block dangerous and intrusive Flash content". That's why we needed the support article at all, since that's where the "Learn More" link is. Users should really only use this checkbox if Flash is broken on a site: this setting *might* fix it.

Comment 15

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

(In reply to Benjamin Smedberg [:bsmedberg] from comment #14)
> There *is* checkbox UI to disabled the blocklist: it's in the addon manager
> -> plugins -> Flash -> options and it's labeled "Block dangerous and
> intrusive Flash content". That's why we needed the support article at all,
> since that's where the "Learn More" link is. Users should really only use
> this checkbox if Flash is broken on a site: this setting *might* fix it.

Sorry! I didn't realize there was blocklist checkbox in the plugin options. That is good to know.

Comment 16

[Joni Chan]

Please re-open if it needs further changes.

Comment 17

[Alice Wyman]

Joni, Is there a reason the article https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/flash-blocklists/ mentions other plugins and is titled "Plugins (like Flash) are blocked on some sites by default"? This question was asked by philipp here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/flash-blocklists/discuss/7103#post-15198
(quote)
"i was wondering why the title of the article and the first sentence don't refer to flash exclusively and also drag potential other plugins into the topic. Quickly scanning through the related bugs, this feature also seems to be referred to as a block for flash only (and since it's landing in 55 we don't support any other plugins there anyway)..."

Comment 18

[Alice Wyman]

I made a revision to the first sentence of the https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/flash-blocklists/ article, to change "Plugins such as Flash" to "The Flash plugin".  My revision is pending review. If that revision is approved then the article title also needs to be changed.  I suggested "The Flash plugin is blocked on some sites by default" in the article's discussion thread (we can keep the same slug, "flash-blocklists").

Comment 19

[Joni Chan]

Thanks, Alice. I've approved this revision.

Comment 20

[Alice Wyman]

Thanks Joni.  I'll close this bug.