1452505 - Email Request: Thunderbird Add-on authors, regarding upcoming 60

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Marketing :: Email, task)

Description

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Thunderbird would like to send out a notice to Thunderbird add-on authors, and make them aware of changes needed in preparation for the upcoming Thunderbird 60. 

Text is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VdjXJG8Gp6fKBlMQLJflOIGrPmqAZTy7PY3_bNfedZE/edit

Currently:
---
Dear Add-on Developer,

As you might know, Thunderbird 60 will be released in May 2018. Thunderbird 60 Beta is currently available on the beta channel.

Many things have changed in the Mozilla platform code onto which Thunderbird and add-ons are based. We have tried to compile a comprehensive list of changes. With a high likelihood your add-on will require some changes to be compatible with Thunderbird 60. In many cases those changes are minor. We ask you to test your add-on with this version and fix any issues. Please contact the Thunderbird team as described here if you need support.

If your add-on is still compatible without any changes, please visit the Mozilla’s Add-ons site and mark it compatible. For your add-on(s), click on “Manage Status & Versions”, then under “Listed versions”, click the link for a version and adjust the versions it is compatible with.

To protect users from malfunction of Thunderbird caused by incompatible add-ons, the Thunderbird team has decided to classify all add-ons which have not been marked compatible with Thunderbird 60 as incompatible. These add-ons will be disabled on upgrade. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

---

Comment 1

[Jessilyn Davis]

Hello Magnus,

Thanks for reaching out! A few questions for you so we can figure out next steps:

1) How many add-on developers are there to email?

2) Have they ever been emailed before?

2.1) If so, when was the last time they were emailed?

2.2) If so, what system did you use to email them?

3) How old are these email addresses (ie for how long have we had a relationship with developers of the oldest add-ons we want to email)?

4) Are there alternative ways to reach out to these developers besides, or in addition to, email? ie: IRC, in the Thunderbird product, in the Thunderbird add-ons website?

5) Is there a way to only reach out to add-on developers whose add-ons are actively being used?

6) Do all of these developers speak English?

7) What day in May does Thunderbird 60 go live?


Thanks!

Jess

Comment 2

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

(In reply to Jessilyn Davis from comment #1)
> Hello Magnus,
> 
> Thanks for reaching out! A few questions for you so we can figure out next
> steps:
> 
> 1) How many add-on developers are there to email?

I don't know.
 
> 2) Have they ever been emailed before?
> 
> 2.1) If so, when was the last time they were emailed?

Yes, we sent out a job offering in bug 1421732, Feb 8, 2018. Before that, no e-mail since many years AFAIK.

> 2.2) If so, what system did you use to email them?

I don't know. I assumed this was the way to email them, like in bug 1421732?
 
> 3) How old are these email addresses (ie for how long have we had a
> relationship with developers of the oldest add-ons we want to email)?

I have no numbers. The oldest, probably since the dawn of amo.

> 4) Are there alternative ways to reach out to these developers besides, or
> in addition to, email? ie: IRC, in the Thunderbird product, in the
> Thunderbird add-ons website?

There is a tb-planning list, I've already sent an email out there. But every add-on developer might not be following. 

> 5) Is there a way to only reach out to add-on developers whose add-ons are
> actively being used?

Not sure how to measure that.

> 6) Do all of these developers speak English?

I think most developers can at least read English to some degree.

> 7) What day in May does Thunderbird 60 go live?

It's not set in stone. Firefox releases 2018-05-09, and Thunderbird is likely to follow the next weeks after that.

Comment 3

[Jessilyn Davis]

Thanks, Magnus! This is super helpful info. I'm ccing Caitlin since she helped with the last email send in Bug 1421732.

I just invited you and Caitlin to our next Lifecycle Marketing intake mtg on Monday, 9:30am PT in Michele Warther's Vidyo so we can talk next steps.

Comment 4

[Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster]]

Hi all! 

There are 419 developers who have Thunderbird extensions. We have sent both transactional and marketing messages to them within the last six months (last transactional was sent in November 2017 -- see bug 1406226). I'm not sure how old the email addresses are, but we had 99.5% deliverability in the November send (and the list has decreased since then). 

Magnus/Ryan, you may also want to consider posting announcements to Discourse and the Thunderbird Blog

Comment 5

[Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster]]

Sorry, got cut off in that last comment. 

There is probably a way we can check for 'last update date' for the TB extensions to see who's still active, but given the last send's deliverability, I think broad coverage would be really helpful in this situation. 

That wraps up my thoughts! See ya'll on Monday. :)

Comment 6

[Jessilyn Davis]

Thanks for meeting today Magnus, Caitlin & Ryan!

Caitlin, you are good to send! Please update the email calendar, let us know if you have any issues in the send, and respond to this bug when the email has launched.


Notes from today's are here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hB-PHqLmWhjsoxmbP5Y-Tt0R6YqXoiy9cpmDcYrVhSA/edit#heading=h.fr62v6dcjhvi

Comment 7

[Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster]]

Thanks, Jess! 

Magnus, I'll send a test version to you once it's built. Ryan, let me know if you want to see the test version, too. Once I have your go-ahead, we'll schedule the send for the 25th.

Comment 8

[Ryan Lee Sipes]

Yes, please send my way too Caitlin. Thank you!

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Paenglab suggests he received his email. So this was sent?

Comment 10

[Caitlin Neiman [:caitmuenster]]

This was sent. FYI, I'm forwarding all replies I get to Ryan, Magnus, Andreas, and Philipp. It looks like deliverability was 98.5% but I am going to take a look at the numbers tomorrow to report on the open rate.

Comment 11

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Closing, as this was done already. Thanks to all involved!