PR / naming
Copy-paste & summary train
Naming
A couple of folks did a lot of musing about redistribute.to, which was then (rightfully so) brought into question by:
meltheadorable:
I'm not really crazy about the name.
I feel like "redistribute.to" kind of implies that we actually can "redistribute the wealth" when really this is mostly marginalized people looking out for marginalized people. We aren't in any position to "redistribute" wealth, at least not in the way that it's usually meant (neither pejoratively to refer to social welfare programs, no matter how ineffectual, nor substantively by activists who think redistribution of economic power is an important political goal).
I liked "we.support/" but it appears to be a reserved name. Maybe we could find a good variant on that? I think it's the best action to describe what we're actually doing, we're supporting each other.
A series of nods and agreements later:
duckinator:
Here's all of the ones on that list, excluding ones that we can't register (e.g., we.support because two-letter domains are reserved) or have existing meanings (common.fund):
endorsemint lets.fund help.fund goodto.us (note: registered by a domain squatter) ensure.us grantitude wevalue.net we-treasure.org redistribute.to stipendo.us helping.support
After remembering that "ensure" is an actual word, and looking up the definition the definition of "ensure" ("make certain that (something) shall occur or be the case."), I think ensure.us just moved to the top of my list.
lets.fund is neat because a profile URL becomes a call to action: "let's fund ."
help.fund, on the other hand, has a lovely double meaning, because it can be both a verb and a noun: "help fund ", or "[the] help fund."
goodto.us is just plain catchy. Whoever thought of that one, A+.
endorsemint, while I like it, I suspect would be a problematic: it's pronounced the same as endorsement and is, in fact, only a single letter off. A similar thing applies for grantitude and stipendo.us (gratitude and stupendous, respectively).
For redistribute.to, see what @meltheadorable said a few comments above.
wevalue.net and we-treasure.org, while not bad, just don't seem very good to me. I think we can definitely do better than these two.
helping.support is pretty neat in that the profile URLs describe what they are for. "helping support ." I personally prefer help.support to helping.support, though, because it becomes a call to action like lets.fund and help.fund.
###Before continuing this discussion...
We need to figure this out before deciding on a name: What are we doing?
We want to be able to give people money. But is that the goal, or is that a means to an end?
Do we want to support people in ways besides financially? E.g., one of the things I was planning to prototype for Gittip was integration with Amazon Wishlists. Allowing people to buy you things you need directly (even food!), instead of just giving money to you.
My understanding is that we intend to build a proper support network for those that may otherwise not have one at all. A place for them to safely become their best selves, even if -- especially if -- they don't meet the expectations of the world at large. If they're doing things people generally dislike, but still need (see: pretty much all activism). If they're creating or doing something where they don't want to, or cannot, sustain it through "normal" means. Simply for being really fucking awesome -- such as everyone I've had the fortune of being introduced to through working on ATUnit so far. A way to ensure people have what they need, so they can dedicate as much time as they want to things they'd otherwise be unable to work on-- things like this very project.
My understanding is this is considerably larger than just a funding platform; that the funding platform is the bare minimum.
A note about ICANN reserved names meltheadorable:
A small comment, I agree that help.support would be better, but the .support domain has a LOT of ICANN reserved names (in the ballpark of 18,000). I believe help.support is reserved due to name collision, there's speculation that a lot of the names reserved due to potential name collisions will be unblocked next year, but we'd need to keep an eye out very carefully on that news to snag the domain before somebody else gets it.
And then finally, wise words from JoannaBlackhart:
If we go ahead and use an internal name, we can decide everything else later.
The top priority needs to be finding the coders to be able to throw the project together as quickly as possible
We can start releasing press very soon, once we have just an internal name we're using. And we don't need to mention its an internal name just a quick note of:
*Name subject to change
...would take care of it. Getting word out and getting the code up should be the two things we are focusing on at the moment.
I am certain we will come up with a name as the project is built.
PR
original ticket by cyrin:
We need a pre-launch information page so I have something better to direct people to than the readme. Example page ---> http://madebycori.com/flaminga/
EDIT: So I'm expanding this issue, we need a information page, twitter account, and mailing list! They're all related.
I asked for a weekly email.
Lynn agreed.
JoannaBlackhart:
I could write up a press release with a temporary name of yall'z choosing, and get it ready for posting ASAP. Or, better yet.
I could write up a PR with a blank space for whatever name yall decide to drop in, be it temporary or permanent. Having it already ready and the second a name is finalized (or a temp name is chosen) it'd be ready immediately.
And really, having a PR ready for use as soon as there's a name isnt a bad idea. It'll be one less thing to do later.