Not that long ago we changed our fee structure to better reflect the actual fees we incur from each payment gateway. The aim was to do away with the flat fee applied regardless of the gateway, which dis-proportionally raised quite steep fees for specific gateways that actually had a reasonably small fee structure to begin with. With this shifting the most used gateway for payments toward those with lower fees attached showed that this move was also in the interest of customers.

Unfortunately the setup that allowed this to be done has had some issues over time and in some cases created a bit of a mess within the billing department. With our interest in maintaining security and keeping our systems up to date we are looking at a major upgrade for our billing system. This in turn breaks the existing ability to specify the fees for each gateway based on the incurred fees. We have been in contact with both the provider of the billing system and a third-party developer looking to restore the functionality to the system. With both sides blaming each other for being at fault for the system not working anymore we are faced with the difficult decision to roll back to a flat fee for all gateways.

We are aware this may cause some inconvenience and thus have elected to lower the overall fee below the mean average gateway fees we incur, thus shouldering the majority of the change. Some time in the following weeks the invoices created will show a flat 4% gateway fee on each invoice regardless of the selected payment gateway. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause and will continue to pressure to get the original functionality restored.

We are big proponents of preserving software and content that would otherwise be forgotten. Especially when it comes to software that continues to have a use yet to be eclipsed by anything we feel it is of great importance to preserve it as testament to what is or once was possible. After all our all aim should be to grow and not stagnate or even revolve backwards to the lesser. Whenever projects aiming to achieve just that are running into trouble, especially regarding things we provide to our customers, we feel it is our duty to step in and provide assistance. It not only serves us, who potentially still use the software in question, but also anyone that might still do so including our customers.

As such we are happy to announce that we have provided a mirror for the Classic Addons Archive, a project that aims to preserve the grand library of Firefox addons that once existed prior to Mozilla suffering a case of what can only be described as laziness-induced rush of autophobia and removed support for a vast catalogue of addons on the basis of no longer wanting to maintain the interface for them. These addons included such marvelous wonders as TabMix+, DNS Flusher and Session Manager among many more that found widespread use for power-users and webdevelopers alike. Preserving their legacy and providing a way to access these addons to allow their use beyond their removal from the official addons page for Firefox is the aim of the Classic Addons Archive project.

Unfortunately due to the ongoing economical situation many free offerings that provided the project with options to provide these addons ceased and would require significant invest to retain. The writing was on the wall and so the archive has been unavailable lately. We reached out to the project lead JustOff to figure out how we could help the project that we internally use as well. After some email traffic we have now setup a mirror for the project to use, which will restore functionality to their addon and once again allow the download and installation for all legacy addons the project managed to archive.

“But if Firefox removed support who would even need them?”

Fortunately there are other like minded people out there willing to put in the work to not only preserve the addon capabilities, but also actively incorporate security and performance upgrades into a browser. The Waterfox project is just that, a Firefox fork with support for legacy addons and active development and the backing to continue supporting one of the most capable browsers ever built. Those feeling something missing in their life after Mozilla took and axe to Firefox can use Waterfox Classic and make use of the Classic Addon Archive to access the massive library of addons to extend their browser to new heights.

We are happy that we can provide assistance to the Classic Addons Archive, which brings the vital addon database to Waterfox, and thus preserve the legacy of so many addons and the hard work of their creators.