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Mozilla to shut down Pocket and Fakespot

(support.mozilla.org)
1222 points phantomathkg | 2 comments | 22 May 25 16:30 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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segphault ◴[22 May 25 17:45 UTC] 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 ◴[22 May 25 19:25 UTC] 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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thesuitonym ◴[22 May 25 21:13 UTC] 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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sciurus ◴[23 May 25 02:16 UTC] 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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modo_mario ◴[23 May 25 07:32 UTC] No.44070720[source]▶
That doesn't sound like she and her fattened board were ousted at all.
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1. sciurus ◴[23 May 25 11:55 UTC] 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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2. modo_mario ◴[27 May 25 11:18 UTC] No.44105809[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.