General Discussion • Re: Pale Moon's PR Problem

how can we turn around this situation and attract new potential contributors to the project, so that all of its users can benefit?

Well, do you have a time machine? If you do, please go back in time to about 8 years ago and take a copy of the forum database with you, asking Moonchild to look at some of the most infamous "debacles" that happened between now and then. Sort of like Marty McFly having to convince the Doc to look at future events and wear a bulletproof vest.

That's why I want to support Pale Moon's development and attract contributors. I think Pale Moon is complete in terms of its approach/philosophy, and its custom of serving its users, but not 'complete' in terms of its technical capability/compatibility.

In other words, one could easily say that this browser is under development. Then, OSS user thinks, "Wow! An INDEPENDENT browser in development that is significantly less bloated than Chromium/FF and derivatives, is currently actually stable, and aims to be a viable alternative to those browsers? Hey, maybe we could improve this -- make it faster or compatible with a few other web technologies! I wonder what are the devs are up to."

But then, Pale Moon's PR problem kicks in.

I mean, you are right that it needs contributors and further development, but I think it would be very hard for us to get to the point that the average Pale Moon user doesn't need a backup browser... the web just moves too fast. If we have to be a true replacement for Firefox or Chromium, that's just not something a small team can achieve, and you'd basically be asking us to stop the project because of our inability to deliver on that kind of ambition, with the implication that we have to push that hard and go that far, or else resign ourselves to the inevitable and stop fighting.

And yeah, I don't think there's much we can do about the PR problem... I mean. We are always going to be that community, and those devs who did things the open source community frowns on (our own users don't help and have biases and attitudes that make them say a lot of things mainstream Linux users with good coding skills would find upsetting). I mean... I hate to say it, but maybe this really is the limit of what we can achieve. We are hitting walls. We took this codebase further than anyone ever thought we would, but I don't know how much more room to run we actually have. I did the Python 3 port hoping to make contributing more attractive. But I don't know that anything can wash away the stained reputation we have... only the people who were here would understand.

All I know is, we're going to keep trying to pull it forward until it's over, but if you are expecting a project with the ambition and resources to become a drop-in replacement for Firefox or Chromium that will eliminate the need for a backup-browser, then I'm afraid you may be in the wrong place. It's honestly not even fair to expect that...