MozillaZine origins

[mcdavis]

Is it true that "back in the old days" MozillaZine was the place where Mozilla development was discussed? There was IRC, there was Bugzilla, and there was MozillaZine, right?

That was at least partly true when I started, but I'm asking about way back before that.

To ask another way: what's the origin story of MozillaZine? Why was it created, when was it created, who created it and what was its purpose?

I'm not sure how to categorize this, so I'll put it here and follow it wherever it goes.

EDIT: Changed MZ to MozillaZine for clarity. Sorry for the cornfusion.

[LoudNoise]

This is likely as good of a history as you can get. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MozillaZine

[therube]

MZ origins

?

What do you mean by "MZ"?

[mcdavis]

What do you mean by "MZ"?

Sorry, I mean MozillaZine.

I'm most interested in how much discussion relating to Firefox development where Firefox developers were part of the discussion happened here. When I came along it was still a decent amount, with Asa, Mike Connor, Mike Beltzner, Alex Faaborg and Dao posting regularly. Did it used to be even more before that?

[mcdavis]

This is likely as good of a history as you can get. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MozillaZine

Thanks, that's good. So the answer to my question of whether the developers used it as a primary tool for getting work done is yes.

[LoudNoise]

According to Wikipedia anyway .

[James]

MZ origins

?

What do you mean by "MZ"?

You never seen anybody here use MZ or rather mZ refer to mozillaZine before? just like how we use SM, Tb and Fx abbreviations.

[therube]

LoudNoise took it to mean mozillaZine.
I took it to mean Mozilla.
Better to ask then remain in doubt.

[makaiguy]

LoudNoise took it to mean mozillaZine.
I took it to mean Mozilla.
Better to ask then remain in doubt.

I'm not exactly a newbie around here, and I had the same reaction you did from the title.
Finally sussed it out when trying to understand the post itself.

[rsx11m]

Moved to MZ Site Discussion as it's (rather unambiguously) about MZ the website.

[malliz]

Been here long enough to remember Ben Goodger and Blake Ross being online a fair bit..... Asa Dotzler was always posting something even though he was never considered to be much more than the office boy. MZ was the place to be if you wanted to contact the devs.

[LoudNoise]

By the time I got here, Asa was in full cartoon mode. Mike was the last CEO who visited and solve a problem brought up here. Once he left Mozilla decided to define community exclusively as folks who agreed with them.

[the-edmeister]

By the time I got here, Asa was in full cartoon mode. Mike was the last CEO who visited and solve a problem brought up here. Once he left Mozilla decided to define community exclusively as folks who agreed with them.

LOL = you have a real "hard-on" against Mozilla Org in recent years don't you? SUMO = Suck U Mozilla Org ??

No mention made yet about how Mozilla "pillaged" the mZ KB [virtually] verbatim when they first setup "their own" knowledge base in the beginning. Copy & Paste for almost every article they "gleaned" from the mZ KB.iirc, it took 'em a couple of years before any new articles or drastically edited articles started appearing. Or how unsuitable their "forum" software was in the early years (2007-2010), and it isn't much better now. But I guess that is the trend now-a-days; run users who are looking for support thru a maze of illogical paths to get support and piss them off so much that they spend more time being uncouth jerks to the other users who can help them, instead of using their time on the "soapbox" getting to the point of why they sought out support to begin with ...

I spent very little time at SUMO doing support until the volume of new postings here at mozillaZIne dropped off drastically, and it got to the point of 10 "contributors" available (or responding) here for each new support thread that was started. While at the same time at SUMO it was the same 5 (or so) contributors answering the bulk of the support questions - and Mozilla had NO paid staff providing any help (until the last couple of years).

Overall, I doubt if there is anyone left at Mozilla who understands the historical perspective of how mozillaZine helped the Mozilla Foundation get to where they are today. IMO, without the "support" that many, many people here at mozillaZine provided during the first 10 years of the Mozilla Foundation existence, I wonder if Firefox would have ever gotten off the ground. And IMO that is evidenced by the "10 year birthday" celebration last year for Firefox, as James so eloquently points in SUMO threads - Firefox is older that 10 years old in both "name" and overall concept. In my mind (and many others), Firefox was begat as Phoenix during the late spring / early summer of 2002 - not as Firefox 1.0 in Nov 2004.


Ed

[mcdavis]

> There was IRC, there was Bugzilla, and there was mozillaZine, right?

I left out newsgroups. Herp derp.