Remember [email protected]? The service was launched by Mozilla in mid-2021 to improve communication between the organization and the Firefox community. Firefox users could post ideas on how to improve the Firefox web browser on the platform and anyone who uses the platform can comment on those ideas and vote.

Ideas used the Crowdity platform and users had to create an account on the platform for interaction.

Mozilla currently sends emails to users of its platform in which it informs them that it is shutting down Ideas; this is not the end of everything, as Mozilla is working on creating Mozilla Connect, which will serve similar purposes. Mozilla Connect will be a community site that will allow Mozilla users and employees to share ideas, provide feedback, and interact with each other.

The email highlights several of the advantages of Mozilla Connect over Ideas:

• Firefox Account is supported.
• Improved tagging system that helps everyone find posts quickly.
• “Clearly defined areas” for ideas, comments and discussions.
• More participation from Mozilla employees.

Idea content will be reviewed by Mozilla before the content is archived and personal data is deleted. It’s not clear from the email if Ideas content is being migrated to the new platform or if Mozilla Connect is being started from scratch. Mozilla didn’t include a date for the shutdown or launch of Mozilla Connect in the email, but it did promise that existing users would be notified of the launch first.

Closing words

Ideas seemed like a great idea when it was launched. Firefox users finally had the ability to suggest new features or changes to Mozilla, and the organization would get feedback directly from the pulse of its user base. Unfortunately, Ideas suffered from a lack of participation from Mozilla employees and also users. In July 2021, I wrote about it here on the site mentioning that no new ideas were posted for a period of three weeks as they were all held in moderation.

Starting from scratch with Mozilla Connect may improve the interaction and the platform as a whole, but it seems that no user data migration is happening. Any existing ideas will be lost in this case, and although Mozilla has mentioned that it will look at all of them, it will take a lot of persuasion to get users to start from scratch on the new platform. The promise that Mozilla employees will interact on the platform is the same one made by Mozilla when it launched the Ideas platform. Only time will tell if the interaction will improve on the new platform.

Now you: have you used Ideas?

Summary

Article name

Mozilla closes its Ideas platform and creates Mozilla Connect instead

The description

Mozilla will shut down its Ideas user community, a place to post new ideas for Mozilla products such as Firefox, in favor of a new platform, called Mozilla Connect.

Author

Martin Brinkman

Editor

Ghacks Technology News

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