I know mastodon joked about not changing their name in their recent changelog but I wish they really did change it. It’s long, doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue and it’s difficult to pronounce in most languages.

End of rant.

Edit: above all I don’t think it’s a cool name. Can’t imagine asking my friends to follow me on Mastodon. They’re just gonna think it’s something dumb or weird. At least if it had a cool name they would be curious and ask what it’s about.

  • Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world
    643·
    10 months ago

    Yeah I thoroughly disagree with this one. They are an amazing band, and the name really evokes a sense of what they are - massively loud beasts of heavy metal. Fuckin rock on

  • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
    332·
    10 months ago

    It’s long

    Eight letters, and 7~9 segments depending on the language. Compare it with other common brands like Facebook, Coca-Cola and Volkswagen.

    it’s difficult to pronounce in most languages.

    I’m casting doubt on this claim, based on the following:

    • the vowels can be approximated fine in a 5-vowels system, i.e. the most common vowel system out there.
    • it doesn’t use any sort of complex onset or coda.
    • even the coda consonants are non-occlusives.

    doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue

    This is subjective. Personally I think that plenty brands there are considerably worse in this aspect. With a notable mention: that phonotactic trainwreck called Threads. (Four consonants in a syllable, two of them exotic [for most languages at least]? No. Just no.)

    • tomatol@lemmy.worldOP
      57·
      10 months ago

      Fair enough. Too many syllables though! And no cool factor. I could do with Masto.

      I agree that Threads is even worse.

      • MudMan@kbin.social
        8·
        10 months ago

        Yeah you could, and that’s why it’s pretty solid branding. Just like “Instagram”, it can be said pretty easily in most languages and it abbreviates nicely (Insta/Masto), so you can make it short.

        It’s arguably better to have a shorter one or two sillable word as a name, but that is a close second choice.

        Now, the toot thing is dumb, and since it’s only vaugely official I insist on calling them “posts” on all apps.

        You want to talk about a dumb name, let’s talk “Fediverse”, which may be the stupidest word conceived by any human since “blogosphere”, sounds extremely goofy and is just inaccurate and redundant. I mean, “The Federation” was right there, sounds badass and it actually already means “a collection of federated things”. A “fediverse” means nothing, but if it id, it’d be “a collection of federations”, not “a collection of federated things”.

      • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
        3·
        10 months ago

        The number of syllables does play a role on word length, but keep in mind that most languages have faster syllables than English, due to lighter phonotactics and lower tendency towards monosyllables. (It’s like English tries to cram too much info per syllable, and as a consequence each syllable gets a bit loooonger.) As such something like “Mastodon” might sound verbose in English, but in [for example] Spanish or Japanese it’s relatively short.

        I also like the reference. It’s a critter, big, and generally associated with elephants, that are seen as sociable and smart.

        (Since people are talking about your username: it reminds me some alcohol extracted from tomatoes. Ethanol, propanol → tomatol. I do agree with you that usernames aren’t good names for social networks, mine for example wouldn’t roll at all.)

      • ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works
        41·
        10 months ago

        Three syllables is too many? Your username has the same number of syllables. Many actual personal names have the same number of syllables. Three is the magic number.

        Mastodon is WAY cooler than your username, which looks like a misspelling of “tomato tool”.

        Masto sounds like slang for breast removal surgery.

        • tomatol@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          10 months ago

          Well my username is just a username :) I wouldn’t name a microblogging social network like that.

          Have to agree with the breast surgery thing

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
    11·
    10 months ago

    Tech nerds kinda like to name things stupidly. I find myself doing that too. Because overall, I’m not looking to market/brand it and make millions. Many of my projects were proof of concepts or passion ideas that if the open-source world thinks there’s value, other nerds will let it grow.

    I came to this conclusion as I thought about WINE for Linux. It’s a silly name.

    But when Valve built Proton, they were intentional in the name sounding “marketable”.

    • Chozo@kbin.social
      101·
      10 months ago

      X pisses me off because every time I see an embedded tweet on a news article, I instinctively click the X in the top right corner to try to close it, and instead it opens up some shithole website instead.

    • wrath-sedan@kbin.social
      72·
      10 months ago

      I think they officially changed the name to posts, rather than toots. But I always did feel like that held back the platform from being taken seriously. Like, can you imagine a news reporter saying, “Responding to the rise in reported domestic terrorism, President Biden tooted to the nation…”

        • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
          41·
          10 months ago

          Tweet at least had a clever background. Along with the bird mascot.

          The whole thing was based on people just chirping about like birds, but it also played into the common saying of “a little birdie told me” when you want to tell someone something you know from someone else you know without telling them how you know it. Like when your gossiping with a neighbor about something another neighbor told you about them, you’d say “a little birdie told me that they saw you at the sex shop down town, you and Bob doing alright?”

          Every kid in the English language also learns that birds say tweet tweet, and “the bird tweeted”. So it made sense that when you’re the little birdie, the things you say are tweets.

          Slap the bird on it and it’s intuitive without explaining anything because pretty much everyone who learned English as a child has it deep in their brain already. And birds are cute. Everyone loves birds.

          In contrast, a toot is a less crass thing you say when someone farts.

          Also not using a relatively unknown extinct animal as your mascot for a platform you’re trying to bring to life is probably a good idea. Everyone knows what a wooly mammoth was, but not as many know what a mastodon was.

          • monotremata@kbin.social
            1·
            10 months ago

            I don’t know. I think “toot” also plays on the English expression “toot your own horn.” I think it’s more playful and self-effacing, and that its violation of what would be considered acceptable in corporate branding terms is part of its appeal as a rejection of those aspects which came to control and ultimately corrupt its predecessor.