Please be patient with this narrative. I am new to using Firefox Color. The question will be about whether and how one can upload color variations on a theme design conc… (read more)
Please be patient with this narrative. I am new to using Firefox Color. The question will be about whether and how one can upload color variations on a theme design concept. I just had an uploaded theme rejected as "duplicate" even though close 25+ color and UI variables carefully changed. I haven't been able to find the right place to ask this question.
About 4-5 months ago after noodling around with the amazing Firefox Color tool, experimenting with changeable UI elements and color controls slowly, I slowly began building a dark theme I'd imagined but never thought I'd be able to build — not knowing anything about current day CSS. After many hours, much trial & error, I eventually landed on the kind of dark theme I'd wanted —with a very different color palette from common blacks and charcoal greys. I learned how to share it with the Marketplace, uploaded it, described it, it was approved. Thumbs up!
Please bear with me, this next part is what I do not understand and need guidance on how to be compliant with add-on marketplace rules. I'm not sure whether I should, or should not, provide links to the themes I am referencing, given my Q turns on color variants of a design scheme.
The past 3 months, having tested my first theme across a wide span of websites, some dark, some light, some wild colors, and also my being a power user of hierarchical bookmark folder dropdowns, I found a number of usability areas where I wanted to improve color UI interactions. This also after testing with my screen at full brightness, and also at night using warm light filtering. Today I set out to make a much better new dark theme, not just improving core usability but really going after a far more pleasing balance with better colors and distinctions to remove any possible distractions from web browsing no matter which site I was on.
Spent 5-6 hours revamping every element color completely, exported my new theme.xpi to the Marketplace, wrote up description, submitted for approval with the title "Dark Subtle Color - 1"; and about 5 hours later it was approved. I named it with #1 because I knew I wanted to also try some different color variations and dub that one as "Dark Subtle Color - 2".
Maybe I messed myself up with a poor naming strategy, but I'm not experienced in the norms & rules here. It is so common in design to arrive at harmony & balance in relationship to dark, medium and light UI values, after careful attention to contrast differentiation, separation, readability in browser default states, hover states, dropdown & popup states, active vs inactive tabs etc. Then one tries new colors for variety, while sticking to the relative color values of that balanced design. I've seen color variations on themes all over the web, from Chrome store to Firefox Add-on Marketplace.
I the time waiting for approval, after analyzing my submitted theme, I decided I wanted to change up the background colors of the Active and Inactive tabs to provide even greater contrast and distinctions, so that when I'm researching and have 20+ tabs open with most of them pushed out of the limited viewport, and I'm skipping between various tabs, when I have to horizontal scroll, my eye can instantly skim and locate my Active Tab ... because it is that bullet-proof different.
Really happy with those new color choices! But one change leads to another, and next thing I am changing and adjusting many more elements. Particularly after I finally dug into and figured out the 15 or so "other" UI color elements listed in the Advanced Colors for which I had previously never understood where the corresponding visual elements were located on-screen.
Yes I began with my submitted "Dark Subtle Color - 1", but I changed all together about 25 color elements -- not like some crazy rainbow world -- many were subtle improvements based on popups, selected URL, bookmark dropdowns, background and text colors, changed the color of icons, changing the opacity of the Bookmark Folder icons and their associated text labels to dial down the amount they popped out in a distracting way. I liked this arrangement very much as well, so per plan I saved the new theme.xpi file and submitted to Marketplace as "Dark Subtle Color - 3". It's a separate theme but to the untrained eye the only standout features would be the new tab-state colors.
So yes I was surprised and taken back when I later get mozilla emails stating my numbered color theme - 3 was rejected, not published: "Our review found that your content violates the following Mozilla policy or policies: - Other, specifically Duplicate: We cannot add your theme to the gallery because we do not permit duplicate copies of existing themes. We appreciate your involvement in the Theme developer community."
My question is: Was my principle error poor NAMING of the last theme? The colors are different! What am I missing about the word "duplicate"? Maybe the rule-set should be really clarified because "different color choices" and "duplicate" are 2 very different things. I spent this time to write this up so that others beside myself can be helped. Rules are always essential, but it seems to me that in pursuit of definitional purity, users are poorly served if color variations on theme arrangments are verboten. Thank you in advance.
