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But Mozilla deceived us by indicating they had privacy improvements for us! This particular incident is a minor annoyance, but it's an indicator of how those in

But Mozilla deceived us by indicating they had privacy improvements for us! This particular incident is a minor annoyance, but it's an indicator of how those in charge view those of us who care about actual privacy and functionality.

Spivak 4y ago
Mozilla really can't win on HN, a feature that basically only exists to save one click (efficiency!) for the kind of people who consume PB regularly is very power user and aligns with their brand as being privacy focused when private mode is the thing that is always visible in the bar. Nobody on HN seems to know at all how to market tech to a general audience and play the game of "staying relevant" so they always have something to post to social/newswires.
- jrootabega 4y ago
  I, and probably many others, feel that the quality of this as an HN submission is related, but not synonymous with, the quality of it as a Mozilla communication. But it was submitted to HN, and so it will be judged as an HN submission. But many of us also believe that, though it's POSSIBLE Mozilla is acting how you describe ("We are committed to privacy at our core but we have to publish this kind of press release to survive!"), they are actually corrupt at their core to the point where they only see privacy-conscious users as customercattle to be milked. I believe we critics have good enough intuition to see this kind of behavior from Mozilla as a canary indicating their true nature. This is kind of an aftershock of the Mr. Robot incident. I think it's unlikely that that kind of bad judgment was not chronic and systemic.
  - soundnote 4y ago
    Brave and Vivaldi manage to focus on privacy and not write sickening marketing copy. It's a Mozilla problem.
- Karunamon 4y ago
  How much do you want to bet the "general audience" does not care one bit about this and will not meaningfully move the (declining) DAU numbers? Mozilla's problems are in its fundamentals, not its marketing.
  - Spivak 4y ago
    Mozilla's problem is they have been grasping for an answer to "why should you use Firefox over Chrome?" that actually resonates with people for over a decade. The product is fine, Firefox is a perfectly capable browser. Convincing people to use it is a soft-skills problem because the only reason to use Firefox is because you like Mozilla more than you like Google which is entirely driven by Mozilla having good-feels activism mindshare and getting in being in the news cycle.
    - Karunamon 4y ago
      …Made less and less capable over time. Firefox today is objectively less useful than Firefox many years ago. The continuing decline in user numbers would tell anyone in leadership that is actually paying attention that this approach is not working. And the idea that the answer to attracting normal people is renaming and pushing themes is, to put it mildly, brain-damaged. It is like nobody at that company has ever actually met a computer user before.
    - soundnote 4y ago
      Their marketing copy is actively repellent to me at least, and judging by friends and comments in this thread, I'm not alone.

Spivak 4y ago

Mozilla really can't win on HN, a feature that basically only exists to save one click (efficiency!) for the kind of people who consume PB regularly is very power user and aligns with their brand as being privacy focused when private mode is the thing that is always visible in the bar. Nobody on HN seems to know at all how to market tech to a general audience and play the game of "staying relevant" so they always have something to post to social/newswires.

jrootabega 4y ago
I, and probably many others, feel that the quality of this as an HN submission is related, but not synonymous with, the quality of it as a Mozilla communication. But it was submitted to HN, and so it will be judged as an HN submission. But many of us also believe that, though it's POSSIBLE Mozilla is acting how you describe ("We are committed to privacy at our core but we have to publish this kind of press release to survive!"), they are actually corrupt at their core to the point where they only see privacy-conscious users as customercattle to be milked. I believe we critics have good enough intuition to see this kind of behavior from Mozilla as a canary indicating their true nature. This is kind of an aftershock of the Mr. Robot incident. I think it's unlikely that that kind of bad judgment was not chronic and systemic.
- soundnote 4y ago
  Brave and Vivaldi manage to focus on privacy and not write sickening marketing copy. It's a Mozilla problem.
Karunamon 4y ago
How much do you want to bet the "general audience" does not care one bit about this and will not meaningfully move the (declining) DAU numbers? Mozilla's problems are in its fundamentals, not its marketing.
- Spivak 4y ago
  Mozilla's problem is they have been grasping for an answer to "why should you use Firefox over Chrome?" that actually resonates with people for over a decade. The product is fine, Firefox is a perfectly capable browser. Convincing people to use it is a soft-skills problem because the only reason to use Firefox is because you like Mozilla more than you like Google which is entirely driven by Mozilla having good-feels activism mindshare and getting in being in the news cycle.
  - Karunamon 4y ago
    …Made less and less capable over time. Firefox today is objectively less useful than Firefox many years ago. The continuing decline in user numbers would tell anyone in leadership that is actually paying attention that this approach is not working. And the idea that the answer to attracting normal people is renaming and pushing themes is, to put it mildly, brain-damaged. It is like nobody at that company has ever actually met a computer user before.
  - soundnote 4y ago
    Their marketing copy is actively repellent to me at least, and judging by friends and comments in this thread, I'm not alone.