If you're referring to the words in the post "Brendan Eich Steps Down as
Mozilla CEO"
(https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-steps-down-as-mozilla-ceo/),
I feel like you might be reading them more damningly than they were
originally intended. The first two paragraphs come across ambiguously
with regards to their subject, and paint an unintentional relationship
to the following paragraph which announces Brendan's resignation. You
should know that the post is apologizing for our response to the
controversy, and the way the organization stayed silent for the first
few days and chose not to engage.
Cheers,
Josh
On 04/07/2014 06:38 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Adam, I respect your temperance and wanting to look at a bigger picture.
However, I see a different big picture and take issue with some statements:
"Perhaps Mozilla did fall short of defending him, but that does not mean that
everyone at Mozilla approves of what happened or how it happened, nor does it mean that
Mozilla has become a political organization--that is, one oriented toward issues other
than the freedom and openness of the Internet."
I vehemently disagree. Baker's words after the resignation, completely
abandoning Eich and throwing him under the bus, reveal that Mozilla cares more
about allowing gays to marry than it does about people being able to support
even mainstream political causes privately without getting hounded from their
jobs.
It was utterly spineless, nauseating, and insulting.
This whole thing infuriates me. I uninstalled Firefox, a browser I've used for
many years. I'm typing this on another browser I don't like quite as much, but
at least I know my search revenue (small as it is) won't be supporting such a
blatantly hypocritical, pro-free-speech-phony organization.
"Let us all learn from the mistakes and continue moving forward toward the goals we
share with Mozilla"
Tell that to Mitchell Baker. Her doublespeak, hypocritical, spineless apology
to the internet mob shows she has learned nothing. I can't just forgive an
organization headed by a woman who uses her official position to, ultimately,
encourage blacklisting.
Mozilla is supposed to be for open internet. Free speech should take
precedence over gay marriage, plain and simple.
You might be surprised to know that I actually DO support gay marriage - to the
extent that I myself have even donated to it in the past. Will that make me
have to lose my job one day? Only if people accept internet mob rule, and that
precedent has been set by Baker's caving and most Mozillans' lack of support
for Eich.
This whole issue has gone far beyond Eich and Mozilla. To many, like me, it is
about being able to exercise free speech without losing one's job. This is
absolutely critical to a civil, cooperative, and free society.
Mozilla is now a de facto gay-rights organization first and foremost. There is
nothing wrong with that, as long as it is represented as such. But it no
longer has to do with promoting free speech. That will be a common perception,
and Mozilla did it to itself.
As a long-time supporter, I feel betrayed... but nowhere nearly as betrayed as
Eich probably feels.
On Monday, April 7, 2014 12:19:46 AM UTC-7, Adam Porter wrote:
I've already posted a thread here criticizing Mozilla for what I think was a
failure to adequately support and defend Brendan Eich.
Having said that, I don't think that uninstalling Firefox is the answer.
Perhaps Mozilla did fall short of defending him, but that does not mean that
everyone at Mozilla approves of what happened or how it happened, nor does it
mean that Mozilla has become a political organization--that is, one oriented
toward issues other than the freedom and openness of the Internet.
I haven't expressed my position on gay marriage, because just as Brendan said,
it should be irrelevant here. I understand the feeling that Mozilla has taken
a position on it, but I don't think that being inclusive in the workplace
necessarily means supporting either position *as an organization.*
People are rejecting Mozilla for the sake of free speech and an open society in
which one may exercise his right to free speech without fear of reprisal from
society's over-exercising its own right to free speech. This is understandable
and a worthy goal, however I don't think dumping Mozilla helps it.
While Mozilla as a whole may bear some of the blame, the vast majority rests on
those who dropped the match and fanned the flames. Even if there was no master
plan, it was effectively orchestrated in a cunning way: discord was sowed, a
mob was stirred, and then the claim could be legitimately made that Eich could
no longer lead effectively (though whether that would have remained the case in
the future is debatable). Eich is not the only victim here: Mozilla is also,
as are all those who support a free and open society and Internet.
I think much of the post-resignation anti-Firefox reaction comes from those who
see it merely as a product of a corporation, rather than as a Free Software
project of a symbiotic relationship between Mozilla and the larger community.
This is understandable: probably the vast majority of Firefox users don't even
know what Free Software is.
Let's face the facts: were it not for Firefox and Mozilla, the Internet and Web
we have today would probably not be as open as they are. Despite the majority
of its funding coming from Google (which is also a competitor with Chrome),
Mozilla is the most independent browser vendor, and the one that most
explicitly supports openness and freedom.
Thankfully, being Free Software, Firefox could be forked and keep going under
new leadership even if Mozilla were to disappear tomorrow (though with an
enormous deficit in expertise).
But even so, we need Mozilla and Firefox. So does the Internet. So does the
world. Without it, we have Google/Chrome, MS/IE, and Apple/Safari--all
multi-billion-dollar mega-corporations whose primary goals are profit-oriented.
Mozilla made some mistakes here. Okay. But one of the things demonstrated by
this situation is that Mozilla is not a monolithic organization. Let us all
learn from the mistakes and continue moving forward toward the goals we share
with Mozilla: a free and open Internet.
As it is said, to err is human, but to forgive is divine. This situation was
caused by failing to forgive. Let us not perpetuate this nature in kind--let
us choose the better path forward and lead by example.
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