4 ms·

I feel bad that I can't get over the fact that a Mastodon message is called a "toot". It just keeps reminding me of the old rhyme about beans, beans, the magic

I feel bad that I can't get over the fact that a Mastodon message is called a "toot". It just keeps reminding me of the old rhyme about beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot. (Although in the English of most former colonies that didn't violently rebel, it's pronounced "fart"). I suppose that's the point, it's a nice meta joke punning on tweet, but implying it's all just farting in the wind.

laumars 4y ago
Where I live we also call it “trump”. Which is why many of us never understood why people would claim that Donald Trump has a “powerful name”. However it did amuse use that a man full of hot air would be named after the expelling of warm but noxious air.
- EdwardDiego 4y ago
  Okay, can you please give me a hint as to where that is? As googling "trump fart" just leads to a lot of terrible Youtube videos.
  - reom_tobit 4y ago
    I’m not the GP but in the UK “trumping” is what we call it (amongst other things, lots of fun words for body sounds).
- rob74 4y ago
  I think the (originally German) name is derived from trump cards - which are also powerful, but in a somewhat different way...
  - laumars 4y ago
    That’s only a modern day theory and feels somewhat retrofitted interpretation of the facts (from what I’ve seen when researching this myself). There are various spellings of the surname, since names often didn’t have a formal spelling in the early days of book keeping. And some of the spellings begun with a ‘T’. So the more likely scenario is the name was only picked because it sounded similar to their original German family name while being an English-styled spelling. Given we are taking 30+ years ago though, the best we can do at this stage is speculate. However even if the card game theory were true, it still doesn’t make Trump a powerful name in the U.K. because the fart connotation is still more prevalent.
joe-collins 4y ago
They've changed it recently, to "reduce friction". https://gizmodo.com/mastodon-toot-retired-twitter-tweet-equivalent-1849786221 https://gizmodo.com/mastodon-toot-retired-twitter-tweet-equi...
- EdwardDiego 4y ago
  Huh, well that explains it! Thank you for the context :) God I love the Internet.
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  As sad as Slack changing it’s iconic first logo
seren 4y ago
It has been replaced by a Publish button in the latest release
- rob74 4y ago
  That's all nice and well, but while "toot" can be both a verb and a noun describing the message that is published, similar to "tweet", "publish" is just a verb - so how do you call a Mastodon message now?
  - nells 4y ago
    Do you think the same people who call a question an “ask” have any problems calling a published thing a “publish”?
    - thaumasiotes 4y ago
      Are there people who call a question an "ask"? There is a common nounal use of "ask", but that refers to a request or demand, not a question.
      - morelisp 4y ago
        Yes, in international English it's already started to drift towards this use.
        ilyt 4y ago
        This is first time I hear about it. Where did you saw it ?
    - JW_00000 4y ago
      I guess those people will call it "content".
  - kibwen 4y ago
    > so how do you call a Mastodon message now? As you've already done, you can call it a "message", I call it a "post". We don't need every social media site to strictly require their own bespoke terminology merely for the sake of branding.
thaumasiotes 4y ago
> (Although in the English of most former colonies that didn't violently rebel, it's pronounced "fart") Also true in American English. You have two things wrong: 1. The rhyme calls beans "the musical fruit". 2. "Toot" is relevant in that context, being a way you can describe blowing a horn.[1] But obviously, the primary reason for using the word "toot" there is that it rhymes with fruit, not that it's the normal word for farting. [1] Or sometimes another instrument; there's a tongue twister that starts "A tutor who tooted the flute tried to tutor two tooters to toot."

laumars 4y ago

Where I live we also call it “trump”. Which is why many of us never understood why people would claim that Donald Trump has a “powerful name”. However it did amuse use that a man full of hot air would be named after the expelling of warm but noxious air.

EdwardDiego 4y ago
Okay, can you please give me a hint as to where that is? As googling "trump fart" just leads to a lot of terrible Youtube videos.
- reom_tobit 4y ago
  I’m not the GP but in the UK “trumping” is what we call it (amongst other things, lots of fun words for body sounds).
rob74 4y ago
I think the (originally German) name is derived from trump cards - which are also powerful, but in a somewhat different way...
- laumars 4y ago
  That’s only a modern day theory and feels somewhat retrofitted interpretation of the facts (from what I’ve seen when researching this myself). There are various spellings of the surname, since names often didn’t have a formal spelling in the early days of book keeping. And some of the spellings begun with a ‘T’. So the more likely scenario is the name was only picked because it sounded similar to their original German family name while being an English-styled spelling. Given we are taking 30+ years ago though, the best we can do at this stage is speculate. However even if the card game theory were true, it still doesn’t make Trump a powerful name in the U.K. because the fart connotation is still more prevalent.

joe-collins 4y ago

They've changed it recently, to "reduce friction". https://gizmodo.com/mastodon-toot-retired-twitter-tweet-equivalent-1849786221 https://gizmodo.com/mastodon-toot-retired-twitter-tweet-equi...

EdwardDiego 4y ago
Huh, well that explains it! Thank you for the context :) God I love the Internet.
quickthrower2 4y ago
As sad as Slack changing it’s iconic first logo

seren 4y ago

It has been replaced by a Publish button in the latest release

rob74 4y ago
That's all nice and well, but while "toot" can be both a verb and a noun describing the message that is published, similar to "tweet", "publish" is just a verb - so how do you call a Mastodon message now?
- nells 4y ago
  Do you think the same people who call a question an “ask” have any problems calling a published thing a “publish”?
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    Are there people who call a question an "ask"? There is a common nounal use of "ask", but that refers to a request or demand, not a question.
    - morelisp 4y ago
      Yes, in international English it's already started to drift towards this use.
      - ilyt 4y ago
        This is first time I hear about it. Where did you saw it ?
  - JW_00000 4y ago
    I guess those people will call it "content".
- kibwen 4y ago
  > so how do you call a Mastodon message now? As you've already done, you can call it a "message", I call it a "post". We don't need every social media site to strictly require their own bespoke terminology merely for the sake of branding.

thaumasiotes 4y ago

> (Although in the English of most former colonies that didn't violently rebel, it's pronounced "fart") Also true in American English. You have two things wrong: 1. The rhyme calls beans "the musical fruit". 2. "Toot" is relevant in that context, being a way you can describe blowing a horn.[1] But obviously, the primary reason for using the word "toot" there is that it rhymes with fruit, not that it's the normal word for farting. [1] Or sometimes another instrument; there's a tongue twister that starts "A tutor who tooted the flute tried to tutor two tooters to toot."