thegreatsuspender
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greatsuspender
Update notice takes focus over all other programs
Please complete the following information when submitting a feature request or bug report.
- Extension version: 7.0
- Browser name & version: Chrome 83.0.4103.61
- Operating system & version: Windows 8.1
While using VLC player in full screen, The Great Suspender opens a new Chrome tab on an existing browser with an update notice at the following address: chrome-extension://klbibkeccnjlkjkiokjodocebajanakg/update.html
This is a needless nuisance. Please remove this "feature".
I also recall this happening previously many months ago while playing a video game.
Why must the update notice take absolute focus from all other programs?
+1 This an awful user experience, a complete nuisance, and there's no way to stop it from constantly happening. I don't have an option to disable this feature. I don't have a way to dismiss the message.
I am not in a position where i can update right this moment and frankly, i choose when to update on my own computer. I've had this pop up 3 times within the last hour.
Please make it stop doing this.
+1, It also steals focus after an automatic update to tell me that it updated. Surely there is a better way to handle this. Also the most recent update, where it nagged me a bunch of times, didn't have any link to a changelog or any indication of why it was so important for me to update, just "maintanence". Do you still have control of this repo? Is the extension still safe?
Edited to add: I use dark mode for everything, and being blasted with a page as bright as the sun as both I and my screen woke up was less than fun.
I am hearing rumblings on Reddit that the developer is being paid by a third party to integrate a closed-source library that tracks user data in the latest release, hence the intrusive "UPDATE NOW" push. I'll be removing this extension post-haste.
Where did you see these rumblings? I'm curious to see if people found something in the code I missed.
I am sorry about the annoying popups before update. There was a good reason for doing this, although perhaps the annoyance factor outweighs the usefulness of it. For whatever reason (I've tried really hard to determine exactly what) a handful of users lose all their suspended tabs during an extension update. Because this is a pretty terrible event, I've tried my best to guard against it by warning users BEFORE the extension updates and giving them a change to save a backup of their tabs before updating. See this thread for more info on the tab loss situation #526. Perhaps the decision to show this screen could be revised in future, but it's not a clear cut decision for me.
The fact that this happens once for every chrome profile is not something i'd considered before, and i can see that it might be frustrating for it to happen multiple times on different profiles.
As for the second update screen, this appears pretty much instantly after the first popup, so I can't imagine it adds any extra annoyance after having suffered the first popup. As for the lack of 'whats changed' info, i didn't think there was anything noteworthy to report (it was mostly a bugfix release) so I left it as the generic 'maintenance' message. For a change log of what is in the latest release see here: https://github.com/greatsuspender/thegreatsuspender/releases/tag/v7.1.6.
And finally, I can confirm that there is no new third-party library that has been added to track users. The webstore version is pushed directly from code in this repo (which has no such addition). You can also take the source code from within the webstore version of the extension and compare it to this repo (see the release tag above) and they should match one-to-one.
Leaving this issue open to get more opinions about whether the update popup should remain or be removed.
Also, just noticed this other post: https://github.com/greatsuspender/thegreatsuspender/issues/1152 Seems that the pre-update screen IS appreciated by at least one other github user.
And another recent related post: https://github.com/greatsuspender/thegreatsuspender/issues/1151
Thanks for the reply.
As mentioned above, there is a very good reason the update popups exist. This has to do with the extension having the potential to lose all the users tabs, and wanting to warn them first. There has even been two people that have raised issues since this one specifically saying they appreciated this feature (linked above).
That does not take away from your point. I agree that for others it can be annoying. The question now is whether it is better to remove them in future, at the risk of putting a small percentage of users out. Or whether to continue with the current conservative approach.
It does not show up just once per profile. I woke up to several tabs in the same window with the same update message and a new one popped up every few hours until I got around to restarting Chrome.
The rationale for doing it makes sense. Losing all my tabs is about the most frustrating thing that can happen to me online, that's why I also use Session Buddy.
But I would much rather see an option to turn off automatic updates entirely and let me do it manually, as well as an option to disable the nag screen when updating. This is the only extension I have that steals focus, and I have many extensions.
I just flipped it to dark mode btw, I hope that also themes the update screen.
It does not show up just once per profile. I woke up to several tabs in the same window with the same update message and a new one popped up every few hours until I got around to restarting Chrome.
Ah, thanks for clarifying this. That is definitely not the intended behaviour. This must exacerbate the issue immensely.
But I would much rather see an option to turn off automatic updates entirely and let me do it manually, as well as an option to disable the nag screen when updating. This is the only extension I have that steals focus, and I have many extensions.
Unfortunately Chrome does not allow extensions to disable updates. That means that a new release will always update whenever it decides it wants to. Before the pre-update popup, Chrome would randomly decide to update the extension, and all the tabs would disappear. There would be no warning and it was quite unsettling.
It would be nice to have a configuration option with choices like:
- Notify me when an update is available
- Apply updates immediately
- Apply updates when Chrome is restarted
I would pick option 3.
But nice job dev, keep pulling things out your @ss to justify this godforsaken mess. You keep changing your story as to what "problem" these popups are supposed to solve. This just gets shadier and shadier...
Wow, uhh, thanks @deanoemcke for providing this absolutely free tool that nobody is obligated to use. Not all of your users are tinfoil hat people who've never written a line of code. Also,
P.S. Nice job dev on downvoting OP
The dev did not downvote OP. You have, however, upvoted all your own comments.
Ah, thanks for clarifying this. That is definitely not the intended behaviour. This must exacerbate the issue immensely.
What do you think we've been complaining about?? Attached is a screenshot of what a single one-tab session (Reddit) looks like after just 2 hours.
The original report said "a new Chrome tab". That is why I clarified the problem for the author. They cannot read your mind.
Anybody saying these popups are a good idea is a damn pillock. And no, before this, I never had to deal with any automatic updates that would upend my session, nor any goddamn spam like this! If I needed to update, I could manually do so like a capable, halfway intelligent human being.
But nice job dev, keep pulling things out your @ss to justify this godforsaken mess. You keep changing your story as to what "problem" these popups are supposed to solve. This just gets shadier and shadier...
There is a very good reason for a popup like this. A popup is a huge improvement for many users. Getting many of them is obviously a bug and now that the developer understands the problem they will fix it. No one is forcing you to use The Great Suspender. If you don't think it's Great, stop using it.
Thank you for attaching the screenshot. It demonstrates the problem very clearly.
Could you perhaps change the notice from opening a new tab to a simple notification?
Unfortunately Chrome does not allow extensions to disable updates. That means that a new release will always update whenever it decides it wants to
If that's the case then please add an option to disable the notice entirely. Add a warning with a checkbox to acknowledge the risk of losing tabs if you feel it's necessary.
No extension should ever open a new tab for me unless I specifically request it.
Thanks for the reply.
As mentioned above, there is a very good reason the update popups exist. This has to do with the extension having the potential to lose all the users tabs, and wanting to warn them first. There has even been two people that have raised issues since this one specifically saying they appreciated this feature (linked above).
That does not take away from your point. I agree that for others it can be annoying. The question now is whether it is better to remove them in future, at the risk of putting a small percentage of users out. Or whether to continue with the current conservative approach.
So there's a problem. Don't fix it by doing something wrong.
If you want to notify people about whatever, then find a place to do so in-line. Random popups is not acceptable. Your popup is not harmless. Typically, the harm is low. For a few people it might just be high!
Several times a day I have to close extra nuisance "about to get better!" tabs in multiple user profiles because of this. I'm a patient person, but this is such a persistent nag that it has me wondering if the frustration is worth waiting for a fix.
[edit] I realized this was because the notice was prompting for an upgrade, which is not what I was used to. The screen looks much like the post-install screen you expect to see after a new browser init and sync. This is still enough of an annoyance (new behavior that looks like something else users are familiar with) that it should be called out much more obviously. Maybe put two options at the top in big letters for [UPGRADE NOW] or [BACKUP FIRST]...
Several times a day I have to close extra nuisance "about to get better!" tabs in multiple user profiles because of this.
Weird, I haven't seen it at all since updating.
PR has been merged: https://github.com/greatsuspender/thegreatsuspender/pull/1167 It should also be noted that this code will only take effect AFTER the next update. So unfortunately, the next update will exhibit the same annoying pre-update behaviour as we have just experienced :( Going forward from the though, we should have a much nicer update experience 🎉
Hello. I'm getting the (quite annoying) "The Great Suspender is about to get greater" pop-up tabs in my Google Chrome. I'm not in a situation when I can update now, nor close now my Chrome. My question is simple: how can I do to stop these "The Great Suspender is about to get greater" pop-up tabs from appearing? I'm ready to do whatever, edit my hosts file, etc. Please, help.
I am hearing rumblings on Reddit that the developer is being paid by a third party to integrate a closed-source library that tracks user data in the latest release, hence the intrusive "UPDATE NOW" push. I'll be removing this extension post-haste.
Where did you see these rumblings? I'm curious to see if people found something in the code I missed.
This is looking like goldddd right now
But nice job dev, keep pulling things out your @ss to justify this godforsaken mess. You keep changing your story as to what "problem" these popups are supposed to solve. This just gets shadier and shadier...
Wow, uhh, thanks @deanoemcke for providing this absolutely free tool that nobody is obligated to use. Not all of your users are tinfoil hat people who've never written a line of code. Also,
P.S. Nice job dev on downvoting OP
The dev did not downvote OP. You have, however, upvoted all your own comments.
Thanks for harassing the guy who was trying to warn you about this.
This update feature was not malware, and I was one of the people that appreciated it. While it may have been annoying it was certainly a far cry from the other security issues.
But nice job dev, keep pulling things out your @ss to justify this godforsaken mess. You keep changing your story as to what "problem" these popups are supposed to solve. This just gets shadier and shadier...
Wow, uhh, thanks @deanoemcke for providing this absolutely free tool that nobody is obligated to use. Not all of your users are tinfoil hat people who've never written a line of code. Also,
P.S. Nice job dev on downvoting OP
The dev did not downvote OP. You have, however, upvoted all your own comments.
Thanks for harassing the guy who was trying to warn you about this.
That is the opposite of what you were doing, in fact the update popup would have warned you before the extension updated itself. Nothing about this issue changes whether updates happen automatically, as they do with all Chrome extensions. This update was not the one that contained malware. Your comments were demonstrably false, as well as rude and harrassing, which is probably why you deleted them in shame after multiple people called you out. Reading the thread will show you that I was the first person on this issue to question the safety of the extension.