Closed Bug 597932 Opened 14 years ago Closed 14 years ago

Dont remove RSS button from URL box

Categories

(Firefox :: Toolbars and Customization, defect)

Product:
Firefox
Component:
Toolbars and Customization
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
minor

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: seleko, Unassigned)

References

Details

(Whiteboard: [wontfix?])

Attachments

(1 file)

Mockup of possible combined bookmark / subscribe to feed user interface
95.65 KB, image/png
Details
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:2.0b5) Gecko/20100831 Firefox/4.0b5 Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:2.0b5) Gecko/20100831 Firefox/4.0b5 Dont remove RSS button from URL box!!! Its required to be in place, insted of bookmarks! Reproducible: Always
Can see this on trunk builds. Feeds are working and Litmus tests can be passed, except for the missing of the "RSS icon"
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Version: unspecified → Trunk
As the icon has been removed, is there any chance we can add the option in about:config to enable the icon/button in the url bar? Would this feature need to be filed under a new bug? Thanks!
I have learned that devs don't like too many comments that aren't productive.. I am sorry for spamming the Bug 578967. I'll try to limit my comments from now on. I'm sure you all know that Bug 578967 is a done deal, but I and many other have been showing our support for the RSS icon in the Firefox 4 beta forum by voting. We have moved to page 2 and are working to get to page 1.. If you would like to show your support for the icon you can vote here: https://firefox.uservoice.com/forums/57440-firefox-4-beta/suggestions/1072765-do-not-remove-rss-feed-icon
add option to about:config like show rss icon, plz. Without its icon i don't see have site rss or no. Its not right. many users are against about removing rss icon. Thanks.
Some statistic.. The request "Do NOT remove RSS feed Icon" is now on the first page of the Firefox 4 Beta Forum.. https://firefox.uservoice.com/forums/57440-firefox-4-beta Firefox Input Dashboard - "RSS".. http://input.mozilla.com/en-US/search/?product=firefox&q=rss
I just came across a squarespace blog that I couldn’t subscribe to because there was no RSS icon on the page, and none in the chrome! Don’t remove the ruddy RSS icon. When I design sites, I rely upon the chrome doing the right thing for the browser / OS when it comes to RSS and I don’t want RSS icons cluttering up my page design, pointing to XML files users don’t know what to do with.
> I just came across a squarespace blog that I couldn’t subscribe to because > there was no RSS icon on the page, and none in the chrome! RSS Icon: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/241029/
@Sasche Garge Get a clue. It is the browser’s job to do the best in making RSS useful and meaningful to users. If they remove the icon by default, they may as well remove the whole damn functionality. Hey Mozilla, maybe the reason people don’t use RSS enough is because your RSS reader completely sucks and hasn’t been looked at for years!
Component: RSS Discovery and Preview → Toolbars
QA Contact: rss.preview → toolbars
The request "Do NOT remove RSS feed Icon" over at uservoice.com, was just declined, which hides it from the forum.. there is a new one called "Allow users to place the RSS button in the address bar in the same way as Reload/Stop & Bookmarks".. please vote for this new request. https://firefox.uservoice.com/forums/57440-firefox-4-beta/suggestions/1243193-allow-users-to-place-the-rss-button-in-the-address
One way to work around this is to customize the Navigation Toolbar (View -> Toolbars -> Customize) and pull in the RSS button on the toolbar. From my experience, this works fine in Windows (Windows 7 anyway), since the button looks "enabled" when a page has RSS feeds and "Disabled" when a page does not. In Linux, however, the toolbar button always looks the same. You cannot tell if a page has a feed until you hover the mouse over the button. I can't say what happens on a Mac. May be the button can be fixed so that it is a bit more usable.
This is more than one bug. RSS discoverability and presentation is important. RSS is there to help users so they don’t have to open 100 sites each day. If Mozilla want to make the web easier for users, they should be promoting RSS. If you remove the RSS button from the UI by default then the functionality basically doesn’t exist. Regular users would never add the RSS button if they didn’t even know what RSS is. The RSS button was used so little (3%) because it is simply not evident at all what it does if you don’t know what the RSS icon means. Regular users do not click buttons they don’t understand unless it’s "OK" or "Cancel". Removing it from the UI does not solve the problem that RSS is not used enough. The RSS icon and the term "RSS" has no meaning and does not explain what RSS is to new users. This needs to be rectified rather than removing the functionality from the user’s reach. (and forcing web developers to clutter their pages with RSS buttons because Firefox no longer includes one by default -- and that doesn’t help users either) Mozilla, either keep the RSS button by default, or rethink your feed discoverability and presentation completely. Removing the button only hurts users and developers.
Alex, I assume we can close this bug as wontfix?
Whiteboard: [wontfix?]
See discussion in bug 578967
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 14 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
How many percent users do have to disagree with a decision that you decide to revert it? I guess 100 % is not enough: http://input.mozilla.com/en-US/search/?product=firefox&q=rss+icon ^^^ it's data that Mozilla asked for (yes, I know a bug report is not the right place for this discussion; but if users don't get heard on the places which are created for that purpose, like Mozilla Input, I have to give it a try here; sorry)
So if you drop the RSS button, less people are going to realize the functionality exists... as a result, less people will use RSS... webmasters will see this low usage and start to decide RSS isn't worth providing anymore... everyone who does use RSS (even outside of Firefox) suffers from less and less sites offering it. Thanks, guys.
Can the status be reconsidered? This is an unfortunate regression.
I too rely on this icon to design web site. Don't remove it !
RSS icons was very useful for a Google Reader/Feedly addicted like me. Reinterpret RSS in twitter era can be an add-on task (there are many different tastes here), but a "robust" default handling of "push"-ed contents is a must ...
Please, don't remove RSS icon from url box. At least give me an option to keep it. This icon is enormously useful as indicator whether given page has RSS feed and as easily accessible subscription button.
Please don't remove RSS icon from URL box.
Don't remove RSS icon, please. This icon can help me notice easily sites I viewing that support a rss. It's a very VISIBLE ICON than the Subscription Icon which maybe irregular placed on the web page. So I think if devs really try to remove it that is more than a BUG. Does this cute icon hold in address bar really gets in our way to do other things???
A nonsense decision, and arrogant with it. Another push towards Chrome for me.
Are there alternative discovery patterns which might be acceptable the users who previously utilized the RSS icon; given it's not coming back? I note that: * The right click context menu contains "bookmark this page" functionality. For advanced users who do not utilize bookmarks; but do utilize RSS readers as a replacement, would it be appropriate the enhance that option? 7% used the icon, is any one able to say what % use the right click bookmark option? * The previously mentioned combined star -> bookmark UI + subscribe approach could be a suitable replacement to allow advanced users to maintain current behaviour without overwhelming novice users.
(In reply to comment #24) > Are there alternative discovery patterns which might be acceptable the users > who previously utilized the RSS icon; given it's not coming back? As mentioned in comment #10, one can pull in the RSS button into the toolbar. It provides both discovery and access to feeds. At the time that comment was made, Linux version of Minefield had problems with the state of RSS button. But I see that it has been fixed since. To me it is a reasonable replacement, although not quite the same.
I must admit the new pullable version works quite well as a replacement for the location bar now that it's fixed on Linux. You must however admit that this feature is kind of hidden and that users used to have the rss icon appear in the location will have no clue if the feature stopped working or if the page stopped providing RSS. How are they supposed to know they must pull a new button in order to get the feature back somehow? By Googling it and reaching this page? I think this decision is harmful for both RSS and Firefox.
I really like how the latest FF3 releases moved the reload and stop buttons to the right of the "awesome" bar. I guess it is to make sure users don't get confused when the buttons are merged into the bar with FF4. I think figuring out a way to achieve the same thing with the RSS button is a must. Is there metrics FF can use when upgrading to v4 in order to automatically add the button if it has been used in the past?
RSS icon in location bar immediately gives you the answer - is there any RSS feeds for this page or not. It is shown to each user of the browser and there's no chance user may miss the RSS of the page. Let's say it is auto-discover of information - site RSS feeds. Having in mind that feeds gives ability to manage the information stream - it makes it really important and handy. Removing RSS icon simply kills auto-discovering RSS feeds - you wouldn't ever see page feeds if you didn't intend subscribing to it. Both RSS button and feeds submenu in bookmarks don't satisfy these needs. If developers f**k your opinion - simply use https://addons.mozilla.org/ru/firefox/addon/rss-icon/ And yes, it looks really fine RSS icon and bookmark icon together in location bar. Google Chrome is not a good idol to follow.
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