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I really like the idea of Mastodon, but i can't shake this feeling that their name is kind of awful. I get that they're not trying to be exactly like twitter bu
by WilliamEdward 7y ago
I really like the idea of Mastodon, but i can't shake this feeling that their name is kind of awful. I get that they're not trying to be exactly like twitter but by comparison, twitter is a much bubblier and friendlier word.
- olah_1 7y agoAnd the language of "toot" is extremely hokey and will never be taken seriously. It implies farting for most Americans. "Tweet" reminds people of birds. As in "a little bird told me". Which is appropriate for a gossip style network.
- jonnycomputer 7y agomastodon's tooting...
- echelon 7y agoExactly, it's really gross. This isn't going to catch on in the mainstream. Mastodon seriously needs a rebrand.
- gsich 7y agoIt works in german. "tröten", also the original developer is from germany.
- jamesrcole 7y agoSocial communications software is all about the number of users. It needs to able to catch on everywhere. A term that sounds embarassing to many of its potential users is a real problem.
- iamnothere 7y agoAs a modestly funded project, Mastodon is never going to achieve "hockey stick" growth, and it would probably be overwhelmed if this happened. It's better for them to pursue a strategy of gradual, steady growth. Mastodon is continuing to grow steadily, and it does so in the face of established players who can outspend and outrun them. 2 million users is pretty damn good for an open source project that doesn't have a marketing budget to speak of. In addition, it's time to drop the notion that every platform has to serve every type of user. As demonstrated by the problems facing Twitter, it is probably better to have many different platforms serving different audiences. Mass media inevitably reaches for the lowest common denominator.
- jamesrcole 7y agoThe terminology is still going to seriously hinder uptake. All of what you said can be true and better terminology would still be better for them.
- iamnothere 7y agoI guess I'm a cynic, but: > Breaking news. In a series of explosive toots... > The foreign minister was forced to resign after a number of offensive toots... > Everyone's talking about what J K Rowling tooted today... If the age of tweet-reporting ends because of "toots" then I am all for it. As for your other examples, you have a decent point. > OMG, your toots are so funny!... > I can't believe you tooted that!... I can see how this might feel weird for some people, at least in the English-speaking world. But people thought "tweeting" was ridiculous, and they made fun of it relentlessly. In the end it doesn't matter all that much.
- jamesrcole 7y ago> But people thought "tweeting" was ridiculous, and they made fun of it relentlessly. I don't think the terms "tweeting" and "tooting" are in the same ballpark in terms of how ridiculous they sound to people. > In the end it doesn't matter all that much. But naming does matter, which is why companies spend huge sums on it each year. (Btw I removed those examples from my earlier comment as I felt they weren't relevant to the topic we were originally discussing, which was the name Madstodon)
- mikekchar 7y agoInterestingly it is relatively popular in Japan (to the point where someone non-technical asked me if I used it the other day!) It's really only an issue for English speakers (though in the context of HN that seems like the whole world ;-) ). I think it would be pretty darn easy to maintain a rebranded fork, though.
- WAHa_06x36 7y agoIt is also not an issue for "English speakers", just a subset of them.
- kermitismyhero 7y agoMastodon and similar projects like Pleroma are old school wild-west open source distributed endeavours, not "notice me, Facebook-senpai!" SV startups. Anyone who thinks that the developers and users involved in those projects give a damn about branding is deeply out of touch with that culture.
- jonnycomputer 7y agoto be fair, tooting also means to blow one's horn. Which come to think of it, also sounds pretty funny. More seriously, the American Heritage Dictionary gives the following definition: v. To sound a horn or whistle in short blasts. v. To make the sound of a horn or whistle blown in short blasts or a sound resembling it. v. Slang To snort cocaine. None of which is to fart. I do wonder if that meaning is a regionalism?
- WAHa_06x36 7y agoIt very much is, and those who live in those regions have no idea that it is.
- jonnycomputer 7y agobut which regions. i'm from california.
- sadris 7y agoPeople called the past tense of tweet a "twat" many years ago.
- orblivion 7y agoInterestingly "Mastodon" seems catchy because it feels inherently subversive. Maybe because I subconsciously think of the metal band. But then with Toot, obviously that wasn't what they were going for. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- d76d6776yudsy 7y agosubversive metal ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- drusepth 7y agoThis always felt super awkward, personally, when I (briefly) used Mastodon. I thought "tooting" was a joke but couldn't see any setting to change it.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- jamesrcole 7y ago[Edit: people downvoting this, care to explain what you disagree with in it?] Breaking news. In a series of explosive toots... The foreign minister was forced to resign after a number of offensive toots... OMG, your toots are so funny!... Everyone's talking about what J K Rowling tooted today... I can't believe you tooted that!... ...and so on If you think I'm joking then that shows how bad a name "toot" is. Because these are all phrases that people would say about tweets, and which need to sound non-ridiculous for any such system.
- jclulow 7y agoThat honestly all sounded ridiculous a decade ago with "tweet", too. The success of the platform has normalised the nomenclature.
- jamesrcole 7y agoI don't agree with that at all. It's difficult to show evidence for the absence of something, though. It'd be possible to show evidence of it, like that every time the word "tweet" was brought up the were people saying it sounded ridiculous and embarrassing.
- harpiaharpyja 7y agoI dunno, it's not any more funny than if you substituted tweet in each of those.
- all2 7y agoI hear mastadon and I immediately think of that metal band, Mastadon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6WGNd8QR-U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6WGNd8QR-U
- gopher2 7y agoHaha, it is pretty awful, but they seem like they're getting a little traction at least. So, hopefully serves to make it catchy and memorable. It can happen. I remember plenty of people thought "Twitter" and "tweets" were dumb names too.
- krupan 7y agoMastodon is fine, I always get the song by Cake playing in my head, but "toots," that's tough. I can think of tooting a horn, but it's hard not to also think of passing gas.
- iamnothere 7y agoA few people show up to say this every time Mastodon is mentioned. I disagree, it's memorable and I like it. Obviously the users don't mind either. Twitter sounded like a dumb name too, but they kept it and now nobody thinks twice about it. (Can you imagine: "Twit means idiot, nobody will use this service because of that!") Most creative names sound dumb until they stick around long enough.
- CamperBob2 7y agoTwitter = cute birds chirping at each other to communicate Mastodon = extinct elephant-like mammal This is why successful companies hire marketers.
- daveid 7y agoWhat's not cute about elephants? Especially fluffy ones?
- notatoad 7y ago"Extinct" is not really a good idea to associate your brand with.
- codetrotter 7y agoIn the world of outdoor equipment alone, two of the brands I like the most were named after extinct animals; Arc’teryx (referring to the Archaeopteryx) and Mammut (mammoth). Both of whom you will find a lot of products from in any decent sports store. And it’s not just the names — look at their logos. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ARC%27TERYX_logo.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ARC%27TERYX_logo.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mammut_logo.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mammut_logo.jpg The first one is straight up the fossil skeleton of the animal they based their name on! If that doesn’t spell extinction I don’t know what does. These two companies make jackets, climbing harnesses, trekking shoes, backpacks and more. I doubt that either of these two that I mentioned have been negatively impacted by the fact the animals they have based their names and logos on are extinct. (My personal opinion is that it makes them cooler even — the prehistoric times and the animals that used to roam the earth are very fascinating to me. And I think a lot of people agree. Look for example at how popular the Jurrasic Park movies were. People love this stuff, don’t they?)
- booleandilemma 7y agoNot as bad as cockroachDB at least.
- tknkx 7y agoWorst part about that name is that most Americans seem to be hell-bent on spelling it as "Mastadon".
- cameronbrown 7y agoExactly why it's probably a good idea making your app's name sound as it's spelled. Most people are too lazy to remember the difference.
- r00fus 7y agoBetter than cockroachdb but not exactly a noteworthy brand name.
- ravenstine 7y agoIt depends on who's being marketed to. If CockroachDB was being sold to the average person, it'd be an awful name from a branding perspective. In reality, it's being sold to nerds who probably aren't as off-put by the name and are more interested in what it does as a database. To hit the point home, the database is designed with resilience in mind, just like actual cockroaches! For something being marketed to the masses, Mastodon isn't great branding. Nobody thinks of Mastodons when thinking of any form of communication, but we all hear birds tweeting every day and have been used in real life to send messages. When asking people to think of something "cute", nobody is going to say "a mastodon". The term "tweet" is considered cute and inoffensive. But "toot"? Most people I know associate that word with flatulence. Maybe the use of the word "toot" is an subtle admission that most of what people will say on social media is basically shit? I'm sorry, but nerdy programmers who work on open source are terrible at marketing and have been so since time immemorial. If they could have simply named their software better, they might have had a shot at a "Year of the Linux Desktop". It's like they forget that most people aren't geeks, and then they wonder why the general public doesn't [knowingly] use any of their stuff.
- daveid 7y ago> Nobody thinks of Mastodons when thinking of any form of communication, but we all hear birds tweeting every day and have been used in real life to send messages This seems like backwards reasoning. If you named a new platform after pigeons, which were actually used for transmitting information, you'd get critics saying "It's so archaic, nobody has used pigeons for 80 years!" Birds carrying messages is just as "extinct" of a metaphor as Mastodons are as an animal.
- olah_1 7y ago"Pidgin" or some variation is actually a great name for a communication tool. You're better at naming things than you realize.