Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage • Hacker News Board

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#61

Post by mig39 » Fri, May 26, 2023, 4:44 PM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #9

The particularly terrible thing about this is that the Mozilla VPN product is actually Mullvad underneath, one of the better and more ethical VPN providers. Then they have to do this popup ad bullshit pushed by the browser and take a dump all over it.

I have Mullvad running on my devices all the time...

I wonder if they showed the ad to Mullvad users?

Also, Mullvad is unique in that it generally doesn't do commissions or special sale prices, etc. The "top rated" VPNs on review sites and YouTube channels are usually the ones paying the most in commission. And it's a reason Mullvad is rarely in the "top rated" lists -- it doesn't pay commissions.

I wonder how that works with Mozilla? Surely Mozilla is getting a commission?

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#62

Post by uo21tp5hoyg » Fri, May 26, 2023, 4:47 PM UTC

kramerger wrote: post #39

"The advertisement boosts Mozilla VPN, a paid open-source VPN service that constitutes a crucial revenue source for the not-for-profit company." In 2021, Mozilla CEO received $5M in compensation. I don't really consider them a non-profit.

It's intentionally confusing but "not-for-profit" and "non-profit" are two very different things and it seems the article gets them confused.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#63

Post by evv » Fri, May 26, 2023, 4:47 PM UTC

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #48

ilikepi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you miss the episode in 2017 in which they used an internal control to force the installation of an add-on as part of a promotion for a television show? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15941302 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15940144 I feel similarly to you...long-time user, bummed out by stuff like this. Sometimes it feels like Firefox would be a lot better off without Mozilla occasionally making deal…

I read a conspiracy that Google has paid off Mozilla management to specifically sabotage the browser development. Actions like this make it hard to dispute the moves that frequently seem deliberately anti-user.

It's not a conspiracy that Google pays Mozilla for default search engine placement.

Maybe that arrangement led to the stagnation of Firefox, without malicious intent from any party. Hanlon's razor, yadda yadda

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#64

Post by hiccuphippo » Fri, May 26, 2023, 4:47 PM UTC

Mozilla needs a new wway to make decisions, the current one is obviously not working. New features should have an Enhancement Proposal document that the community can read beforehand and a council that approves it.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#65

Post by dabluecaboose » Fri, May 26, 2023, 4:48 PM UTC

sandyarmstrong wrote: post #3

I noticed this yesterday. I've been using Mozilla/Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox as my primary browser for over 20 years. They've made some questionable calls, sure, but most of the recent things that have bothered people (like Pocket integration) haven't really irked me. This is the first time where I got a visceral feeling that maybe this isn't the browser I knew and loved anymore. It's not like I'm uninstalling and swit…

A while back I got a push notification on my Android device to some preachy blogpost about Facebook being bad politically

I don't want my browser to be a vector from which you push your blogs, Mozilla. I want a browser that isn't Chrome

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#66

Post by wodenokoto » Fri, May 26, 2023, 4:48 PM UTC

logdap wrote: post #4

wlesieutre wrote: post #2

Makes you wonder how someone thought this was a good idea in a browser that was an early pioneer of popup blockers. Imagine if Firefox in the 2000's had seen popup ads and said "Yeah let's get in on that action!" At least it was a small scale experiment and not something that rolled out to the whole install base, I use Firefox on a couple of computers and didn't see it myself. But should you really need user feedback…

Mozilla management are malicious snakes. This isn't the first time they've tried something like this and it won't be the last. Each time they issue noncommittally apologies, if you can call them that, but it keeps on happening. They're testing the water for even more ads in Firefox, trying to normalize this until people stop complaining. Keep the heat on them, don't give them an inch or they'll take a mile.

I’m not sure what “something like this” you are referring to.

But Firefox is an ad supported browser and has been for nearly 2 decades.

That they want to take ownership of the advertising is no surprise. Who knows when google will turn off the faucet.

But this is definitely not the right way

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#67

Post by Timber-6539 » Fri, May 26, 2023, 4:49 PM UTC

If the privacy crowd expected different treatment from a woke tyrannical organization in full control of their choice of browser, they only have themselves to blame.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#68

Post by dehrmann » Fri, May 26, 2023, 4:49 PM UTC

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #48

ilikepi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you miss the episode in 2017 in which they used an internal control to force the installation of an add-on as part of a promotion for a television show? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15941302 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15940144 I feel similarly to you...long-time user, bummed out by stuff like this. Sometimes it feels like Firefox would be a lot better off without Mozilla occasionally making deal…

I read a conspiracy that Google has paid off Mozilla management to specifically sabotage the browser development. Actions like this make it hard to dispute the moves that frequently seem deliberately anti-user.

Th other conspiracy I've heard is Google subsidizes Mozilla so they have a credible claim there's competition in the market.

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#69

Post by __turbobrew__ » Fri, May 26, 2023, 4:53 PM UTC

i2cmaster wrote: post #35

slater wrote: post #7

Someone needs to make a "Firefox Marketing Department Greatest Hits" page; this isn't the first time, by far, they've tried to shoe-horn some absolutely user-hostile garbage into some release, followed by the usual "we will do better" back-pedalling non-apology

It's really a wonder Mozilla keeps going. They've absolutely lost it.

Free google money so chrome isn’t seen as a monopoly

Re: Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN ads after user outrage

#70

Post by whoisthemachine » Fri, May 26, 2023, 4:54 PM UTC

freediver wrote: post #53

All directly or indirectly ad-supported business models will sooner or later come to the point of breakage in serving user”s best interests, as the fundamental misalignment of incentives between the business and its users creates a force too strong to contain. This is entirely driven by a simple fact that in ad-supported businesses users are not the same as the customers. I advocated several times and will do it agai…

Agreed. I can't help but think that giving normal, technical users a great browser, and then catering on bended knee to enterprises for a very controllable, supported, extended version as the source of revenue that supports the normal browser is a sustainable model. Maybe not a model that takes over the world, but one that sustains development of a good open source browser.