The mozilla logo, red star. Change it to something other

Zbiggy · Post by **Zbiggy** » May 10th, 2004, 1:04 pm

Dear mozilla developers,

The mozilla logo, red star, makes some people nervous. Red star is recognized as a sign of USSR, terror and communism especially in Central Europe now joined European Union. Could you make new, neutral logo, which will not be politics connected ? Large number of people which I talked to were interested in mozilla. They installed mozilla but removed quickly when they saw red star. I am political neutral, but other people are not. The mozilla evangelism would be easier without USSR evil logo. In my opinion mozilla should have any neutral logo not politics connected. The red gozilla monster is good, but star could be in other colour, maybe blue?

asquithea · Post by **asquithea** » May 10th, 2004, 1:08 pm

Install Firefox then. Nary a red star in sight.

schapel · Post by **schapel** » May 10th, 2004, 1:16 pm

See <a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=114061">bug 114061</a> on this topic.

Did <b>everyone</b> you talked to remove Mozilla mainly because of the red star logo? Would most of them have something in common, prehaps (e.g. geographical location, political or religious affliation, ethnicity)?

iamnotniles · Post by **iamnotniles** » May 10th, 2004, 1:48 pm

I didn't know the star was still used anywhere.

Zbiggy · Post by **Zbiggy** » May 10th, 2004, 1:51 pm

No, of course not everyone, however most of them lives in Central Europe where people fight out communism in '80. Most of them try to remove red star logo by switching to firefox + thunderbird or using other software like opera, netscape, micro$oft internet explorer or by using theme installer. Simply they are political neutral, less controversial than mozilla. I think that mozilla developers should remember that their products are used by live people with feelings. Making controversial product places it position marginal. That is why mozilla evangelism is hard to do and makes impossible to gain big market share. I think that mozilla developers noticed this 'political bug' and made firefox and thunderbird political neutral giving them nice, beautiful logos. But why they do not changed logo in mozilla?

Zbiggy · Post by **Zbiggy** » May 10th, 2004, 2:01 pm

I do not know if it is used now somwhere. Maybe North Korea, Cuba or China still uses it where there is no democracy yet. But in Central/East Europe and other places where communism was, people have bad fillings when they see this sign. I think that in USA where communism never been people also do not like red star remembering cold war.

iamnotniles · Post by **iamnotniles** » May 10th, 2004, 2:12 pm

I was refering to within Mozilla.

Zbiggy · Post by **Zbiggy** » May 10th, 2004, 4:30 pm

Mozilla 1.7b and previous. Do Help->About Mozilla. In KDE 3.2 menu there is red star too. Maybe new, nightly builds do not have this logo. But do not use them and do not recommend them, especially to beginners who are not used to use M$ IE and can easily start with mozilla.

Post by **shadytrees** » May 10th, 2004, 4:41 pm

They haven't made a person nervous in quite a long time, so you're one of the lucky few. =)

nilson · Post by **nilson** » May 10th, 2004, 7:42 pm

Haha, yeah, I have that star on my wall.
http://nilson.f2o.org/photos/100_0802.jpg

David James · Post by **David James** » May 10th, 2004, 7:45 pm

Zbiggy wrote: In KDE 3.2 menu there is red star too.

There is? I'm running KDE 3.2.2 and what I see as the icon to symbolise Mozilla is a yellow star with a red lizard within. Not what I'd choose, and not yet completely free of the Communist connotation but a lot better than what it was.

I have to say I'm generally pleased to see the removal and replacement of Mozilla.org's former Communistic imagery in the past year (I think back to the stark black factories on yellow background with the red lizard and shudder - why did anyone even think this was a good idea?). So while the purge of such images isn't yet complete, it's most of the way there - mozillazine is actually the worst offender right now with the blimp...

RP Novice · Post by **RP Novice** » May 10th, 2004, 8:29 pm

Consider the old Qute theme (Not that I'm criticizing the author).... The Q? I thought it was a sickle, a noble attempt at referring to the USSR. However, since I have learned elsewise, I regard the "Q" as a Q representing the Qute theme and not the sickle of the USSR's flag. Nevertheless, I do believe the theming has changed in favor of a circle...

Anyways, Mozilla should be politically neutral, I agree.... Then again, everything is open to interpretation....

iamnotniles · Post by **iamnotniles** » May 11th, 2004, 7:26 am

Oh how can wer forget the *evil* blimp.

I did approve of the removal of the old branding, mainly because it was crap, not because of any patronising drivvel about Communism.

bytemaster · Post by **bytemaster** » May 11th, 2004, 11:39 pm

Great... what is California to do. Our state flag has a red star, and a bear

http://www.50states.com/flag/caflag.htm

geeknik · Post by **geeknik** » May 12th, 2004, 1:03 pm

I like the red star myself. And I live in the US. And I was scared during the 80s.. But the cold war is over. And I still like the red star. =)