[Done] Notify the maintainer of the filter

[Gustronico]

Please excuse me for my bad English.

I request the addition of a "Notify the maintainer of this filter" option in the "list of blockable items" context menu.

This feature should open a small form with the necessary info just included:
*The address of current page.
*The filter that caused the problem.
*The blocked item.
*Date/time and some locale info.
*The notification address (should be included by the maintainer himself, as an ad-hoc line in the filter list header).
*A unique editable space to write the description of the problem (e.g. “warning message cannot be seen” or “when you click the red button nothing happens”)
*A submit button.

This right-click option will only be active on "red lines" of the list of blockable items.

Of course it need to be worked, but I think it should be useful.

Thanks. Adblock Plus is an invaluable tool.
Gus

[Gustronico]

Me again.
Just to say that it may be included another small editable field:

*Suggested filter

where the submitter put his own filter to solve the problem. If this field is used, then should be activated a check box "replace the original" (if not checked, the suggested filter should be added to the filter list as a new exception rule).

Gus

[Wladimir Palant]

Yes, I would like to have something like that. However, some details have to be worked out. In particular, we have lots of filter subscriptions and we would need some generic way of sending off a message to the filter subscription author. One option that I see: the filter subscription should include a comment pointing to the address of the contact script. Adblock Plus will then load that address with some parameters (parameter names have to be fixed, same parameter names will be used for all filter subscriptions). Typically that will result in an email being sent to the subscription author.

As to how it should be triggered: context menu on blockable items is the obvious choice. If the address is blocked we suggest reporting a false positive, otherwise we suggest reporting an ad not being blocked.

For the less experienced users, there should also be a "Report issue" menu item in the toolbar icon menu - then we can only fill in the page address automatically but that's still better than nothing.

If the user has multiple enabled subscriptions with contact option he should be able to choose which ones he sends the message to.

[Hubird]

This would most likely cause the filter list maintainer to get bombarded with email and the general ad blocking community would not be able to help in any way.

[Wladimir Palant]

Sending out an email is only one option - an automated forum post would be another. Mozilla sends similar feedback to a newsgroup. It is really up to the script that the filter list maintainer provides.

[Hubird]

An anonymous forum post sounds like a better option, that way the job of checking out the "complaint" would not lay solely on the shoulders of the filter list maintainer....I quite like that idea

[Gustronico]

...we would need some generic way of sending off a message to the filter subscription author. One option that I see: the filter subscription should include a comment pointing to the address of the contact script. Adblock Plus will then load that address with some parameters (parameter names have to be fixed, same parameter names will be used for all filter subscriptions).

That's what I tried to say (in my own English) here:
*The notification address (should be included by the maintainer himself, as an ad-hoc line in the filter list header).

If the user has multiple enabled subscriptions with contact option he should be able to choose which ones he sends the message to.

If the malfunctioning filter is duplicated in more than one subscription, the notification should be sent to all of them. Nevertheless, an anonymous forum post is a better option.
Gus

[Wisdom Fluxion]

an automated forum post would be another

+1

feedback to a newsgroup

-1
if submitter's email is posted or submitter does not have complete control over all information to be (not) submitted

..
maybe to a bug tracker instead?

[Wladimir Palant]

Nevertheless, an anonymous forum post is a better option.

That's up to the filter list maintainer - he provides the script address and that script can do anything he likes. Adblock Plus really shouldn't do more than give all data to that script, it will not post to forums itself (already because I don't want to fight spam protection).

[Gustronico]

OK. I thought ABP will post to forums.

[rnr]

Doing it the forum way will it be able to notice duplicates and add any new/extra information?

[Wladimir Palant]

How would you recognize duplicates automatically? I don't think that's possible.

[Wladimir Palant]

Let's revive this. After thinking about this, "Report issue" in toolbar icon's menu is probably sufficient - this should be as simple as possible. This menu item should only be available if the user is subscribed to a filter subscriptions. Once clicked a wizard is opened. First page: "Is Adblock Plus blocking too much or do you see advertisements that are not blocked". Second page: "Please write a short comment to describe the problem". Third page: "Please review the additional information that will be sent out" (address of the page, referrer and contents of the blockable items list).

Open questions:

• What if the user selects "blocking too much" but no filters from subscriptions are applied on that page? Do we disallow selecting this option in that case? Then we don't need to notify authors of all his subscriptions, it's enough to notify the ones who have filters matching on the page.
• How do we anonymize the addresses we send out? Mozilla removes the query part entirely but for us it might be relevant. Maybe removing only parameter values like "forum/posting.php?mode=*****&f=*&t=****" is sufficient?
• What do we do if the filter subscription doesn't specify a contact script? Do we use a default on adblockplus.org then? This default would still throw away reports for unknown subscriptions but at least it could count them - if the number of reports coming in for a particular subscription exceeds some threshold I still have the option of contacting its author so that we get future reports forwarded.

Putting this on the roadmap for Adblock Plus 1.2 (tentatively).

[alberto]

It will be interesting to see the feedback from the filter list maintainers given that this feature will improve / support their work. They have not provided input yet, do they understand the benefits and how this can be implemented end to end?

I think this feature will require trial with fiter list maintainers and frequent reporters to get the working practices and required information right. For example, how will this work for combined filter lists (e.g. local language filter list + Easylist)? Who will receive the report and take an action? Is it based on the browser locale and/or website location? Also, it may be important to have the reporter email / name to follow up issues or acknowledge contributors.

What if the user selects "blocking too much" but no filters from subscriptions are applied on that page? Do we disallow selecting this option in that case? Then we don't need to notify authors of all his subscriptions, it's enough to notify the ones who have filters matching on the page.

In this scenario, disabling the option may confuse unexperienced users. Also, they may thing ABP is blocking content (but may be another extension). How about a warning text? If the user still goes ahead, it could be sent to all subscriptions for futher support (assuming there is interaction with the user via forums, email, etc)

How do we anonymize the addresses we send out? Mozilla removes the query part entirely but for us it might be relevant. Maybe removing only parameter values like "forum/posting.php?mode=*****&f=*&t=****" is sufficient?

Not sure how useful are parameters without values... how about reporting as well the page title? or allowing the user to optionally include the full address and/or page title?

How would you recognize duplicates automatically? I don't think that's possible.

For example, users reporting the same page or website could go to the same forum topic (assuming topic title includes website and some format that allows searching for existing reports). This logic would be managed in the script (not ABP) and down to the filter list maintainer to implement.

Adblock Plus really shouldn't do more than give all data to that script, it will not post to forums itself (already because I don't want to fight spam protection).

How would be possible to fight spam without some support from ABP itself (e.g. CAPTCHA)? what prevents someone from triggering the script with dummy parameters? how is this implemented by Mozilla Firefox crash reports or other vendors?

[Fury]

Would it be possible, that adblock sends a list on which sites was disabled between filterlist updates? I think most users simple disable adblock if sites doesn't work properly.

Of course this should be opt-in.