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Reading through Mozillas jobs page: "Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Gen AI", "Senior Staff Software Engineer, Ads", "Program Manager, AI 360", "Principal Product Manager, Generative AI","Sr Staff Fullstack Engineer, Anonym", "Senior Manager, Sales (Anonym)" I see they have fully pointed the ship towards a future of AI and Ads. 44 comments
And I do sympathize, as someone who helps run a non-profit it is incredibly clear that everyone is chasing after a much smaller pool of funding these days. Many organizations are gone, more have reduced operations significantly, and some have tried to pivot into new sources of funding; at a risk - perhaps - that such pivoting undermines the very mission the organization was founded to follow.  @sarahjamielewis one thing i do wonder, and which would be legitimately useful as an "experiment" to illustrating what is good or bad about ~fediverse~, is how much their mastodon server was costing to run by the end @mcc @sarahjamielewis I hoped mozilla's financials would be open-book but https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2022/mozilla-fdn-2022-fs-final-0908.pdf does not break down to hosting costs  @sarahjamielewis And generative AI mostly seems like a way to burn money rather than profit (for all companies involved that aren't Nvidia) so I'm not even sure this makes any sense from a purely financial standpoint.   @sarahjamielewis They probably fear google default search engine payments ending and will try to make up that revenue though ads (and ai hype).  @sarahjamielewis@mastodon.social fools, they're fools  @sarahjamielewis A famous and somewhat rapscallion-ish man named Jack Welch once said, "If you can't be number one or a *strong* number two in a market, get the hell out!" So Mozilla: Browsers? Nope  @sarahjamielewis Is there an organization—even if it’s one that’s currently laughably underresourced—that’s credibly attempting the kind of work we wish Mozilla were doing instead of this? @jandi @graue @sarahjamielewis GNOME does maintain its own browser (called Web, used to be Epiphany). It uses WebKit. As far as browsing goes, we're limited to Google, Mozilla, and Apple engines.  @sarahjamielewis Yep. Loaded up their careers page during my job search and noped right out of there.  @sarahjamielewis If quitting Firefox is advisable, is there a browser you'd recommend? Thanks. PS. Linux-wise I mean. @kikebenlloch @sarahjamielewis It's not advisable. Everything else is far worse. The problem is the Mozilla org, not Firefox, and the solution will be somebody else taking it from them and nurturing it properly when they get bad enough.  @sarahjamielewis Why? Why does the one brand that has *any* chance at all of being a paragon of internet freedom have *such bad management*??? Sorry, i'm just some rando.. My frustration is the same as everyone elses, though..  @sarahjamielewis What would happen if that recruiters inbox got filled with AI generated resumes/cover letters?  @sarahjamielewis they don't mean it really... Just use genAI to write their job opening and have fired anyone who used to proof-read.  Mozilla governance needs firing. Mozilla needs new governance, new governance model, new governance selection system. AND the Sovereign Tech Fund needs to get involved in funding open source privacy for citizens @sarahjamielewis@mastodon.social Firefox is really important right now, but mozilla is repeatedly proving to be untrustworthy. I think anyone who can, should contirbute to servo and ladybird. They seem to be pretty close to finishing (by a few years)   None of these (probably relatively well paying jobs) is for what users really want: Fast rendering and low memory usage. That front is probably left "to the community".  @sarahjamielewis Genuine question. There's a risk (it may be somewhat small but it exists) that Google might be forced to cut their funding to Mozilla due to antitrust. This would affect over 90% of their revenue. What else are they supposed to do? Just let things happen and abandon Firefox once Google's AI and ad money stops flowing in? @miki @sarahjamielewis No. Abandon all the useless shit they're doing that's not nurturing Firefox, and seek funding from foundations or governments with aligned interests to do just that and nothing else.  I ignore all pleas to make #firefox my main browser because it's been clear for some time the organization is run by MBAs, or people who think that way. "Reading through Mozillas jobs page: "Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Gen AI", "Senior Staff Software Engineer, Ads", "Program Manager, AI 360", "Principal Product Manager, Generative AI","Sr Staff Fullstack Engineer, Anonym"... "I see they have fully pointed the ship towards a future of AI and Ads."  @sarahjamielewis @Greengordon not to mention those roles are far more expensive given the current hype cycle.   @sarahjamielewis anyone with some browser recommendations for macOS? I guess I’ll just switch back to use Safari for now…  @sarahjamielewis What do you mean a 'future of AI and ads'? Ads have been funding 90% of the content on the internet for the last 10 years. I'm curious what your proposed funding model is? The AI part is somewhat more interesting, although arguably that's rapidly becoming the present considering how rapidly people are finding applications and how quickly it is becoming adopted (assuming you are referring to LLMs). @sarahjamielewis Damn shame to see them fall like this. youweresupposedtodestroythesithnotjointhem.jpg @sarahjamielewis I’ve been dealing with someone with an AI in their title. The fool removed a file from ann interface and didn’t tell anyone or ask anyone if they minded. They put it back but they keeping asking us and telling they want to remove it…we tell him/her to F off.  Have been loyal to Firefox since the beginning. I consider AI-anything and any type of ad monetization to be a threat and will route around it. Am prepared to abandon @mozilla entirely if they persist with this #enshittification mission.  @sarahjamielewis and they - along with Google - can go fuck themselves. I deleted it from all devices. @sarahjamielewis @marshray @tab2space @sarahjamielewis @marshray Ahhh, that explains it - one of those stealth reverse buyout things? @dalias @sarahjamielewis @marshray  |
Gregory's Server
I'm not surprised that they are shutting down their mastodon instance "experiment" with little fanfare - it is very clear that open social networks between human beings do not fit within their vision of what the internet should be.