cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/33165280
I got a copy of the text from the email, and added it below, with personal information and link trackers removed.
Hello [receiver’s name],
I’ve long dreamed about working for Mozilla. I learned how to send encrypted e-mail using Mozilla Thunderbird, and I’ve been a Firefox user since almost as long as I can remember. In more recent years, I’ve been an avid follower of Mozilla’s advocacy work, and was lucky enough to partner with Mozilla on investigative journalism in my last job.
In many ways, Mozilla was the dream – and now, as the leader of the Foundation, my job is to make my dreams for Mozilla come true. What that means, though, is making your dreams come true – for a trustworthy and open future of technology; for tech that is a tool for liberation, not limitation; and for tech that values people over profit.
So I’m reaching out to technologists, activists, researchers, engineers, policy experts, and, most importantly, to you – the people who make up the Mozilla community – to ask a simple question.
[receiver’s name]. What is your dream for Mozilla? I invite you to take a moment to share your thoughts by completing this brief survey.
Let’s start with this question:
Question 1: What is most important to you right now about technology and the internet?
- Protecting my privacy online
- Avoiding scams
- Choosing products, apps, technology, and services that I can trust
- Keeping children safe online
- Responsible use of AI
- Keeping the internet is open and free
- Knowing how to spot misinformation
- Other (please specify)
With your help, together we can imagine and create the Internet we want. Thank you for being a part of this.
Always yours,
Nabiha Syed Executive Director Mozilla Foundation
i went to the mozilla donation page and sent a contact request about wanting to financially support firefox but not giving a damn about the rest of the AI and adtech slop that mozilla is doing
here’s the response, for anyone that’s interested
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We genuinely value hearing from our supporters, as your insights help us understand what matters most to the Mozilla community.
It’s important to note that the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation are two separate entities within the Mozilla umbrella - Mozilla Corporation is responsible for developing and maintaining Firefox and other software products, and they are continuously working on improving the user experience, including addressing compatibility issues and promoting the browser to a wider audience.
The Mozilla Foundation, on the other hand, focuses on broader internet health and advocacy work. Our mission is to ensure the internet remains open and accessible for everyone, and this includes issues related to privacy, digital rights, and equity. To confirm, the survey that you had received was from the Mozilla Foundation.
With that being said, Firefox is funded by revenue generated through the product rather than donations. At the moment, there is no way for supporters to make a donation that will be designated to the development of Firefox. Have no fear, things are looking good for Firefox’s future and they plan to be around a long time, supporting folks with the most secure browser experience! Continuing to use Firefox, and recommending it to others, is the best way to support this project.
We truly appreciate your concerns about Firefox and their top priorities - We on the Mozilla Foundation strongly believe that issues such as privacy, online safety, and data security are connected to the products and services we all use every day. The work we do in these areas complements Mozilla Corporation’s focus on building better, more secure software like Firefox, and w encourage you to participate in our survey!
If you would like to input some of your thoughts and ideas into our Ideas discussion forum regarding Firefox and other Mozilla products, please visit: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/idb-p/ideas
We thank you again for reaching out to our Mozilla Foundation Donor Care team, and please let us know if we can support your further!
Regarding AI, there are only options on what would be great with AI. There simply is no option “No, I don’t f-ing want AI” in a Mozilla product.
I want a Browser and an EMail program. Not something that tries to do thinking for me.
Regarding AI, I filled it in as following:
- What is most important to you right now about technology and the internet?
- Other (please specify): Fuck AI
- In your opinion, what is the most important work for Mozilla to do right now?
- Other (please specify): Do not implement AI
- What is most important to you in AI?
- Select nothing
- What is most important to you right now about technology and the internet?
That’s pretty much what I wrote in the comment box. The options for the multiple choice questions don’t really acknowledge that as a preference people might have.
Amen. Basically this survey reads to me as “we decided to focus on AI and we need some pretty graphs to show it’s an awesome idea - please tell us why you think AI is the best thing ever!”
That’s exactly what I took from it as well. It’s a survey designed to get the answers they want, not the actual feedback they’re pretending to ask for.
There are a couple ‘Other - Please Specify’ fields I definitely filled out with ‘Do not do AI’.
Dude thats not realistic at all. The industry is moving that way and all companies have to follow , if companies dont do they will eventually die , just look at Yahoo , AOL , Phillips , etc barely surviving and nothing what they used to be. Why? Mostly because they were complacent and stay conservative not innovating fast enough.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true. What I do think is true is that there’s a chance some AI thing will be a trillion dollar investment, and the most motivating thing for VCs is fear of missing out on a giant score.
A nonprofit open source profit ought to have different motivations though.
I really like their local translation models. Simply saying “no AI!” feels very luddite to me for such a broad category.
I have no problem with things like Mozilla Common Voice. I have a big problem with integrating machine-learning stuff into Firefox by default.
I remember back when
PhoenixFirebirdFirefox first came out, the whole fucking point of it was to be a fast, bare-bones browser, and that people could pick and choose what extra features they wanted by installing extensions. IMO that’s the way it still ought to be.The luddites were not opposed to technology
It’s about priorities. Fox the ducking browser first, get market share, THEN you fuck around with random shit.
Bring back your Ethics in Open Source Software division. Lower the pay for your CEO. Secure funding from other entities so that you are no longer dependent on Google. Focus more on implementing better security measures on Linux and Android, specifically within the domain of sandboxing your open processes. Keep about:config and manifest v2 options available.
just concentrate on making firefox better and fuck all the way off with that ai bullshit.
Stop paying the CEO so much!
Firefox could by now have:
- Much better anti-fingerprinting for a generalized threat model (RFP is too specialized for anonymity)
- Fission (per-site process isolation) for Android, among other things.
- Integrated content blocking (based on uBlock but with the development power of Mozilla)
- Tab groups ffs
- Native force dark mode for web pages
- Sandboxing support using zypak fork server for Flatpak (currently Flatpak weakens Firefox isolation substantially)
- UI/UX update (hire the talent at Zen browser)
Which of the following best describes your race or ethnic background?
Seriously, WTF? Why the hell is this relevant? Is this some American thing?
This question makes the survey highly illegal in France
I often do surveys online and the American ones always ask this. They like to lump all people who look alike together and don’t even bother asking where you’re from. They really believe we are split in different species or something.
Yes. The Americans ask this on every form for who knows what reason.
My fav categories are when they ask your race typically: white, black, Asian, Hispanic etc. Lumping insanely large groups together.
Or the one that asks: Hispanic or non-Hispanic.
Typically both are asked. What the hell does the Hispanic specific question answer that the first didn’t
Male and female are also insanely large groups but I’ll never understand why the color of your skin is so important in the land of the free.
One is asking about skin color, the other is asking about cultural heritage. For example, a person from South America with only European ancestry would be [white, Hispanic], and a Japanese-Brazilian would be [Asian, Hispanic].
The real issue is that they’re irrelevant questions that survey-givers have no legitimate reason to want to know.
My Dream would be that they split Mozilla into Foundations for each product and collaborate like Firefox Foundation which has nothing to do with advertising division at HQ
Last Mozilla survey I filled out had a Mozilla domain. Is this actually Mozilla?
Well, my dream is for them to focus on the fucking browser and nothing else but given the whole question about “What’s important to me in AI” I think that’s out of the picture already
IMO they should focus purely on Firefox and maybe Thunderbird, everything else is unneeded. Mozilla VPN is fine but Mullvad exists and their email relay service isn’t that great tbh. Other then that cut executive pay to represent the actural value they bring (next to nothing) and work with Firefox forks to harden base Firefox.
mozilla vpn uses mullvad servers btw
Thats why I think its pointless, its just Mullvad but less secure and less private
My dream for Mozilla is a browser that just fucking works, without spyware and without needing to update every 2 days
My dream is one where exclusive and limited edition physical game content isn’t exclusive or limited anymore. Because you’re fucking over latecomers who don’t have $1k+ to spend on that shit a decade later, dipshits. At least make that stuff available digitally as PDF and STL files.
Also no more AI slop.
Seems simple.
- Stop taking Google’s money.
- Get about 80-90% smaller.
- Hire a CEO for an appropriate salary.
- Make Firefox and Thunderbird great.
And find ways to pay for #4, of course.
I wish there had just been a single answer that said “Focus on Firefox and not AI”.
I kind of added that to the free text part.
Me too, but considering how many questions had AI in it…
Pretty much all of them. If I recall correctly, after the 3rd question everything was AI.
Self hosted Firefox sync server
