1736150 - Remove Thunderbird advertisement from FileLink HTML templates

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: FileLink, enhancement)

Description

[Johannes Endres]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:93.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/93.0

Steps to reproduce:

I attached a large attachment to a message, chose to use FileLink and had the download link inserted in the mail with the HTML template in my language. The inserted HTML part contained 3 links:

1. the acutal download link
2. the "service_url" from the FileLink provider Add-On
3. A link to thunderbird.net in an advertisement to install Mozilla Thunderbird.

I then sent this message to a n00b.

Actual results:

The recipient was confused

1. which of the 3 links to click
2. if he had to install Mozilla Thunderbird to receive the FileLink'ed file (because of the ad)

Expected results:

1. the recipient should not be confused.
2. The message should only contain the content I want to send, not additional advertisements in the message body.

I'm prepared to remove the ad from all the localized templates myself (w/ a little help from John) and submit a patch. But before I invest the time I'd like to

1. know who decides the ad removal
2. have a clear decision to do so

TIA, Johannes

Comment 1

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Johannes, could you attach a screenshot?

FileLink has been around for many years, and I'm not aware of any other report in this line.

Comment 2

[Johannes Endres]

Attachment: Message with FileLink'ed attachment in Outlook 2016

I was talking about the "Mozilla Thunderbird" line at the bottom of the template.

Comment 3

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Reporter requests to remove the bottom link which advertises Thunderbird, claiming it's confusing UX.
Tbh, I don't consider the current FileLink template to be problematic UX, and while FileLink has been around for long, this is the first report ever afasics. I think Alex and Ryan will be in a position to make the call.

(In reply to Johannes Endres from comment #0)

Steps to reproduce:
I attached a large attachment to a message, chose to use FileLink and had the download link inserted in the mail with the HTML template in my language. The inserted HTML part contained 3 links:

1. the actual download link

Due to the attachment icon, that looks pretty straightforward to click on and get the file, which should succeed.

2. the "service_url" from the FileLink provider Add-On

In your screenshot attachment 9246305 [details], it would appear that something went wrong on the add-on side. The add-on is not supposed to add a very long text link right besides the attachment download link. This should be an iconic link to the cloud provider, placed on the right side of the box, which in turn makes the download link stand out more on its own.

3. A link to thunderbird.net in an advertisement to install Mozilla Thunderbird.

It's an ad for Thunderbird, yes, but I don't see anything suggesting that Thunderbird needs to be installed in order to get the attachment.
If clicking on the attachment itself succeeds to download that, how would someone still believe that Thunderbird is needed for the download?

Expected results:

1. the recipient should not be confused.

The biggest confusion here is from the unfortunate cloud link provided by the add-on (I guess).

2. The message should only contain the content I want to send, not additional advertisements in the message body.

We're talking about a single advertisement, which isn't screaming in any way, but just a simple one-liner.
I don't know the exact intention or success rate of advertising Thunderbird in connection with FileLink.
I suppose it's not wrong for Thunderbird to advertise itself, but I wouldn't care much either way.
It might be a good way of letting people know that you can use Thunderbird as an email client and conveniently add large attachments as a link in much the same way you'd add a regular file attachment. Not sure if other desktop clients or webmail would offer the same degree of convenience.

I'm prepared to remove the ad from all the localized templates myself (w/ a little help from John) and submit a patch. But before I invest the time I'd like to

1. know who decides the ad removal
2. have a clear decision to do so

TIA, Johannes

Comment 4

[Ryan Lee Sipes]

I'll look into this and talk with you, Thomas, to better understand this. In truth, I don't think this is the place to advertise Thunderbird.

Comment 5

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Agreed we should remove it.

Comment 6

[Johannes Endres]

(In reply to Thomas D. (:thomas8) from comment #3)

Reporter requests to remove the bottom link which advertises Thunderbird, claiming it's confusing UX.
[...]
(In reply to Johannes Endres from comment #0)
[...]
Due to the attachment icon, that looks pretty straightforward to click on and get the file, which should succeed.

Let's discuss the styling of the actual download link template in bug 1736208. This one is only about the advertisement.

[...]

We're talking about a single advertisement, which isn't screaming in any way, but just a simple one-liner.
I don't know the exact intention or success rate of advertising Thunderbird in connection with FileLink.
I suppose it's not wrong for Thunderbird to advertise itself, but I wouldn't care much either way.

IMHO it's wrong: Sender wants to send a file. The ad has nothing to do with that intention. If sender actually wants to advertise for Thunderbird in the same message, she may do so on her own.

BTW the plain text version of the template does not contain an ad.
[...]

Comment 7

[John Bieling]

Attachment: Bug 1736150 - Remove Thunderbird advertisement from FileLink HTML templates. r=mkmelin

Comment 8

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

I've confirmed with Alex that he's also okay with removing the Thunderbird ad link. Perfect! Let's remove it then.

Comment 9

[John Bieling]

Try Run:
https://treeherder.mozilla.org/jobs?repo=try-comm-central&revision=e0181b0b6ea6661ccd1b8e7549e414f40bf11eda

I do no see a test failing due to changes in this patch.

Comment 10

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/47cec75f8b8b
Remove Thunderbird advertisement from FileLink HTML templates. r=mkmelin

Comment 11

[John Bieling]

Comment on attachment 9246645 [details]
Bug 1736150 - Remove Thunderbird advertisement from FileLink HTML templates. r=mkmelin

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #):
User impact if declined:
We should not advertise in users emails.

Testing completed (on c-c, etc.):
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky):
This is just removing code, there should be no risk.

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9246645 [details]
Bug 1736150 - Remove Thunderbird advertisement from FileLink HTML templates. r=mkmelin

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr91

Comment 13

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 91.3.1:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr91/rev/6a9e1621d439