[Compcomm] Deciding a name

[Erkin Bahceci]

On 6/10/07, RYX <ryx at ryxperience.com> wrote:
> It is a good approach but it would likely result in having no name in
> the end - it is quite easy to find something to complain about each name
> that has been proposed so far (e.g. I never heard of "coco" the
> kidnapping-monster from Spain before and I surely would have proposed
> another name if I had known earlier :D).
>
> How about this: all name-suggestions should be posted to this list, who
> isn't willing to subscribe for that reason isn't willing to contribute -
> it's that easy. The people on this list decide about which proposals
> make it into the poll (as you say, based on complaints, but the
> complaints have to be somehow serious). To prove that also some users
> see it like that I'll quote hanzomon4's post from the name poll
> discussion (page 17): "I would also suggest that the more active
> users/testers get together with the dev team and do a private vote on
> the names to be used in the "open" vote. You get democracy with a little
> tinge of a dictatorship, a benevolent one.." ... (I couldn't say this in
> a better way and that's essentially what I am always talking about - a
> good management sometimes involves "helping" things onto the right way).
>
> Some thoughts concerning the name I'd like to add:
>
> Most important attributes for the name should be "unique" and
> "innovative" - just like compiz and the project itself. It is highly
> important to have a unique and innovative name - and with "unique" I
> mean something really _new_, not some cool word one picked up in his
> favorite cartoon-series or while playing Wolfenstein 3d. A combination
> of the words compiz and beryl also makes no sense: compiz still exists
> (as the core) and beryl is virtually gone.
>
> Another important point to take into account is a logo - the name has to
> be chosen in a way that we can create a very cool logo and project
> identity (that's what I liked about coco - even though the word itself
> isn't really cool or unique). What type of logo do you want to create
> for a project called "coral" (a coral? yes, very creative - and emerald
> gets named "anemona" ... please, no! :D )
>
> And, even more important, the poll should NOT be announced/linked on
> ubuntuforums and/or other distro-specific forums - if people are not
> involved in (at least one of) the communities they should not influence
> the communities' decision and I see no reason to invite them to vote for
> the new project's name. I absolutely not understand why certain people
> are so keen on letting any idiot vote for a name - those who care will
> vote, those who don't care shouldn't vote anyway. As far as I remember
> 95% of all people said they don't care about what a piece of software is
> named, so please let's not force them to. The name for this project
> should be chosen with the same care and "love" as you would name your
> own child. If someone doesn't see it like that he should definetly not
> take part in the name decision/poll (no, I am not too emotionally
> involved ;) ...).


That looks like a better plan than the currently ongoing poll (which
has a significant percentage of "none of these" votes anyway). While
having a name asap is tempting, I am against rushing the name
decision, and would prefer a poll with more wisely selected candidate
names (no obvious similarities with existing software products,
software companies, monsters :) , etc.). For similarities, non-[native
English speakers] (i.e. most of the world) would better be considered
too.

The current vote and the discussion in the forum provides important
feedback. Taking that feedback and the points raised here in the ML
into account and giving more thought to the name-selection would be
just more professional and would result in a better name and identity
for the project. Also there is no need to rush things, it's not like
there is a deadline coming in 2 days to finish and package version 1.0
of this project. And you can work on other things while waiting for
the naming process.

Besides, if this helps in getting more people to contribute (more)
(i.e. from the Compiz "side" (btw this is becoming like "the dark
side", just kidding :) )), that would be another win for this project.


However, it might be hard to come up with several really unique and
good candidate names. I should admit that Compiz was a nice one.


> But besides that I am fine with what you say :D ... though maybe we two
> should be in charge? That would be one from each "side" (yes, bad word -
> I mean one from compiz and one from beryl). We are sometimes (often :D)
> rude but, on the other hand, we always came to an agreement ... (I bet
> this surprises many people).

Yes it does :)