Mozilla asking for donations to keep going for another year?

Lynne Level 1

November 22, 2016, 7:58 am

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Mozilla asking for donations to keep going for another year?

I don't use Mozilla Firefox often but today when I opened up my Mozilla browser this donate message comes up. So Mozilla is asking for donations... what do you think of this?

Mozilla asking for donations to keep going for another year?

Personally I find it a little odd, since I would have assumed they are quite popular. So I did a little search and it turns out that apparently they had a deal with Google which came to an end in November 2015 and most of their money came from Google. The deal was to have Google as their default search engine.

However they decided to end their deal last year to get more independence and provide users with more choices.

I'm not sure how asking your users to donate money to keep you going and putting your company at risk equals more independence?

What are your thoughts?

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EliteWriter

EliteWriter

I believe they asked for donations last year too. This is not the first time that I am seeing this message. I am not impressed by this request at all. I do not feel inclined to give a donation even if i used mozilla, which i do not as i do not like it that much. I really think that this is an awkward way for a business to move forward, let alone improve. It also shows lack of professionality and reliability in my opinion.

8 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

Yeah Mike just said that they have done it before! I am so with you on the way you feel about it.

8 years ago

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hitmeasap

hitmeasap

Wow, I wasn't aware of this and I've never seen it before actually. Sure, I don't use Mozilla and I've never really used it but $3 from each user.. Wouldn't that be some insane amounts? - If they actually got all the funds I mean..

I don't know how many users there is nowadays using Mozilla but I bet there's tons of people still using it. And well, I've seen so many different things lately so I'm not even surprised to see something like this. - What would come as a surprise is if Microsoft started to ask for donations. I guess there's just a matter of time..

I think donations started to be more "accepted" somehow, after all these crowd funding sites starting to pop up. - People from all over the world are asking for help and money for various projects and business ideas on a regular basis nowadays, and that wasn't something you could see just a few years back. - It was kind of rare "back then".

8 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

Yes I think you could be spot on here with the crowd funding idea. I am a member of Patreon for my addiction website, but I am not really very active there.

I am personally not really a fan of crowd funding myself, since I have seen some things that in my opinion just looked like people begging instead of working and that sort of thing irritates me lol.

8 years ago

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Everett

Everett

Mozilla, and other websites such as Wikipedia often ask it's users for donations to keep going. They basically have the same donation message, with the same monetary increments. It's quite annoying to keep seeing that message year after year. That message, as Mike has said, has been there for years.

I do not donate, and probably never will because of the annoying message. I do not like to be asked to donate, rather I like donating without asking to as it feels more real, and more sincere for me.

This puts me in the subject of donations at retail stores (let me get off topic for a bit):

Recently, a lot of stores are starting their donation season as it were. They are asking for donations to numerous charities. It is so annoying to go through check out and be asked "Would you like to donate for ____?" The answer always is: No. If I wanted to donate I would do it on my own without asked. Moral of the story: Don't annoy or pester your long time loyal customers or users.

8 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

I find that so annoying too Everett. I go and get myself some take aways and they ask if I want to donate some money to a charity to feed orphans. Now don't get me wrong I want to help the orphans sure, but if a company is donating to charity they should do just that. And if I want to donate to charity I will. However as I am collecting a meal for me and my family I really don't want to be reminded of starving children.

The problem also with companies doing this, is that if I donate $1 to that fast food outlet how much of that $1 actually reaches the starving child? After the company has to pay the staff members that manage the charity?

8 years ago

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Cristian

Cristian

I remember seeing the donation messages back when I used Mozilla and I quit it years ago, switched to Chrome and never looked back. A lot of people I know don't like Chrome very much because it consumes a lot of recourses, but Mozilla as far as I remember was a huge eater of RAM memory itself. Never the fewer people still use it and don't want to move to other browsers.
For example, my father uses Windows XP and IE6 (I think). He just doesn't want to adapt to anything newer.

8 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

Yes it is never easy moving from something you know to something new. I always struggle with that. The only reason that I moved from Mozilla to Chrome is because my laptop died a while back and I took it in for repairs and when it came back with a new hard drive it also came back with the latest Windows 10 and Chrome instead of Mozilla LOL.

Anyway I've never looked back!

8 years ago

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MasterA

MasterA

According to what you are saying, I think it is a poor move because donations are not steady income and considering, there are some large competitors out there, ie, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer it may be hard to reach their donation goal. They make it sound like it is very easy to meet their target as each person only needs to donate $3 but chances are, most people probably won't be donation.

People will probably donate to charities instead of a browser because they will think that the money will be better used. People who don't do their research will also be unsure if Mozilla has any other income so they may be vary about donating. Either way, I used to be a Mozilla Firefox fan but after trying Google Chrome, I just fell in love with it so I would rather go with a browser that is created by a large company.

8 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

Well I don't like it when a company asks for donations,I believe it is poor form! I read an article that said that Mozilla has over $230 million in cash and cash equivalents right now... but that there is a good chance they will go down.

I find it a bit strange that a company would decide to leave the big giant Google's money and decide to "support" the smaller search engines...but they aren't supporting anything are they? They are asking for support. It just sounds a little daft to me.

8 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

This is very sad because I had been using Firefox before and until now it is my backup browser with Chrome. What do you think happened along the way that Mozilla is having a down slide with its finances? It’s a pathetic sight to see that line as if they are really begging for mercy from the public. I cannot come to terms that a big company like Mozilla is bankrupt and will depend on donations and sponsorship to keep afloat. What a sad fate for the employees of that company.

7 years ago

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