Sometimes it’s better just to read the spec because there’s more background information.
I’m glad that MDN exists, but I also wish it explained topics as well as CSS: The Definitive Guide. I failed to learn CSS the MDN docs for years before reading CSS: The Definitive Guide. I was up to speed in about three months. Everything made perfect sense.
I’d love to get a wiki that has the explanations of CSS: The Definitive Guide, kept up to date with the reference material of MDN.
I’d pay for this.
on edit: the issue, 5 years ago https://github.com/mdn/sprints/issues/3723
You're absolutely right that the old `mdn/sprints` repo is no longer the active channel for suggesting or discussing content changes. These days, we encourage folks to file issues directly in the mdn/content¹ GitHub repository. That’s where all our documentation now lives, and it’s actively maintained by MDN staff and contributors.
If you spot inaccuracies, outdated examples, or unclear distinctions on any page, we now have a way to report straight from the page, you can find this at the bottom of every page → "Report a problem with this content." Please feel free to open an issue² or even suggest edits directly via pull request. We also try to prioritize fixes based on how widely used or confusing a topic might be, so calling attention to edge cases or under-documented differences is genuinely helpful.
Let me know if you’d like help filing an issue or want to connect with the folks maintaining a specific area of the docs. We’d love to have you involved again!
¹ https://github.com/mdn/content ² https://github.com/mdn/content/issues/new/choose
Re: “Who is this for?” Most of our reference pages are grounded in real-world browser implementations. Rather than documenting specs in isolation, we focus on features that have been implemented across browsers. We aim to present this information in a clear, neutral way, accessible to developers at any stage of their journey.
That said, we have expanded our efforts to create more learning-focused content, free resources designed to support new developers through a structured curriculum. Additionally, we’ve started publishing more in-depth guides on niche topics on our blog, which complements our core documentation but serves a slightly different purpose from what you mentioned.
Or did they re-hire?
But yeah, your reaction was also my first.
I really dislike how much I worry about Mozilla. I'm not an anxious person, but Mozilla is so important and so frequently seemingly unaware of the reasons.
https://github.com/mdn/content/pulse/monthly
tl;dr: a slight majority of the recent top contributors do not appear to be Mozilla employees: I'm seeing Yale, several freelancers (paid by Mozilla?), and a bunch of random companies.
If you'd like to take a look at our partners page → https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/about#our_partners
Today, MDN is supported by a thriving team of 15, comprising core staff, contractors, and a broad network of partners and contributors who generously share their expertise to keep MDN strong and up to date.
Our team → https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/about#our_team
Can you share how many people are actually full time employees vs freelancers?
For example when Tailwind came out, all my searches for Css stuff moved to tailwind related searches.
And of course the LLM hit.
I have 2 small complaints:
- I sometimes read some dubious content on MDN. For instance [JavaScript frameworks and libraries]^1. I don't think these tutorials for 5 frameworks provide any value over the respective official tutorials. Even more so with outdated tutorials: the Svelte one is 5 years old, and there have been major changes since then. ^1: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_developme...
- The quality of the webextension doc is low. A clear problem is that it's mostly for manifest v2, with a few incomplete pages mentioning a transition to v3 or the compatibility with Chrome. In practise, I started developing an webextension with this doc, then had to switch to Chrome's, though Firefox was my primary target.
I hear you on the complaints, I'll take this to the team. You might like this, in case you'd still like to learn building Firefox extensions → https://extensionworkshop.com/
I couldn't agree more. MDN should expect to outlive userland libraries and frameworks.
I'm curious if Vercel will find a way to funnel MDN users right into their frameworks.
But I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with Mozilla as an organization. They’ve been actively draining resources away from Firefox, and honestly, I have no interest in supporting them further until they get their priorities straight.
If Mozilla could trivially put AST-explorer-esque metadata and interactivity into every <code> block would they want to?
If anyone wants to reach out I can show you what I mean and how it's done
Here's a wikihistory for the lexical grammar page → https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...
As someone who only dabbles in the web platform I’ve always found the MDN pages to be very refreshing compared to a lot of documentation out there
The excellent documentation for the Canvas API [3] and OscillatorNode [4] on MDN made it quite easy to get started with developing the game.
[1] https://susam.net/invaders.html
[2] https://github.com/susam/invaders#why
[3] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Canvas_API
[4] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/OscillatorN...
For instance, the original didn't have health levels, whereas mine does. The invaders in the original were packed more densely across the screen, and the player had defensive bunkers that were gradually destroyed. My version doesn't include those. So while the two games are quite different, the original was definitely the inspiration that motivated me to create my own invaders-like game.
Though to be honest, if each answer was validated I have no issue with AI generated answers. When I ask ChatGPT or Gemini an API question, it often provides doc level details (it also often provides invalid and wrong info, hence my saying "if each answer was validated".
Thanks for keeping it relevant all this time.
Since the team is apparently reading this, I ran into SVG docs being less than great (to me). I was trying to use SVG and I think the way the docs are presented for SVG elements could maybe use some TLC. For example the 'g' element
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Reference/E...
What attributes can be used? All it says is "This element only includes global attributes.". Yea, ok, why isn't that a link to what are the global attributes are? There's nothing on the page that gets you to the attributes. Ideally they'd just be on this page so the user doesn't have to go digging.
Clicking "attributes" on the left brings up a list of attributes. Which ones are "global attributes". Why is it organized like this? If it was docs of structures for an API I would not expect each property to have its own page and not be described in that struct's page directly.
struct Person {
name: // links to /docs/name
age: // lines to /docs/age
}
struct Country {
name: // links to /docs/name
population: // links to /docs/population
}
struct Vehicle {
name: // links to docs/name
price: // links to docs/price
}
You'd expect (well, I'd expect), that docs for properties are include in the page.But that's how the SVG element docs are organized.
Compare to HTMLCanvasElement
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLCanvasE...
Which at least has that element's unique properties listed. Even their though I have to go digging through the hierarchy to find what other properties. It would be way more useful to, at a glance, at least list all the attributes and methods including inherited ones, even if they are just links.
Much of this seems semi automatable from IDL?
Long ago when I first started seeing MDN references, I had assumed the M = Microsoft. That meant I avoided it like the plague not wanting to see IE specific or .NET type cruft. Boy did I feel dumb when I finally learned that's not what the M stood for and realized I could have been using it even earlier. Yet another example proving you know what happens when you assume
dwoldrich•18h ago
snorlaxmorlax•15h ago