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Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

betterbird.eu

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Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#22
post #5

I really love Thunderbird; I've been using it for at least a decade now. There are definitely places where it still needs improvement, after years and years. While Betterbird seems exciting in theory, the attitude of the project leader (who it seems is a banned former contributor to Mozilla Thunderbird), and honestly even the arrogance in the name itself gives me pause. The issues laid out in this[0] email thread are…

why was banned?

My guess was over something like this communication:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220817182407/https://www.bette...

Guy seems like a bit of a dick but I suppose after quite a few years trying to effect change in an org most people get that way.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#23
post #5

I really love Thunderbird; I've been using it for at least a decade now. There are definitely places where it still needs improvement, after years and years. While Betterbird seems exciting in theory, the attitude of the project leader (who it seems is a banned former contributor to Mozilla Thunderbird), and honestly even the arrogance in the name itself gives me pause. The issues laid out in this[0] email thread are…

The main page on why he was banned: https://www.betterbird.eu/faq/former.html

> After Mozilla outsourced contracting to an external labour provider in early 2018 and Jörg wasn't happy with the conditions there, he was kindly funded by the pEp Project. Note that Thunderbird's technical director only came on board in 2018.

> The following paragraph shows how so-called cancel culture was used weaponising the Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines to expel someone striving for excellence, user satisfaction and accountability within the project.

> In early 2020, Thunderbird's financial and administrative home became MZLA, no longer a non-profit organisation. Hence pEp didn't want to pump money into a for-profit organisation and asked the Thunderbird project to refund Jörg's work at Thunderbird. At the beginning of 2020 the project let Jörg go, and in August 2020 he was ousted from the Thunderbird Council(), of which he had been a member since 2016, and the Thunderbird community. He was subsequently banned for life() from the entire Mozilla Community based on alleged infringements of the unacceptable conditions set out in a preliminary ban.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#25
post #5

I really love Thunderbird; I've been using it for at least a decade now. There are definitely places where it still needs improvement, after years and years. While Betterbird seems exciting in theory, the attitude of the project leader (who it seems is a banned former contributor to Mozilla Thunderbird), and honestly even the arrogance in the name itself gives me pause. The issues laid out in this[0] email thread are…

The bug chart thing also seems a bit misleading. If you actually click through the links it looks like there's simply more people dedicated to the task of testing dev releases. This person made a public stink about how they were ignored about getting a QA team and now it seems as though they have it? And thus they're claiming that that means the software is buggier rather than more bugs are being caught earlier in the dev cycle? And then you're pinning upstream to the very thing you're advertising as essentially a bug-riddled mess?

Very confusing goal to me here.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#26
I firmly believe there are two classes of email, those who use exchange servers and those who dont.

While i dont really care so much about the mail client in itself, I would gladly use something else besides outlook, if it would integrate itself into the exchange protocol so well.

It feels like E-Mail is a solved problem, but its really not we all have just more or less agreed that its good enough. I Remember when i started using ot years ago (i even have private exchange since more than 10 years), i thought -this - this is how email is going to become everywhere. But it never really cought on, except of course if you now also book office 365.

Comming back to the main topic though: i dont think that extended hubris and sarcasm is a sign of a healthy project, but more that of a hurt child. If your fixes would have been according to the guidlines of mozilla to begin with, im sure your patches would have been merged.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why was banned?

My guess was over something like this communication: https://web.archive.org/web/20220817182407/https://www.bette... Guy seems like a bit of a dick but I suppose after quite a few years trying to effect change in an org most people get that way.

[deleted]

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#29
> Multi-line view like in Outlook, Lotus Notes and Postbox

> Betterbird: Yes!

> Thunderbird: No, requested since 2003

Wonderful! Back in the mid-2000s, this annoyed me enough to switch from Thunderbird to Outlook for work mail. Great to hear they had to fork the project to match the delicious UI of Lotus Notes.

Honestly since then I haven't thought much about local PC mail clients to even consider any alternatives. Apple Mail and web mail work fine.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#30
post #5

I really love Thunderbird; I've been using it for at least a decade now. There are definitely places where it still needs improvement, after years and years. While Betterbird seems exciting in theory, the attitude of the project leader (who it seems is a banned former contributor to Mozilla Thunderbird), and honestly even the arrogance in the name itself gives me pause. The issues laid out in this[0] email thread are…

> The issues laid out in this[0] email thread are pretty concerning Can you describe what is concerning? I'm not going to look into email threads just because someone says there is something concerning there. What are your concerns? I'm not here to defend them, but I am lazy. If there are concerns, what are they? I figure if they're concerning enough, they can be described in a few sentences.

It's not very long, but to summarize: it is alleged that the developer violated community participation guidelines in several different ways, and thus is temporarily suspended. The developer replies that the council does not have the authority to suspend them for ; the only response to the allegations was that arguing in bad faith (only one of the several allegations) was impossible to prove.
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