Mozilla’s community directory, mozillians.org, saw a lot of changes in 2013. Here are some of the highlights.

New features and code improvements

• Redesigned the site and homepage
• Switched from Bootstrap to custom, responsive CSS
• Refactored a lot of the original code
• Documentation update, information for contributors, and general project information
• Added dynamic announcements on the homepage
• Allowed for public profiles by using privacy controls
• Added several new profile fields
• Supported the creation of the Summit app
• Added new API endpoints
• Made groups better by offering curated groups (coming soon!)
• Implemented the new Translation Bar used on mozilla.org

Development work

• 42% more bugs closed in 2013 compared to 2012
• 21 contributors and 17 mentored bugs
• Closed 487 bugs
• 25 releases with new features, improvements and fixes

Quality Assurance growth

• During the course of the redesign, the community organized 3 large test initiatives to test new features and design concepts
• 40+ community contributors, 25 repeatedly were involved in multiple test days and acted as mentors and stewards to the project
• Mozillians was a nice gateway onto other Mozilla web projects. Often times this was the first project community members decided to get involved with before branching off onto other projects.

Some website metrics

• 4,809 vouched profiles
• 1,532 public profiles (32%)
• 7,369 unvouched profiles
• 443,052 pageviews
• 98,527 visits

Looking back

In 2013 mozillians.org evolved from being a useful directory tool to becoming an important platform for all Mozillians. The site underwent a big redesign with improved UX. Apps like Air Mozilla and the Summit app relied on the Mozillians API for people information. New profile fields and privacy controls led to 1,500 Mozillians sharing more information and making their profiles public.

As a team we focused on ways to make a large impact quickly and also set ourselves up for our ambitious community building plans to grow to 1 Million Mozillians. We invested in building new features, paying technical debt, shipping quality releases, mentoring new contributors and improving documentation. The redesign invigorated people to get involved, and over 60 people volunteered by making contributions during the year. That’s a huge change compared to a year ago when there was less momentum and just a few people involved with making mozillians.org better. Now the project and community surrounding it feel vibrant and alive.

What was your favorite change or contribution to mozillians.org in 2013?

Looking forward

mozillians.org has the potential to be an even more valuable tool for the Mozilla community. In 2014 we’ll be exploring ways to show contributions on profiles, display badges that demonstrate skills and achievements, provide better location information, make the API even more useful and improve authorization. How can mozillians.org be more useful for your needs?

Thanks to the splendid team, contributors and all Mozillians for an awesome 2013!

http://dailycavalier.com/2014/01/how-mozillians-org-evolved-in-2013/