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.

  • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
    191·
    1 year 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
      55·
      1 year 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·
        1 year 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·
        1 year 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·
        1 year 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·
          1 year 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·
    1 year 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”.

  • bob_wiley@lemmy.world
    102·
    1 year ago

    X is an even worse name, as it looks like a placeholder, not a brand. At least with Mastodon someone is going to know what you’re talking about (assuming they know it exists). Even though I know X exists and is named X, when I see it in articles it still throws me and I think it always will. They really need to write/say x.com for clarity. But there pretty silly now and feels very 90s. Which makes sense, since Elon bought it in the 90s.

    • Chozo@kbin.social
      101·
      1 year 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.

  • Zoldyck@discuss.online
    6·
    1 year ago

    Cutting it short to ‘Masto’ would be the best idea tbh. Nice and short without making a huge change.