(RIP BetterCanvas) Account Requirements and Sidebar Logo Pushback

The new BetterCampus update is cool, but things like the strictly pushed and required account registration need to be toned down completely. I loved this extension the most when you could set a custom colorway of your own choice and completely forget about it. (When it was OG BetterCanvas. RIP ) Not to mention the permanent SideBar logo and space for BetterCampus itself, that needs to go ASAP. Or at least be an optional toggle within the Chrome extension settings. Even though some people may find that convenient, I get the feeling I am not alone with this feedback!

The original reason this extension was so exciting at first, and why I downloaded it many semesters ago; was because you could customize the stale appearance of Canvas with just a few clicks, and with new colors which dark mode can’t do! Being able to customize each of my classes and hide inactive courses is game changing still, and the editable course images really helps with topic correlation. The new To-Do List feature by default is awesome too.

However, since I am stuck with this regressed version of BetterCanvas for now after re-downloading Chrome yesterday; there are a lot of things that have to be changed and considered.

-Firstly being the Canvas SideBar logo and space for BetterCampus. The fact you can disable the College’s logo entirely but not BetterCampus is hilarious, this was meant to be a simple theme & quick feature applicator and I loved it at that! I could never see myself or anyone needing to change a theme just a few seconds faster every single day from the sidebar. I don’t think I have ever seen an extension that inserts itself into a permanently viewable and active part of a website either. Now it’s a constant reminder.

1. There should be an option to make the extension live in the top bar just like before.

-Second (and the worst changes) is the forced account registration, restricted features and current/future paywalls. I still have no clue why account logins are so strongly suggested and forced. I could understand this if you are requiring it for theme publishers, that way you can filter out negative uploads but I just don’t get it for the average user. If I were to guess I’d say that maybe more than half of the ~1.5M users just want this to change their Canvas appearance, ONCE. Probably to promote account connectivity and monetary incentives. I remember accounts were part of BetterCanvas some/many months ago, but I could still dismiss it and move on & it did not degrade my experience.

I’m lucky that my old colorway is still cached somewhere in BetterCanvas or hidden. After looking through the new interface while writing this, there is absolutely no way for me to make or choose my own “theme” without logging in. Leaving me with 10~ community options that are far and few to choose from. Not to mention the jumpscare that was BetterCampus opening for the first time in Canvas; dismissing the Account Sign-In prompts took far too long and almost felt as if I HAD to enroll. Very manipulating.

-I think you can still edit and save the simple colorways but I don’t plan on finding out. The option to do so under Themes→Edit/Create Theme→Edit This Theme

is really tucked away and hard to find at first, seemingly on purpose. My migrated colorway doesn’t even have a required name or category from the new update and will stay that way! Super disappointing considering a few minutes spent with a HTML/CSS editor extension can change any website’s color however you like.

For free. Without an email…

2. Retract amounts of account-required access for the extension, adjust UI elements for ease of discovery, add colorway settings to replace basic “Themes” (The difference isn’t clear anymore), clarify access-walls. Chill on the user accounts.

-Lastly, I don’t know what sort of timely/costly investment went into making BetterCampus and its account-access walls, “Pro/Premium” features, “Widgets/Pages”; but BetterCampus needs to be a separate extension from BetterCanvas. It’s not even a thematic add-on anymore and by itself is hardly free. Eventually the user may end up paying with data or money. Even though the Chrome Store for BetterCampus states to not be endored by Canvas, etc it seriously feels like there is a major incentive behind the new connectivity and access-walls, and I am not here for it. I miss when BetterCanvas was an extension made without incentive and felt like it was made by people for people. Since BetterCampus focuses on actual new features and abilities within Widgets, Pages, To-Do List Syncing, possible AI, etc; it is no longer a thematic extension alone and is now a functional utility. If that is the case then it should be a separate extension for such features.

3. Publish BetterCanvas again on Chrome Web Store, Firefox, etc for simple Canvas-tools and custom colorway options. Differentiate BetterCampus by making it focused on community-based with functional utilities as it is now; separate from Canvas theme coloring and enhancing student’s learning experiences.

   1. With BetterCampus’ new identity, it should not have rolled out to completely replace BetterCanvas for all users. At all. The safe route would have been to advertise this new feature rich extension for students to try out from within BetterCanvas as a link. Signing up and even paying for BetterCampus as optional utility would then be justified by it enhancing course work.

I also do not want to disregard the effort put into this extension by the developers. I know it took time to achieve what this extension can do today, but there has to be a change. Seeing impactful and open projects like BetterCanvas turn into a potential data & payment-first “feature packed extension” happens all the time, and is otherwise a potential sign you may want to find an alternative. While that may not be the case, there is no sound reason an extension should change so quickly and replace itself without differentiating from the previous version. Modern account fatigue is real and being recommended to associate a Google/Microsoft account with “freemium” theme color services is odd too.

I would have gladly donated if it is a financial consideration from a userbase growth as well… Now BetterCampus feels like a social / web connection and utility extension, when it existed to change CSS-based colors and images on a website. It would be perfect if BetterCampus and BetterCanvas were available on web stores to separate themselves; but for now I will either hide the BetterCampus Sidebar preview manually, enable a truly free of use extension for CSS colors, or seek a direct alternative that can edit Canvas as easily & well as BetterCanvas did. Sometimes less is more…