Firefox Developer on Recruitment Policy

wikinerd writes "A Firefox developer talks about the project's controversial invitation-only developer recruitment policy and explains why Firefox will never grow up."

Re:They set themselves up in a Catch-22

[Enoch Root]

They say loudly that they are only willing to accept developers to the project that they have vetted themselves, no one need apply. And with this attitude in front of them, they drive away people who want to help but are unsure of their abilities

Seems to me, if you're unsure of your abilities, you should start on a smaller project with less visibility than FireFox. If a certain 'elitist' attitude is needed to filter out the rotten apples (e.g. the Linux kernel moderation approach), then this might explain why FireFox comes across as a shining example of OSS development.

I would go so far as to say that if the spirit of OSS is total openness and acceptance, and FireFox's approach isn't in the spirit of OSS, then FireFox's success and brilliance is an argument that the OSS spirit isn't working well. Just contrast FireFox as it is now with Mozilla 1.0 or Netscape 6...

Re:obligatory link

[Anonymous Coward]

this isn't redundant, you stupid moderator

Re:Then what exactly is Open ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hopefully firefox will not go into that Elitist arena which blocks out young developers...

You were NOT invited to make that comment, if we want to hear from you we'll call you and then you can speak, otherwise just keep reading and shut up, mkay?

Yours,
The FireTrucks Team,
Peak View,
CA 31337

Re:Then what exactly is Open ?

[Anonymous Coward]

if they get too elitst.. just start your own branch.

... and don't accept any submissions from them - that'll show the bastards, eh?

Re:firefox

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh OK, thanks. See, that's why I come to Slashdot, for the educational porn.

Re:obligatory link

[gowen]

But it is unethical to post such a link under your own username

Not really, because as a rule the concepts of ethical / unethical behaviour apply only to contexts that actually mean something, as opposed to the pointless accumulation of worthless slashdot karma, which means absolutely diddly-squat to anyone with a sense of proportion.

I'll go make my own fork

[Anonymous Coward]

Stupid Firefox developers..I'll go make my own fork, with hookers and gambling and casinos. In fact, forget about the fork!

Re:obligatory link

[Hal_Porter]

Of course, it never quite dawned on us in the beginning that everything we were doing would someday be so scrutinized by the public eye. When I added Cookies are delicious delicacies as the tongue-in-cheek description of site cookies in our Options window, I did so because describing something so complicated in such a small space was quite frankly the last thing I wanted to worry about after rewriting the cookie manager.

What a wanker.

Re:They set themselves up in a Catch-22

[wild_berry]

Because the meritocracy that runs Slashdot won't accept patches..?

Re:obligatory link

[zCyl]

this isn't redundant, you stupid moderator

Technically, posting a mirror is informative redundancy. :)

Re:pet peeve

[vally_the_poo]

Hey man, it's not a bug, it's a feature !
Imagine how many times you have to enter your credit card number...
I for one, can never remind my cerdit card number so it's very comfort when firefox fills it for me, especially when I go to internet cafés where it may be dangerous to get out your card !

Re:The trouble with Firefox..

[dogfull]

sure right, we all use firefox because we really hurt M$ if we do... or apple for that matter

note sarcasm

Re:obligatory link

[tinkerton]

some may think 'stupid' + 'moderator' is a pleonasm. A redundant pleonasm.

Re:Ooooh. Want a real challenge?

[MyLongNickName]

I did.

--CmdrTaco

Re:pet peeve

[gothzilla]

What he's referring to is the ability to leave autocomplete on, but making it "forget" credit card numbers.

On slashdot, if you say "When I'm driving around in my car, this buzzer won't turn off and it's really annoying." everyone will respond with "Well then just turn the car off."

Re:pet peeve

[Speare]

On slashdot, if you say "When I'm driving around in my car, this buzzer won't turn off and it's really annoying." everyone will respond with "Well then just turn the car off."

Go off and develop your own car! Sheesh!

Bureaucratic

[Nimey]

I hereby move that the word "bureaucratic" be struck from /. usage because nobody can fscking spell it. Same for "ridiculous".

Re:About Firefox and Mozilla

[ggvaidya]

*hitting anon coward on the head with a large trout*

... for it is written in the Book of GNU that thou shalt not compare an open source project with The Company of Gates and Windows!

The prescribed punishment is one thousand lines of code for the One True Kernel [gnu.org]. So write, sinner, and repent, for the Final Compile is nigh!

Re:obligatory link

[Phillip Birmingham]

But it is unethical to post such a link under your own username rather than anonymous... this way, it's kinda karma whoring, which is probably why the moderator modded you down.

What has Slashdot come to, when people will try to whore Karma by actually, you know, posting something useful?

Re:Then what exactly is Open ?

[DaveJay]

Off-topic, but...

I like your signature, about the instructions on the 7-11 muffin. Similarly, I recent bought (and promptly consumed) a bottle of Frog's Leap wine, and found on the bottom of the label "Open other end".