General Discussion • Re: Pale Moon's PR Problem

If you look at why this problem (lack of contributions to be a major player) exists, it should be clear that none of this is internal. Because the project is a fork that has been forced to remain parallel in major strokes for years with a browser that pushed the "philosophy" edge hard, there is not just a capacity or technological hurdle, but also very much a social one, and there are some major factors working against us here:

• As indicated: full-stack vertical integration of Google into everything from Chrome to web platforms (including self-published ones) integrating V8, to major and sometimes exclusive writing and pushing of specs leading to implementation-first standards. We're by definition always "catching up" because standards aren't allowed to mature, often not even becoming standards track material before they are already pushed out to hundreds of millions of websites.
• A continued "blackballing" by major tech news outlets that all fall under the same umbrella (IGN/ZD).
• Misunderstanding that Goanna and UXP are independently developed and maintained, and aim to follow modern web technologies. (The "old and insecure" angle, because people don't understand the project's fully independent nature; in part also due to redefinition of the term "independent" in media).
• Cult-like pushback from Mozilla fans who will categorically lean very hard into anything that isn't published by Mozilla (or follows Mozilla to the letter, i.e. rebuilds). Mozilla reps themselves have helped this by going as far as stating independent forks were "stealing code".
• Stigmas due to past scuffles with small but extremely vocal and influential OSS groups, amplified by the sycophantic Mozilla fans whenever there would be an angle to "kick the smaller project while down".
• Splintering due to animosity from people who forked off from us to go "full retro", which was never one of our goals.
• Major lack of financial backing to be able to advertise without the stated support of mainstream tech news outlets. And to be fair, at this point I really don't think advertising would even help much, because of various applied stigmas.

Ultimately, it boils down to this: we can't force people to contribute. I've always kept an open door for contributions (if they are sane) but if there is no interest in actually doing the work (not just talking up a storm) then we can just work with what we have, nothing more.