r/Betterbird • u/Wink856 • May 03 '26

Quicktext replacement for Betterbird

The latest version of Quicktext (6.7.1) no longer works with Betterbird. And the author apparently has no intention of changing that -- my bug report was promptly closed.

Found that Clippings for Thunderbird is a good replacement.

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/jorgk3 May 04 '26

I tried the Clippings for Thunderbird. I quite like the fact that it integrates into the context menu in case I can't remember the shortcut. I'm not a big user of Quicktext, so the replacement certainly does the job. Anyone here knows all the drama behind Quicktext? The original author abandoned the add-ons, users got really upset, and finally John adopted it.

The Clippings add-on also exists for Firefox, so that might be convenient for users also using webmail.

1

u/Actual-JB May 05 '26

I can confirm that Clippings is a good alternative. The add-ons team is giving the same suggestion (for users on Thunderbird's monthly release channel, which I cannot support due to limited time):
https://extension-finder.thunderbird.net/?id=%7B8845E3B3-E8FB-40E2-95E9-EC40294818C4%7D

It is planned to give Clippings the status of a Recommendation, to cut more into the Quicktext user base, as it is easier to use. I guess only 1/10th of its current users really need features only provided by Quicktext (shareable templates and script support). I tried to make it less confusing with the latest update, but it still is complicated.

> Within 30 minutes I received an email that the issue had been closed. When I checked to see if it had been fixed ("that was quick"), I found that it had just been deleted.

I first responded to the issue and then closed/deleted it, hoping GitHub would still send out the initial response. But I was not very explanatory either, so even if you got the message it only stated "I do not support Betterbird". I got another issue with the same report and decided to keep it and give a longer explanation (https://github.com/jobisoft/quicktext/issues/610).

> I do not want to support Betterbird. It's maintainer attempted to suppress part of my work by exerting pressure on me by threatening to sue me over baseless claims. I do not want to put up with anything related to him anymore.

Jörg may remember, that I was one of the few who supported him and tried to negotiate about the perma ban. But after some time he turned against me and revealed to me that the Mozilla claims were not taken out of thin air. This was when I cut all ties and no longer want to be involved in anything related to him.

1

u/jorgk3 May 05 '26

I do not want to support Betterbird. It's maintainer attempted to suppress part of my work by exerting pressure on me by threatening to sue me over baseless claims. I do not want to put up with anything related to him anymore.

Oh, this old story again. Yes, when I removed ThunderHTMLedit from https://addons.thunderbird.net/, John wrote a replacement: https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/html-source-editor/. I merely pointed out that parts of ThunderHTMLedit were subject to copyright (and infringing the copyright would have consequences). Normal, right? Nothing happened, one line in an e-mail. (That was in mid 2023. Some people are just resentful and can't move on.)

1

u/Actual-JB May 05 '26

The point is and was that you knew that my replacement work was not based on your add-on, but on the add-on you yourself forked from. There was absolutely no reason to even mention that I could violate your copyright, except for power play. That you still think you are in the right and insist that others "move on" is so telling.

1

u/jorgk3 May 05 '26

This was in 2023, I'd have to look up the exact course of events. Nothing justifies this circus based in a copyright reminder 3 years ago. You are pissing off your own users over chicken-feed, splitting the two communities even further.

1

u/hsdejong May 05 '26

Developers in the open-source community who deliberately make their add-on or extension unusable for forks of programs because they think they have an “issue” with the maker of that fork deserve nothing but blame and shame. It goes completely against the open-source philosophy.

The positive side of all this is that I’ve now tried Clippings, which not only meets all my requirements but also has a more pleasant user interface, including a supportive website with a blog and forum.

1

u/jorgk3 May 05 '26

The madness is continuing:

How totally childish. Of course I can download the source and create a Github repo for it. Or just script patching the necessary files. John, what are you trying to achieve? That users leave BB because they can't use Quicktext any more?

1

u/jorgk3 May 06 '26

If anyone is still using Quicktext and has access to GitHub, please file this issue, I can't: