Edit: Want to make this a sugestion thread, so please let us know your ideas on themes or names below.
Howdy all!
We have been internally discussing a rebranding of Memmy to another name. This has been a discussion for some time, and although we have certainly tried to see the upsides of not rebranding, we don’t think this is a viable long-term option, for - among others - the following reasons:
- Eventual support for non-Lemmy services such as Kbin or Mastodon
- User awareness of Lemmy. Right now, the vast majority of people who are finding the app most likely are specifically searching for “Lemmy”. While that’s great and (based on trends on downloads/day) shows that there’s obviously a big demand for Lemmy, we think this might not be the best way to grow - not just for ourselves but for Lemmy as a whole. We want the fediverse to grow and the best way to do that is to make it acceptable and easy to access without specifically targeting people who already know about Lemmy
- Community feedback in general about the name. None of this is taken personal or anything, but there’s definitely negative feedback for multiple reasons about it, and honestly I think we agree with most - if not all - of that feedback.
Like I said, this is not something that we are doing lightly and we want to make sure we make the right choice before moving forward.
Mind you, we are not talking about a short-term goal here of supporting multiple Fediverse platforms. That probably isn’t even in the one-year plan if I’m being honest. But I personally believe the way that we make the Fediverse work is by making the whole experience awesome, and that means offering users with options and ease-of-use.
So, with that said, we want to see what you guys think. We have had internal discussion about the possibility of using the name Badger, and while we all think that’s a pretty good option, we are not 100% sold and want to gauge feedback before we do anything. Edit: It seems like that might not be something the community is interested in, so we likely won’t be going that route.
Please drop your suggestions for themes or names below! We will go through them all sometime later in the day.
Let us know your thoughts!
I think a name change is a good idea. Not nuts on badger as a name, but don’t have a better suggestion on hand. As some thoughts though:
I wouldn’t use the word “fedi” in the name as has been floated in places, as I think Fediverse itselfs a pretty bad name, and ideally a term users won’t have to think about when using the services.
Make sure whatever you pick works well for any global markets you want to go into. Some projects pick something that sounds cool locally but has some negative meaning somewhere else
I’m not against the space (or gods) theme, but I do think it’s being played out a bit heavily right now across many apps and maybe there’s another route to go. Voyager and “Lift Off” spring to mind as good apps playing with the space theme. Apollo as an app is front and centre in everyone’s mind right now, especially iOS users, and apps are drawing inspiration from it for their Lemmy apps. That’s a good thing, but I do think that branding is one area where perhaps apps have an opportunity to carve out their own identity and I’d think long and hard about naming an app as a distant tribute to Apollo, given that’ll probably tie the apps legacy to that and Reddit in general for some time. Again, I don’t hate space (or god) names, but I think there’s tremendous benefits in looking more broadly.
And hey, while he’s seemingly not sold on the idea currently, Christian could very well release “Apollo for Lemmy” one day when he’s ready and he’s had time to distance himself from the events, so Memmy having rebranded to something that draws too much inspiration could taint the impressions of some users.
Just my thoughts anyway.
People who don’t know what the “fediverse” is react VERY negatively to that word.
I love that we have it but it needs a better description than a meme that was obviously made up to be tongue-in-cheek cutesy-cringe and stuck. It may be this place’s most Reddit-brained pre-migration aspect lol
Serious question: what’s wrong with fediverse? What could be a negative aspect of that?
Yeah I don’t like the fediverse name either. Say first I was confused, kept thinking they meant frederator or something.