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Comment by r1ch | Hacker News Reader

I used to have an extension that promised to never be sold or even updated beyond the initial release, since it was a one-liner that can't possibly ever need to change. The Chrome Web Store took it down after 5+ years, presumably because I never published an update so the the now-mandatory fields were empty.

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Curious to know if they gave valid reasons or just "you don't update this enough and it's coming down" a la Apple's terrible 'policy'.

I've got a few set-and-forget extensions I haven't uploaded a new package for in 5+ years but I have periodically had to log in (per email warning) and check a new box e.g. assert I'm not collecting user data or pledge compliance with a new privacy directive.

The official rejection reason:

Violation reference ID: Yellow Zinc

Violation:

Description provided is insufficient to understand the functionality of the item.

I filled in all the new mandatory fields and had chatgpt rewrite the description about 10 times in increasingly simple language but it was rejected every time with the same reason. Since it only had like 20 installs I gave up trying to get it republished.

They usually don't require code updates but as the platform changes, they might have changing requirements or new policies that need to be acknowledged. I don't do extension development but I have a few apps and over the years I've had to rebuild them to target newer API versions, add data privacy policies, add child safety policies, etc., that weren't there when I first released the app. I haven't had to change any of the code though.

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