Back in May, I wrote about how much I loooove the Firefox plugins/extensions I use. Today, I get to write about some my dissatisfaction with one in particular – Newsfox. Don’t get me wrong – it works and it works well. Out of all the readers I’ve tried, I like it the best. But it could be SO MUCH BETTER.
I first went to the bug reports page on mozdev.org to see if anyone is having my same issues and/or has requested the same features I want. Then I went to the addons discussion page to do the same thing. One of the features I am looking for has been both reported as a bug and requested on the discussion page, and one is only on the discussion page.
Bug report: Move feeds into other folders (drag & drop) Yes, gawd PLEASE I need to organize my feeds into categories and drag & drop would be wonderful. The current interface automatically adds a new feed to the default FEEDS group, whether I want it there or not. The reply?
This may be provided eventually, but the main problem is that it is unclear
what such a drag&drop means. Is it a move or a copy?It is almost as easy to go to ‘options’ on the feed context menu and check all
the groups where you want the feed.
Are you effing KIDDING ME??!!?? MOVE THE FEED. MOVE IT MOVE IT why in the name of all that’s holy would I want the feed *twice*??!!?? I want the feed in one group. Only one.
Okay, so I mosey on over to the Newsfox Addons Discussion page, where I again find someone asking for Categories for sorting the feeds. The reply? I’m not sure what this means. What this means is that this person (like me) wants to be able to move news feeds into a NEWS group, sexblogs into a SEXBLOGS group, friends into a FRIENDS group, etc etc and so on. I created a NEWS group, selected the option on the feed to show in the NEWS group – and now I have two copies of the feed. One in the FEEDS default group, and one in my NEWS group. I do not *need* the feed twice, and if I delete it from the FEEDS default group it disappears from BOTH GROUPS. (C’mon, grind your teeth with me now.)
Reiteration: I want one feed. I want that one feed in the group I think it belongs in. I neither want nor need two copies of the feed (one in default, one in group I created).
Are you clear on what that means, now?
Next up, the addons page again. When I posted my review in May, I mentioned that it doesn’t open in a new tab. Lo and behold, someone else has asked for Newsfox to open in a new tab, rather than the current window. Having it open in the current window has caused me to lose more than one document – it is literally the ONLY Firefox addon I have installed that opens in the current window. Are you ready for another gobsmacking reply?
It follows the long established history of the home page button. You can open a new tab by clicking the middle mouse button on the toolbar button (not sure what the Mac equivalent is if you have no middle button) or by ctrl-t followed by alt-t, f for the menu item. You can’t directly get a new tab from just the menu item.
The Gmail manager and FireFTP open in new tabs, so – Yes, you CAN directly get a new tab by clicking on a toolbar button. It’s POSSIBLE. What you need to say is that NEWSFOX is not coded to do that. It should be, but it isn’t.