Goodbye Mozilla
Not all good things can last forever. I’ve seen over the past several months that as Mozilla has drifted further away from the company that it was in 2008, and further from my goals and vision, and that it is best that I depart from the Mozilla community. Rather than hash out all of my issues in a public blog post, I am just announcing that I will no longer be contributing in any way to the Mozilla Community. I will not be receiving anymore notifications on BMO. I will have the same email address, so if anyone ever wants to get in touch with me they can do so. Any patches that I have floating on BMO, feel free to use if there is anything of value (I doubt there is). My blog will be removed from the planet soon, but I will continue to post personal updates and posts on it (there is some big news coming up soon, so stay tuned).
I have many friends in the Mozilla community, and I want to tell you that this is not any grievance that I have with you, but more on the policies and direction that Mozilla is headed in the future, as well as the treatment of the community in recent months. I wish Mozilla luck, and I will continue to watch it. Sometime in the future, I may begin to contribute again. It is just better that after 3+ years, I pursue other, more productive and rewarding contributions with projects that truly appreciate their communities. Thank you Mozilla for a fun past 3 years, and my friends, peers, and mentors, thank you.
The life and adventures of Tyler 
Thanks for all your work Tyler !
I had a few breaks in the 10+ years at Mozilla and maybe you will come back like me.
I agree that Mozilla changed in all the years and not everything got better but that is the life – no progress without changes.
I wish you the best for your future and I’m glad that I had the pleasure to meet you in Whistler.
Matthias
Matti, I am glad as well that we got to meet in Whistler. I appreciate your work on BMO, and wish you the best of luck.
> It is just better that after 3+ years, I pursue other,
> more productive and rewarding contributions with
> projects that truly appreciate their communities
Don’t you want to elaborate a bit? It’s really sad to hear someone saying that Mozilla has such a bad community problem that it’s not worth contributing to. I’d really like to learn about what’s wrong.
Benoit, I have tried to bring my specific problems up with various members of the community and Mozilla. If you would like to email me I can explain some of them to you, I don’t feel it is quite fair to air all my complaints in public. But I have no problem bringing them up in a more private setting.
Could you kindly enlighten us as to whether or not your decision has anything to do with the rapid release schedule? Someone on MozillaZine seems quite convinced of that, though I see no hint of it in your post. I’m inclined to think he’s simply using your own unrelated departure to prop up his own argument, though it’s entirely possible he’s a close friend of yours who knows more than you’ve revealed in your blog post.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=11136311#p11136311
As for your complaints, you’ve aired at least one of them in public, when you made it clear that Asa Dotzler’s behavior was the last straw:
http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.dev.usability/msg/e73769f5edd60b06
No, I did not leave because of rapid release. I think rapid release will be a great idea IF it is implemented properly. Read this post to see some of my ideas for rapid release. I think it could have been done better, and I think it needs improvement, but no, that is not why I left. So you are correct, he is using my departure incorrectly, this has nothing to do with Rapid Release.
Yes, the situation was the situation that prompted this. But I have been pondering leaving Mozilla for several months now, just Asa pushed me over the edge faster than I wanted to. This departure has more to do with the attitude of Mozilla towards their community, and the triage community specifically.
I’m really going to miss you, Tyler. We should talk before you fully leave though.
Aakash, I shall miss many friends in the Mozilla community. I’m glad I got to meet you at the Summit, even though it was while boarding the airplane to leave. Feel free to email me anytime.
Aakash, I shall miss many friends in the Mozilla community. I’m glad I got to meet you at the Summit, even though it was while boarding the airplane to leave. Feel free to email me anytime.
Just wanted to say good luck on your future endeavors. Bookmarked and I’ll stop by in a bit to see what projects you’ve taken up.
Thank you Kevin, and the same to you. Keep up the good work.
😦
You’ll be missed. Have fun with the new project you pick up.
Hey Tyler,
Thanks for your contributions and being a vocal community member over the years
Good luck to you Tyler. It was great to meet you in Whistler!
Will miss you in Triage Land. Good luck!
Thank you for the clarification. I appreciate it. I am not familiar with your work, but I wish you the best of luck. In your post you remained open to the possibility of contributing again at some point in the future. Hopefully whatever rifts occurred can be healed over time.
Good luck Tyler and thanks for all your work done for the Mozilla Community.
Shame to lose you. I can understand why you feel the way you do. It’s so sad to see the Mozilla projext essentially getting hijacked by a few ‘big’ personalities like Asa et al. There’s a difference between bold leadership and autocracy. Anyway all the best of luck for your future, and lets hope Mozilla changes course soon.