1407232 - A Pocket recommendation which is also a Top Site is wrongly redisplayed after a restart

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: New Tab Page, defect)

Description

[Marius Coman [:mcoman], Ecosystem QA]

Attachment: rec of the issue.gif

[Notes]:
- If you dismiss the "Pocket" recommended website, the website is also dismissed from the Top Site area and vice versa.

[Affected versions]:
- Firefox 57 and up

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

[Prerequisites]:
- Have a new Firefox profile.
- Change the "browser.search.region" pref to "US".

[Steps to reproduce]:
1. Open the browser with the profile from prerequisites and open a new tab.
2. Open a recommended by Pocket website multiple times.
3. Dismiss a Top Site and observe the "Recommended by Pocket" area.
4. Restart the browser.
5. Observe the "Recommended by Pocket" area.

[Expected result]:
Step 3: The website is no longer displayed in the "Recommended by Pocket" area.
Step 5: The website is no longer displayed in the "Recommended by Pocket" area.

[Actual result]:
Step 3: The website is no longer displayed in the "Recommended by Pocket" area.
Step 5: The website is redisplayed in the "Recommended by Pocket" area.

[Additional Notes]:
- Attached a screen recording of the issue.

Comment 1

[bbell]

So the bug is that we seem to be de-duplicating the page as soon as a Pocket Recommended page makes it to "Top Sites" and for some reason, that de-duplication doesn't persist after a restart. Weird. 

The reason I'm inclined not to fix it at this time, and why it can wait, is that this can only happen on a blank profile, and if a user jumps right in and opens a page multiple times, and then dismisses an existing Top Site, then restarts. The likelihood of a user running into this issues is very slight. By its nature, the algorithm that governs Top Sites would make it impossible for a user to run into this problem with just a couple days of use since it prefers all-time most visited sites, and resists recent reads.