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With a comical name like Mozilla, I think they have license to use comical error messages.

SilasX 4y ago
That doesn’t follow at all. They still have an international community that needs technical information and shouldn’t be distracted or confused by oh-so-clever jokes when trying to solve errors and bugs. Firefox is intended as a daily utility for serious stuff, regardless of the name of the organization that makes it.
- mmmpetrichor 4y ago
  The organization is ultimately a collection of developers who have devoted (In this case) 20+ years of their career. I can understand the utilitarian view, but I can also see how they want to keep some humor or personality alive in their product. It's ultimately the decision of the org. Open source stuff is hard enough, imagine seeing tons of demands daily on something you really care about and then seeing something like this that doesn't, ultimately, even matter. I can understand a tiny bit of hostility. I will add, don't take free software for granted, it doesn't owe you anything. I think the reverse is true.
  - SilasX 4y ago
    There are plenty of ways they can have humor that don’t compromise technical docs. You want to know how to ease the load of maintaining open source? Make onboarding easier. That means good, clear docs that aren’t cluttered with cryptic inside jokes. Seriously, the way they work, you’d almost think they don’t want people to get involved. (In Mozilla’s case, probably because they blew their budget on the latest resume builder.) It would be one thing if I were asking for a special feature of the product. Here, I’m asking for something that saves your support staff from being pestered by people that couldn’t understand the cryptic docs. Why wouldn’t you want that? [1] Why wouldn’t you be thanking anyone who suggests ways to save you time? Sometimes I wonder if noticing this kind of stuff is a superpower, because it’s in really short supply. [1] Maybe because you moonlight as an Optimism maintainer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30294065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30294065

That doesn’t follow at all. They still have an international community that needs technical information and shouldn’t be distracted or confused by oh-so-clever jokes when trying to solve errors and bugs. Firefox is intended as a daily utility for serious stuff, regardless of the name of the organization that makes it.

mmmpetrichor 4y ago
The organization is ultimately a collection of developers who have devoted (In this case) 20+ years of their career. I can understand the utilitarian view, but I can also see how they want to keep some humor or personality alive in their product. It's ultimately the decision of the org. Open source stuff is hard enough, imagine seeing tons of demands daily on something you really care about and then seeing something like this that doesn't, ultimately, even matter. I can understand a tiny bit of hostility. I will add, don't take free software for granted, it doesn't owe you anything. I think the reverse is true.
- SilasX 4y ago
  There are plenty of ways they can have humor that don’t compromise technical docs. You want to know how to ease the load of maintaining open source? Make onboarding easier. That means good, clear docs that aren’t cluttered with cryptic inside jokes. Seriously, the way they work, you’d almost think they don’t want people to get involved. (In Mozilla’s case, probably because they blew their budget on the latest resume builder.) It would be one thing if I were asking for a special feature of the product. Here, I’m asking for something that saves your support staff from being pestered by people that couldn’t understand the cryptic docs. Why wouldn’t you want that? [1] Why wouldn’t you be thanking anyone who suggests ways to save you time? Sometimes I wonder if noticing this kind of stuff is a superpower, because it’s in really short supply. [1] Maybe because you moonlight as an Optimism maintainer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30294065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30294065