I popped the idea a couple of weeks ago about moving Firefox Help to Mozilla.org. Since then, this has turned from just an idea to something that will actually happen very soon.
Steven Garrity helped me with the first step of converting the XHTML source code into HTML. Nothing I couldn't have done myself, since I converted it the other way around before, but definitely an effective way to get things rolling (really, Steven is just amazing -- he helps you without even being asked to!). :)
In a way, this move to Mozilla.org ends some of the spirit that made me love working on Firefox Help, which explains the irony of the title of this blog entry. After all, being able to create a web site from scratch (with help from lots of people) and to come up with a web design that I'm truly proud of was one of the most important reasons why I spent so much time on it in the first place. To some extent, that part of the fun -- the artistic freedom -- ends now.
On the other hand, this move is unquestionably the right thing to do. Mozilla.org needs to have online documentation that is their own, which means it's official. Moving my help site to Mozilla.org means web design consistency with the rest of the Mozilla content, which is good. But most important of all, other people than myself can help with updating and correcting the content. That alone is a strong reason for me to let go of the artistic freedom mentioned, especially since Real Life has taken more and more of my free time recently. (Yes Sofie, that includes you, and I love you for that!) Finally, the timing couldn't be better, considering the upcoming release of Firefox 1.0.
I'm looking forward to see what the future brings for both Firefox and my contributions to it. I'll certainly do my best in making it a bright future. :)
Posted by djst at September 15, 2004 11:40 PMAwesome! This is great new.
Your content is appreciated by the mozilla community. But I think many third parties don't realize (or trust) it's accuracy, since it's not housed under mozilla.org. I think this is a big advantage for mozilla.org to be hosting it.
I hope you'll continue to keep up the great work. It's by far the best support site to date. And I'm pretty sure it's only going to get better. Hopefully you can get a good sum of dedicated volunteers to help it grow even more.
Posted by: Robert Accettura at September 15, 2004 11:51 PMFirefox 1.0 exhibits virus-like behavior when I click on unstuffed archive, then the Firefox icon. A Firefox icon pops up in the dock, then alternately appears and disappears. All attempts to get something going lead no where. A dialog box did ask about getting preferences from a previous version of Firefox or Netscape. (I use crashes-now-and-then Netscape 7.2 and "can't find the site" Safari 1.x instead of the AOL browser.) This Firefox version 1.0 is stored in the Quarantine folder until further notice! (Are you sure this isn't a Microsoft application? It sure acts like one or a cracker-created virus.) PEA
Posted by: Patrick E. Abe at September 16, 2004 2:16 AMPatrick,
Don't run the application from the mounted drive. Copy the Firefox program to your home Applications folder or the system /Applications folder and run it from there.
I can't seem to get the themes to work. Anyone else had this problem?
Posted by: Tom Peranteau at September 16, 2004 3:15 AMTom most themes have not been updated yet to the 0.10 version - they are supposedly 'not compatible' with the latest release and thus FF won't let you install them.
Leave a few days to the themes developper to react (Qute author promised it will be ready by week end for example)
I would hope the transition would be from HTML to XHTML... not the other way around. damn.
Posted by: Patrick at September 16, 2004 5:43 AM> ... with the first step of converting the XHTML source code into HTML
What the... Why???
Instead of doing this, we should convert HTML pages in mozilla.org to XHTML...
Hey! That's great that you've moved your help over. That being said, thanks a ton for all the help that I've found on your site over the years. When I first started in .6 I wouldn't have gotten very far if it hadn't been for your site.
Thanks a ton! Your site really made a difference.
Posted by: shodekiagari at September 16, 2004 8:28 AMminghong - "What the... Why???
Instead of doing this, we should convert HTML pages in mozilla.org to XHTML..."
And why would they do that? XHTML has no advantages in this case and full compatibility with IE is required for mozilla.org.
Posted by: Luke Shingles at September 16, 2004 10:50 AMI hope your extensions & Theme pages are moved over too, update.moz.org is a poor replacement...
Posted by: gman at September 18, 2004 10:21 PM