Hello all,
Thank you all who have provided feedback. As I am part of the group organizing the meetup, my comments here may be a bit distorted, but I’ve kept it as neutral as I could.
There are absolutely no companies out there that have a 100% retention rate, a flawless support system, or a 100% customer service satisfaction rate. This includes big players such as Amazon and Google. We will never be able to please every single customer or user, no company will, and we need to realize this. That being said, there is always room for improvement. I am not here to point fingers, say who’s right and who’s wrong, but to provide how I see things sometimes in a different way.
One of the main goals for the meetup is to rebuild the community and to reinforce the commitment the SUMO team has for contributors. We all have our complaints, we also have our doubts at times, but, we also are applauding when the staff does us good. This is normal and expected as receive satisfaction rather than being met with frustration and anger.
Keeping in mind the 3 goals of the proposal:
- Community love and strengthening
- Strategy and preparation for Firefox 57
- Explore and future-proof SUMO/ Kitsune
There has been a lot of negativity due what occurred with Lithium, and this can be seen from contributors expressing their concerns and from certain posts in the Contributor Forums. At the same time, that needs to be addressed, and from my point of view, part of it could be resolved through this meetup. Now you may ask why can’t it be completely resolved from this meetup? Due to restrictions, individuals not able to able attend, visa complications, we should engage in a different method to reach out to these folks.
I know that there are contributors that dedicated and really into keeping SUMO and Kitsune alive and to ensure all contributors are having a good time contributing. Everybody has ideas - some just might not feel comfortable starting a thread about it, and that’s totally okay. Mozilla encourages participation with diversity and inclusiveness, everybody is human and we should respect certain decisions.
I agree that timing this in preparation for Firefox 57 which is slated to release in November, and in Beta late September, there is a ton of work to get SUMO ready. This BIG release is unlike other “big” releases in the past as 57 will release e10s to all users, only extensions built using WebExtensions APIs will run, and along with other amazing features landing, this release is where Mozilla is making a massive push for users to switch back to Firefox and current users to spread the awesomeness of Firefox. These changes may seem normal to us, but for users, it a big deal.
We’re not asking Mozilla to open their pockets for us to leech off of them, this is not my intention and I don’t think it’s anybody’s intention to do so. There are great concerns of contributors being able to attend and I believe, by sending an invite - it is a step in the right direction and keeping them updated throughout the meetup is a greater step to help rebuild the community. I get that some see community building as a simple thing, while others see it as retention. Perhaps there should be a definition of community building, but Mozilla has a ton of communities, and each community is different in the sense of interaction, communication, and project. One of the main outcomes that I would like to see is less hate, distraught, and a decline in fault-finding. Realistically, this can’t be achieved in a week’s time, but it paves the route and opens the discussion.
I absolutely agree with how precious SUMO time and that is why this isn’t being rushed, but a huge amount of emphasis is being put on it so that it occurs. This will be different than all hands, it’s not a place to socialize and have drinks. It’s going to be serious preparation and work. Every person’s time is precious, and I understand that there is ongoing work for the SUMO team. However, that is why this is being carefully coordinated and planned. We absolutely don’t want the team to be extremely off track with their work just so that this event happens.