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1222 points phantomathkg | 10 comments | | HN request time: 1.197s | source | bottom
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segphault ◴[] No.44064599[source]
I was a user for so long that I was on it before it even rebranded as Pocket. I finally gave up on it last year, mostly due to frustration with the terrible 2023 redesign of the mobile app. When Mozilla made the unfathomable decision to become an internet advertising company, I figured it was just a matter of time before they had to put Pocket out to pasture. A product that's designed to strip ads from content for readability doesn't align with their new direction.

I'd probably be applauding the decision to shut this down if I thought they were doing it to free up resources to increase their focus on the browser, but Mozilla seems to be institutionally committed to chasing its own demise, so I'm sure they will instead focus on AI integration and other stuff that nobody asked for.

Meanwhile, Firefox is still missing proper support for a bunch of modern web features like view transitions and CSS anchor points that are available in every other browser.

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major505 ◴[] No.44065781[source]
Mozilla is more occupied this days paying multi milionary bonus to its executives and begging users for money they waste on useless projects.

Mozilla must die, so Firefox can live.

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1. thesuitonym ◴[] No.44067105[source]
I'm curious what the governance structure of Mozilla is that keeps things this way. People have been upset for quite a while at the direction Mozilla is going in, yet there seems to be no coalition to oust the current leadership. Is this impossible for some reason?
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2. wolpoli ◴[] No.44068985[source]
There is no way for anyone to get Mozilla to change because the current board picks new board members.
3. sciurus ◴[] No.44069232[source]
The leadership has been ousted.

> This includes major growth in our Boards, with 40% new Board members since we began our efforts to evolve and grow back in 2022. We’ve also been bringing in new executive talent, including a new MoFo Executive Director and a Managing Partner for Mozilla Ventures. By the end of the year, we hope to have new, permanent CEOs for both MoCo and Mozilla.ai... With these changes, Mitchell Baker ends her tenure as Chair and a member of Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation boards.

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-leadership-growt...

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4. Volker-E ◴[] No.44069591[source]
Surman same problematic "leadership" type.
5. wolpoli ◴[] No.44069815[source]
It's good to know they have brought in new talents.

Note that Mozilla Corporations, Mozilla Ventures, and Mozilla.ai mentioned in the articles are all subsidiaries of Mozilla Foundation. If there are issues with the subsidaries' leadership, they could be easily removed by the foundation. If there are issue with Mozilla foundation's leadership then, according to the bylaws, it's not possible for the foundation's board to be removed unless they self remove.

Section 3.3 Election Of Directors, Term. All directors of the Foundation shall be elected annually by the Board of Directors and shall hold office until their respective successors are elected and have qualified, or until their death, resignation or removal.

Section 3.5 Removal. Any director may be removed from office, with or without cause, by the vote of a majority of the other directors then in office.

https://static.mozilla.com/foundation/documents/mf-bylaws.pd...

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6. modo_mario ◴[] No.44070720[source]
That doesn't sound like she and her fattened board were ousted at all.
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7. sciurus ◴[] No.44072020{3}[source]
I'm not sure how you're getting that from a post that explicitly says Mitchell isn't on either board any more.

To help highlight where there are changes and where there is continuity at the top level, here's a table of who was the MoCo CEO, MoCo and MoFo Board Chairs, MoFO President, and MoFo ED over time for the last ten years.

https://imgur.com/a/OLD9EiI

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8. delfinom ◴[] No.44072441{3}[source]
>Section 3.3 Election Of Directors, Term. All directors of the Foundation shall be elected annually by the Board of Directors and shall hold office until their respective successors are elected and have qualified, or until their death, resignation or removal.

The board of directors elects themselves? That is dumb

9. major505 ◴[] No.44097526[source]
The problem seen to be that they give power to activists instead of engineers. What the fuck they know about improvements to their core product? The only thing they do is create pretty slogans, borrow money from big capital to grown on top of debit, and seek "new sources of income". This is what it made Mozilla turn from a company that does a super badass browser from a company that sells shit advertisements, infringing on users rights, and claims to be a "international conglomeration of activists" or some shit like this.
10. modo_mario ◴[] No.44105809{4}[source]
>I'm not sure how you're getting that from a post that explicitly says Mitchell isn't on either board any more.

Ousted doesn't equate to making some changes then walking away in my mind. It doesn't sound like she was in-amicably forced out over results or the like.

I remember her expanding the number of positions on the board (and the often discussed compensation) not too long (relatively) before they had some rounds of firings. I remember being confused why one or both of the ones that joined said board(it's been a while) seemed...completely unrelated to both Mozilla or it's field of expertise or so.