Post by James » Sat Aug 22, 2015 10:00 am

Extension tag updates.

Why have we implemented a change?

Sadly quite a number of developers decided to spam the tags, so when we query them they were always returning a top position in the search results, in some cases the module was not even relevant to the search query. This was unfair to other module seller who didn't know how to do the "trick" used.

What did we change?

The keywords must now be a unique word or phrase.
Special characters are no longer allowed (excluding hyphens or other language character), these automatically get removed when adding/editing your module. If we find other characters being used inappropriately they will also be removed.

What happens now?

Review your keywords for all modules, if you had duplicates they have been removed. Use search phrases e.g. instead of "seo seo seo seo" use seo module, seo tool, seo extension - genuine phrases that people will search on! If you over repeat the words though, that will be picked up.

When you add/edit a module, any conflicting keywords / characters will be automatically stripped.

New rules to keywords

We ask that anyone who finds people breaking these rules to report it to the admin team who will forward on to me.

Trying to manipluate the keywords without valid phrases will result in us removing your all keywords on the module, if you do it on several modules we will just to a query to empty all tags on all your extensions. Pointless tag spamming already used is:

ò seo, ð seo, î seo, · seo, µ seo, ³ seo, ± seo

contact 10, contact 11, contact 12, contact 13, contact 14, contact 15, contact 16, contact 17, contact 18,

- This passed our validation but is clear the intent is to manipulate the result. Irrelevant and so they lost all of thier keywords. Sorry but we will not be making exceptions on this - break the rules and we remove the data.

Clearly copying someone else's keywords will result in your keywords getting removed, this is harder to monitor but we are taking any form of plagarising very seriously and if you continue to copy other sellers your modules will be disabled,

Using a module name or developer id as a tag, of an extension/user that you do not own (or dont have prior permission to use) will result in your keywords getting removed. This is aimed at using tags for specific module names or brands (i.e. openstock or excelport) not generic names like "seo module". We encourage sellers to work together to test module compatibility and if both parties are happy then you would then be able to use each others tag.

For anyone who was acting with genuine intentions but still got affected by this, sorry. Hopefully now that those have been removed from the permanant #1 spot this will allow many more people to increase thier ranking.

Whats next?

More plans have been set for updating the search algorthym and also the search results layout, filtering etc - more info on this will be published when final. The main topic for this is to use weighting from different parts of the module such as:
sales / downloads, age of the module, user feedback rating, comments, the search term with different weights if it is found in the title (top weight), body (lowest weight), tags (if a direct match of a specific single tag) + hopefully more.

If you have any suggestions on improving the extension search area (filter types, layout options, sorting types), please put your suggestions below and we will take them under consideration.

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Post by JAY6390 » Sat Aug 22, 2015 10:06 pm

Whilst this update is supposed to help, its largely going to create exactly the same issue as before with tags being copied. Yes I've seen that people shouldn't and they need to be reported but seriously who has the time to monitor tags for all other developers to make sure you're not being copied? Then comes the fact it's so easy to manipulate copied tags with slight variances that you could say arguably that it's not plagiarised. For the other weighting factors planned:

- Sales/Downloads: How will this work with free and commercial extensions, since free extensions have largely bigger downloads than paid extensions as they're free? Also, what's to stop people abusing this and clicking download 1000 times? This is also going to negatively affect people releasing new extensions

- Age of the module: Again this will affect new released extensions assuming older = higher ranked. It will also mean old unmaintained extensions are likely to rank higher. If it's newer = higher ranked then we'll have the same issue that was present when the extension store home page showed new mods first, where people just re-made the extension and deleted the new one to rank higher

- Comments: How is the number of comments helpful to a ranking of an extension? It could be someone has a really bad extension with lots of comments on how to fix problems

- The search originally used the body of the extension but was getting spammed too much. Surely people would just inventively keyword stuff like they did before

For improvements to the store, the first thing that needs to be addressed is the sort by price, since this works on a string value not a numeric value. So "100" and "10" are both lower than 20 which obviously isn't right.

I realise I've brought this up with yourself privately James but want to get the feedback of other developers to know their thoughts on these points and if they can see any other flaws I've missed

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Post by Qphoria » Sat Aug 22, 2015 10:38 pm

I agree with some points. While I admit there's a certain level of fairness required, there are still other factors being ignored.

1. The main page still sorting by recently updated. People still update their scripts every 24 hours just to sit on the front page for a few moments and get themselves back to the top. Granted it is mostly for naught since people usually search for a mod they want and don't just start browsing the first page. Here are some possibly better ideas for the default page:
- a) Randomize mods from a single genre based on a tag match per day or 6 hours or something. One day could be "checkout" the next could be "discount", the next could be "coupon". So the home page would simply show mods that match the tag but still randomize them for each page load. This makes it more fair and balanced to allow anyone with a checkout system to potentially get ranked in the first few extensions. Also make it clear at the top like:
"Today's featured mods: Checkout"
or "Mod genre of the hour: Discount"
- b) Randomizing all products at the front page.
- c) Use the front page for hourly featured items that are randomly picked and stay there for an hour. No mod should be repeated until all mods have had their hour of fame.

You can still offer the sort by recently updated as an option, but don't default to it.

2. Like Jay said, showing the tags means they WILL be copied and slightly altered to fight for rank.

3. Exact Title matches should be a definite priority.

4. Search results without exact matches or with multiple matches should maybe be randomized for fairness. So if you search "Customer group discount", which match a ton of extension titles, those results could be randomized so that not always the same guy gets the top spot.

5. Outdated mods should deactivate. Mods that haven't been updated in over a year are likely unsupported and non-working.

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Post by Johnathan » Sun Aug 23, 2015 12:06 am

I'm also for a level playing field, but I agree with Qphoria and Jay on the points they've made. I've made a few of these suggestions to James privately already, so hopefully they'll get implemented sometime soon.

Thanks for working on this, James.

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Post by JAY6390 » Sun Aug 23, 2015 12:32 am

Qphoria wrote:5. Outdated mods should deactivate. Mods that haven't been updated in over a year are likely unsupported and non-working.
This should probably be worked out more on the last login of the developer more than the time a mod was last updated. I've got extensions for 1.4.X and early 1.5.X that don't need updates but I still support as well as my other extensions. If any user hasn't been logged in in X months they should probably have their extensions disabled.

It would be nice if verified/trusted extension developers had a boost to ranks, or boosts to rank based on previous extension ratings when they release a new one so that consistently better mod developers get seen when new extensions are released

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Post by Pavan mehta » Mon Aug 24, 2015 2:21 am

Is this feature already implemented and will be implemented as i cannot see it working.
Now this extension is using complete special characters in tags. Sitting on first page for tag SEO.
[link removed]

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Post by Johnathan » Mon Aug 24, 2015 5:38 am

Pavan mehta wrote:Is this feature already implemented and will be implemented as i cannot see it working.
Now this extension is using complete special characters in tags. Sitting on first page for tag SEO.
James is saying that kind of tag stuffing is now against the rules.

First try contacting the developer (via e-mail or using the Comments section) to tell them it's against the rules. They're probably just not aware of the new rules. If they don't change it within 24-48 hours, contact the OpenCart team using the "Support" link in the menu, or use the "Report Extension" button. One of the admins or store moderators will either remove the tags, or disable the extension until the tags are changed.

I've removed the link for the extension you referenced, and have contacted the developer asking them to change their tags. If you notice they're still there in a few days, use the Report Extension button.

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Post by Qphoria » Tue Aug 25, 2015 3:01 am

Johnathan wrote: I've removed the link for the extension you referenced
LOL but quoted it

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Post by Johnathan » Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:13 pm

Qphoria wrote:LOL but quoted it
:bash:

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Post by OpenCart Addons » Wed Aug 26, 2015 6:33 am

It's nice to see these changes as the extension search system has been flawed for quite some time. :crazy:

I agree the product name should carry more weight than the tags when it comes to the search algorithm.

One other change which might be beneficial is to limit the number of tags per extension, such as 10, instead of limiting the total number of characters in the tag field. This would require developers to be honest with their tags and use them wisely, instead of just stuffing them with terms that don't necessarily apply to the extension but help bump them in the search results.

The changes that have already been made are definitely a step in the right direction.

P.S. What's the status on some of the other changes that were announced for the extension store, e.g. subscriptions?



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Post by qahar » Wed Aug 26, 2015 4:24 pm

Qphoria wrote: - a) Randomize mods from a single genre based on a tag match per day or 6 hours or something. One day could be "checkout" the next could be "discount", the next could be "coupon". So the home page would simply show mods that match the tag but still randomize them for each page load. This makes it more fair and balanced to allow anyone with a checkout system to potentially get ranked in the first few extensions. Also make it clear at the top like:
"Today's featured mods: Checkout"
or "Mod genre of the hour: Discount"
- b) Randomizing all products at the front page.
- c) Use the front page for hourly featured items that are randomly picked and stay there for an hour. No mod should be repeated until all mods have had their hour of fame.

You can still offer the sort by recently updated as an option, but don't default to it.
Randomly show mods based on general tags (genre) per one or two hour as landing page is certainly fair. Even though someone still able to cheat by put all general tags on one extensions (checkout, discount, product, blog, account, report etc).

To ensure the randomize genre is fair, instead based on tags make it based on categories. But the current categories at marketplace need more general-specific genre; like: Checkout, Account, Content, Product Price and others. The theme have detailed sub-category, but not for extensions and modules.

And at extension page please add link about the extension category. Right now people click the tags to search similiar extensions, that is why dev are spamming the tags.
OpenCart Addons wrote: I agree the product name should carry more weight than the tags when it comes to the search algorithm.

One other change which might be beneficial is to limit the number of tags per extension, such as 10, instead of limiting the total number of characters in the tag field.
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Post by nchankov » Wed Sep 23, 2015 4:54 pm

Hi guys,

one suggestion for the extension directory, Add sort by sales. This way users could order the results by best seller extensions (based on the assumption that the more sales, the more useful is the product, if it's paid of course).

I've tried to filter by Commercial License and sorted number of downloads (desc), but the results doesn't make much sense, since in the first page I've seen products with 1 - 10 sales, which probably is a "trick" making a free product and once it get a lot of downloads (even downloaded by the developer) it has been made paid and appears in top of the list.

I've tried both Downloads ASC and DESC but both doesn't make any sense as order.

Hope it make sense.

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Post by ovi » Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:44 pm

Yes, a Sort by Sales (desc) is a good idea. It will help to find top sold extensions.

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Post by joshmike » Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:40 am

yeah it should be worked out on the last login of the developer more than the time a mod was last updated.

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Post by paulfeakins » Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:16 pm

I agree with one of the comments above that there should be a limit to the number of tags which would force developers to choose wisely.

You could take a look at Google's lead on a couple of things - they started ignoring meta keywords many years ago, you could ignore tags and just search on the extension description. Yes it could be abused but customers would also see a nonsense, spammy description.

You could give extensions a quality score based on a combination of sales and votes and use that for the default sort order.

Of course keeping the current filters and ability for users to sort by other things makes sense.

Now this would be a lot of work, but it might be that OpenCart could email purchasers a few days after purchase asking for a rating on a few different criteria such as ease of install, speed of support if required, quality etc. This would help to build up a more accurate picture of an extension's quality.

eBay and Amazon have both been successful because of real and trustworthy user feedback and reviews and OpenCart could probably make use of this same idea.

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Post by IP_CAM » Thu Apr 28, 2016 12:39 am

would this, by example, mean, that most of the Extensions, shown on this Page, would be illegally advertized
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route ... 0insurance

because some of them contain the word INSURANCE, in their Tags, like this one:
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route ... 0insurance

but there is no such thing as INSURANCE really part of this Extension, as it looks.

So, my question, is this, what's this Topic is all about?
Just beeing curious, after looking for an INSURANCE Mod, just after reading this Topic ???
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Post by Johnathan » Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:10 pm

I think it's more about intent -- if an extension would be useful when searching for "insurance", then it can be tagged that way. If it's completely unrelated, then it probably shouldn't be tagged that way.

For instance, my Hidden Shipping Adjustments extensions (shown on that page you posted) aren't specifically for insurance, but can certainly be used to add a hidden insurance charge into the shipping cost. They're useful for people searching for "insurance", which is why I've tagged them that way. Similarly, most of the shipping methods listed on that page can add an insurance cost on top of the regular shipping cost, which is why they have the "insurance" tag as well.

That being said, I don't think the OpenCart team is very strict with tags. It's unlikely an extension is going to be removed for unrelated tags, unless it's a copyrighted term or most of the tags are unrelated. For the most part, this topic is to warn people about tag stuffing and copying other people's tags, which are the most common violations.

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Post by rmullaney77 » Wed Jun 29, 2016 12:29 am

paulfeakins wrote:Now this would be a lot of work, but it might be that OpenCart could email purchasers a few days after purchase asking for a rating on a few different criteria such as ease of install, speed of support if required, quality etc. This would help to build up a more accurate picture of an extension's quality.
Could not agree more. People have no reason to come back and rate the extension post-sale. I try to prompt them as often as I can, but it really should be built in to the system to promote buyer ratings. There are a few of mine that have (what I perceive to be) a high volume of sales, but nobody rates. Most will never return to that page unless they have a support issue ;)
JAY6390 wrote:I've got extensions for 1.4.X and early 1.5.X that don't need updates but I still support as well as my other extensions. If any user hasn't been logged in in X months they should probably have their extensions disabled.
This is definitely a great idea. If the developer is no longer active, the customers can't expect support. So why keep listing the modules for an infinite period of time. ::)

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Post by OSWorX » Wed Jun 29, 2016 3:07 am

paulfeakins wrote:Now this would be a lot of work, but it might be that OpenCart could email purchasers a few days after purchase asking for a rating on a few different criteria such as ease of install, speed of support if required, quality etc.
Well. the UK voted a few days ago to leave the EU, but at least as long they are inside, EU-Laws are valid.
And one of this laws handles about such 'follow up' emails (or calls, or visits, etc.).

As long as the customer has not agreed explicit to recieve such emails, they are called SPAM.
And can therefore be punished.

Well, OC is registered outside the EU, but not outside of any Law.

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Post by rmullaney77 » Wed Jun 29, 2016 5:02 am

OSWorX wrote:As long as the customer has not agreed explicit to recieve such emails, they are called SPAM.
And can therefore be punished.
Then have a checkbox permitting as much during checkout. Not exactly hard to work around. Something is better than nothing. Also, as they are a customer so a post-sale follow-up is more like BACN as opposed to SPAM ;)

They are in HK, we are in US, your are in EU... hard to enforce much accross borders unless it's a serious global offender :P

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