The Story of the "Secret" Update
July 28, 2009
Before you start accusing me of maliciously trying to deceive anyone with unethical tactics, please take a moment to read the facts of what happened and hear my side of the story.
About five months ago, Ask.com contacted me and asked if I would be interested in a partnership to include their search engine with my themes. After discussing things with them, we decided to go forward with it and add the Ask search engine to the list of available search engines built into the search window in the main toolbar. By doing this, we would be using the same exact method of revenue generation to support my efforts that Firefox uses with their Google search and Flock uses with their Yahoo search. There is nothing sneaky or deceptive about it and the false claims going around about “malware” are absurd. Nothing is done other than adding a simple custom search option to the list of other engines. The user can choose to use it and support my development, change to another or uninstall it and remove it completely.
I contacted Mozilla long before ever getting the code from Ask to see if this was fine. Other developers do this with their add-ons such as Brand Thunder which installs Ask and Yahoo, and the TwitterBar which installs a different search. Mozilla said it was fine but came up with a new policy regarding search engines and said that in order to bundle a search the user must have the option to “opt-in” and accept the addition. Ask developed their search code and gave it to me. When I originally uploaded the updated versions, Mozilla said that it did not meet the opt-in requirement. I thought that every user would see the License Agreement when they installed the theme but it was only for new users. Existing users would not see the EULA so the updates remained in the experimental sandbox area. I provided a link to the sandbox site where new users could download it if they chose to and gave a very clear explanation of what was being installed when the user agreed. I have also been posting on my site and on my blog that this was going to happen.
Then, Mozilla screwed up and released three of my themes this past weekend to the public causing everyone with Aero Fox, Aero Fox Silver, and Aquatint Black to get updates. I had nothing to do with that decision and was under the impression that the themes with Ask would remain in the Sandbox until the update to the Ask plugin was complete with the pop-up alert opt-in telling all users that Ask was going to be installed with a copy of the license agreement. The user would then have the option to agree or cancel.
In all of this, I have done everything in my power to be 100% transparent but now I am being told to burn in Hell because of Mozilla’s mistake. In the grand scheme of things, it was a human error that does not affect anyone’s life beyond the time it takes to get clarification via email or by uninstalling the plug-in. You can still use my themes with no loss in performance or appearance. In fact, my themes will now be more fully developed and supported because of my partnership with Ask. I will be able to focus all of my attention to their development and maintenance. I will also be able to monitor my user forum and answer questions better than before to improve my themes and take care of bugs.
I understand why people would not be pleased that something was installed without their knowledge and it should not have happened. However, even if this were my doing, it is not worthy of cussing me out and telling me to burn in Hell. There is no malware installed and there is no permanent change to your settings.
I am working with Ask to get the add-on fixed to include the user opt-in and will release those as soon as they are completed. Whether you choose to support my efforts by keeping and using Ask is entirely up to you but please know that I have and will continue to do everything in my power to be 100% up front and transparent and this was no exception.
Two Flock Themes Ready
July 25, 2009
I have my first two Flock themes updated and ready to install for Flock 2.5. You can get my most popular theme for Firefox, Aero Fox, for Flock 2.5 now. I also have converted my latest theme, Revelation, over to Flock so you can get this dark theme with glassy burgundy buttons.
I will be adding new themes over the next week as I continue to convert the over. I will be adding Aero Silver, Chromium, Onyx, Abstract, Aquatint and Aquatint Black plus all the rest. Check back soon or follow me on twitter to see when they are ready.
Testing Flock Blog Editor While Updating Flock Themes
July 18, 2009
For all of the Flock fans out there who are waiting for some themes to be available for Flock 2.5, I am working on updating them right now. I am almost finished with the first one which means the next ones to be updated will be much faster.
I hope to have a few of them available next week so following me on twitter or check out my blog for updates on when they will be available.
Why Change a Good Thing?
July 16, 2009
One thing I hear a lot in comments is, “I liked such and such a version so much better” with questions as to why I made changes. The reason is simple, I like designing things and I am always looking to improve things so simply leaving my themes the exact same from one version to another would get very boring for me. The best comparison I can think of is new car models. When a car manufacturer releases a new car it looks slightly different from the previous model. Sometimes they do a completely new look because they are always trying to make things better.
Some changes to my themes are made necessary by the changes Firefox makes to their default theme. Every time Firefox comes out with a new version, there are several changes to the way the browser functions and this has an effect on the way certain things must look.
Other changes are done to keep up with current trends in what people want, for example, the size reduction in the toolbar buttons of most of my updates. I have heard a few people express dissatisfaction for the fact that I made my buttons smaller. I made them smaller because most people want as much window space as possible and want the browser toolbar to take as little space as possible. One thing that makes Safari so popular is the lack of real estate occupied by the toolbar. They even tried to use less by moving the tabs up to the top of the window toolbar but this confused people. Google Chrome did the same thing by moving the tabs to where the menu options were located. The desire is to occupy less space with the toolbar, not more so I chose to reduce the size of the buttons. One the contrary, one of the biggest complaints of Internet Explorer over the years is how much space the toolbar took up. It occupied so much unnecessary space.
One thing that I will definitely take into consideration is the feedback from people who need to the larger buttons to see more clearly. I have been thinking of options and my plan is to release a second version of a few of my themes with the standard size they have now and a larger option rather than the smaller option.
I appreciate all the feedback and will continue to work on improving my themes for everyone.
Aquatint Premium 3.5 Updated
July 14, 2009
I have uploaded the new version of Aquatint for premium users.
I am still working on some issues with the updates for the Firefox Add-ons page and hope to get them all ready soon.
I have been working on bugs and doing some redesigning of the tabs which I believe will solve some problems with viability and display problems that I was hearing about. I am taking a different approach to how the tabs typically appear. You can get somewhat of an idea from the Aquatint screenshot. They blend in better with the overall look of the theme now rather than looking like typical tabs so I hope people like them.
My wife liked them and she is usually my toughest critic.
User Forum
July 12, 2009
If you haven’t checked out my user forum, stop buy, take a look, and register. It is probably the best resource for question and answers. It is also the best place to report bugs so I can get issues identified in order to fix them as soon as possible. I also created an place where you can discuss anything you want (within reason and as long as it doesn’t get out of control 
Thanks to a few users I have been able to correct several bugs already. There is no way for me to test every extension myself and no way for me to know exactly how ever user will customized their browser so it is hard to identify all areas that may cause problems. If you come across an issue, post it on the user forum and I will be sure to see what you are experiencing.
Thanks to those of you who have registered and posted bugs. I want to make my 3.5 themes the best I have ever put together and your help is greatly appreciated.
Bookmarks in the Toolbar
July 8, 2009
I had originally planned to put two bookmarks on my themes, one with a link to my website and the other a sponsored link to Thumbplay. I have taken these off because of an issue that does not allow them to be removed simply by right clicking and deleting them. As many found out, they would pop back up once Firefox was restarted which was not the original intent.
My reasoning behind putting these bookmarks is simple, I have decided to start my own company and partner with Ask.com to make money to support my family and I wanted to put these two links on the themes I create. After being laid off by Flock in November of 2008, I have been unemployed for the past 8 months with very little success trying to find a job. I was approached by Thumbplay and Ask to see if I would be interested in partnering with them to include their products into my themes. I prayed about it and thought about all my options and concluded that this was an offer that I could not pass up.
You are never going to make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time but there are some out there who are very irrational and immature in their response to my decision to take my themes in this direction. Most of what we see in our society has some form of advertising to help support their efforts. If companies are not charging the customers directly then revenue must come from some other source, mainly advertising and partnerships. Most websites and blogs will have such things as Google ads or other sponsored links to advertisers. I tried to charge the end user directly by offering my themes for 99¢ per download and even met an irrational response from a small yet vocal minority there as well. Partnering with Ask and including a bookmark on the bookmark toolbar allows me to offer my themes free of charge to all users while earning money by people using Ask.com for their searches. In doing this, I am using the exact same method for revenue generation that Firefox is using by bundling Google as their search engine.
Another issue came up and that was the issue of what to do with users who purchased premium themes over the past year. As I have explained to many over the past few days, I bundled the bookmark extension with the premium updates by mistake. In a rush to get them out I failed to remove that extension before uploading the update. I wholeheartedly agree that users who purchased premium themes should not have the bookmark links added to their toolbar, especially without the option to include them or not. I have explained how to remove them in other areas but in case you missed those, delete the bookmarks by right clicking and selecting delete. Then, open tools>add-ons and select extensions. Select the Virtus Bookmarks extension and uninstall to remove them permanently.
I hope that you continue to support my effort to make Firefox themes that people love by using Ask.com for your internet searching. Obviously I will make some people mad enough to never use my themes again but my first obligation is to my family. After being out of work for 8 months, things are very tight especially since there is a new addition arriving in approximately three weeks but my wife and I have learned in our 32 years that God is always in control and is faithful to provide for those who rely on Him.
I saw a commercial recently where a man started a shoe company with the idea that “In order to do good, you must do well” and that stuck with me. He uses his business to help kids all around the world and I hope to be able to do the same. After 8 months of little to no income, we have learned what it is like to not know how things are going to get paid or how where food is going to come from. Fortunately, we have great friends and family who have helped us out tremendously and I hope to be able to do the same. Ephesians 4:28 says “[L]et him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” There are a lot of people in need right now with the current state of the economy so there is great opportunity to help out.
I am excited to have an opportunity to take something that I loved doing as a side hobby and turn it into my own company. It’s success will rely on me continuing to create and maintain the themes that people have enjoyed as well as you supporting me by searching with Ask.
Update to Premium Users
July 7, 2009
I am working on getting everything straightened out. As of now, I will just be uploading the theme file as before until further notice.
All new downloads will have the Ask search engine loaded but any updates from premium themes you purchased in the past will only include the theme with nothing else attached.
Sorry again.
Issues with Comments
July 6, 2009
If anyone has attempted to leave comments, there was a box missing to prevent spammers from flooding my posts. There is a verification box that requires you to enter the appropriate words in order to post a comment.
If you were trying to post a comment, sorry about that. It is now working.
Premium Themes
July 5, 2009
I released an update for Aero Fox and Revelation for Premium users yesterday and included the bookmark extension that adds a bookmark to the toolbar for my website and Thumbplay.com. When I did this update it should not have included this addition so for that I apologize. From now on, those who purchased the Premium versions of my themes before the changes will not have the bookmarks included.
Because of the partnership I formed with Ask, I will include the search engine in my future updates. The only way this will affect anyone after the first update is if you completely uninstall the search engine. The search engine is simply added to your list of installed search engines which you can leave set as Ask or change to another at any time.
I understand the sentiment behind not wanting the bookmarks added if you purchased a premium theme in the past and I will honor that. In a rush to get the updates out as soon as possible, I uploaded the wrong file that had the bookmarks bundled. My intent was not to sneak anything past anyone.
From this point on, I will only be offering one version of my themes from the Firefox AMO site but you will continue to get bookmark free updates for themes you previously purchased.
Thank you for your support. You can continue to support my by using Ask.com for your searches.
To update everyone what has gone on in my life over the past 8 months, I was laid off by Flock in November as I previously wrote about. Oregon has the second highest unemployment in the U.S. so finding a job has not been easy. Through in the fact that my previous profession was teaching and I was laid off in the middle of the school year. We found out that we were having our third child a week after being laid off so this has been our “unemployment” baby. He is due in less that three week so we are excited but times have been a little stressful. Through in the other fact that we lost our Uncle who was like a Grandpa to our kids and we have gone through quite a rocky 8 months.
When the opportunity was presented to partner with Ask.com and combine their search engine with my themes, it was something that I couldn’t pass up. It allows me to continue doing what I love (designing and building awesome Firefox themes) and support my growing family while making them available to you for free. When I decided to start charging 99¢ for my themes, I was met with mixed emotions. While a small percentage of my users had no problem with this, the majority felt that my themes should always be free. Partnering with Ask offers the best solution to all sides by keeping my themes free to the user while supporting my efforts by users who keep Ask.com as their search engine.
This is something that I have prayed about and approached very carefully and I feel it is the best decision for my family. I would not partner with a product that I do not use myself so when Ask approached me, I started using it exclusively to see what I thought. I have found it to be as good or better than any other search engines. There are times when I use Google, Bing, or Yahoo! for various searches but have made Ask my default.
Give it a try and see what you think. Try it out for 30 days before you uninstall it or change back to your previous choice.