So, about this Mozilla CEO controversy...
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Less than two weeks after he was appointed Mozilla CEO, Brendan Eich resigned today amid a controversy stemming from his $1,000 donation to an anti-gay marriage ballot proposition in California. "Mozilla prides itself on being held to a different standard and, this past week, we didn't live up to it. We know why people are hurt and angry, and they are right: it's because we haven't stayed true to ourselves," the company said in a blog post. "We didn't act like you'd expect Mozilla to act. We didn't move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We're sorry. We must do better."http://mobile.theverge.com/2014/4/3/5578984/mozilla-ceo-resigns-amid-controversy-over-donation-to-anti-gay
Eich, who co-founded Mozilla and previously invented the JavaScript programming language, has also stepped down from the Mozilla Foundation's board, according to Recode.
Look, I am pro-gay rights and think that his opinion is on the wrong side of history, for many reasons.
With that being said, there's something ultimately hypocritical for a CEO to step down for his personal beliefs. He should not have stepped down and kept his job. Imagine if a CEO was ousted for his pro-gay right beliefs from another Silicon Valley company?
My two cents.
The other thing that bugs me...
All of the developers and web people that were so besides themselves when he was announced as CEO and asked for his resignation will continue to use Javascript at the end of the day.
I'm looking at sites like OKCupid that boycotted Firefox yet their site still fucking uses Javascript!! How fucking blinded can you be? If they really felt that strongly, they'd stop using all of his contributions to the web. And to that I say: GOOD FUCKING LUCK.
All of the developers and web people that were so besides themselves when he was announced as CEO and asked for his resignation will continue to use Javascript at the end of the day.
I'm looking at sites like OKCupid that boycotted Firefox yet their site still fucking uses Javascript!! How fucking blinded can you be? If they really felt that strongly, they'd stop using all of his contributions to the web. And to that I say: GOOD FUCKING LUCK.
as far as I've been reading, various insiders are kind of hinting that they kind of didn't really give a shit about his stance on gay rights (although obv. the publicity is terrible). the underlying reason seems to be his complete lack of familiarity or knowledge of mobile web browsing, which is where mozilla needs to grow and is currently getting absolutely slaughtered. a bunch of the board already didn't want him; this donation thing is a pretty convenient dam breaker. so out he goes.
Is this really different than other movements in history? A CEO that funds groups against interracial marriage or funds Anti-Semitic organizations is probably going to be reacted against far more negatively than those who donate to help African American or Jewish groups.
It's just dollars and cents, if a guy's political activities are costing a company money he gets the boot. That's all.
The other thing that bugs me…
All of the developers and web people that were so besides themselves when he was announced as CEO and asked for his resignation will continue to use Javascript at the end of the day.
I'm looking at sites like OKCupid that boycotted Firefox yet their site still fucking uses Javascript!! How fucking blinded can you be? If they really felt that strongly, they'd stop using all of his contributions to the web. And to that I say: GOOD FUCKING LUCK.
Isn't OKC mostly written in C++?
Also its kind of hard to just dump a code base! Maybe they're slowly migrating away from JS!
The whole thing is weird to me for a lot of reasons but I think I kind of agree with Forever. At the end of the day the company has to protect its bottom line, and if they felt having him and his beliefs at the forefront than they had to part ways with him, even if everyone else is still a hypocrite. This whole thing is just a bunch of shades of gray.
