[Compcomm] Deciding a name

[RYX]

Am Sonntag, den 10.06.2007, 20:26 +0200 schrieb Kristian Lyngstøl:
> Many people are not satisfied with how we're voting on a name, we
> should respect that.
> 
> I therefor suggest we void the current vote, and restart the process.
> To make it fair and democratic, this is how I suggest we do it:
> 
> We give people 5 days to suggest names. ANY name is welcome to be
> suggested in this period of time. There is no discussion at this
> point. A strict deadline is kept.
> 
> After the period is over, the suggestions are posted here, and only
> here. You will all reply to the person in charge (I'll do it if there
> are no objections) and any name receiving more than 2 complaints will
> be removed. There is a 48 hours limit on when to complain. People are
> urged to complain based on similarities and such, not personal taste,
> but no real reason is needed.
> 
> After the 48 hours, the revised list is posted again. And another 24
> hour period to complain will commence.
> 
> If the list is too large, another 24hour round of complaints will
> commence, where complaints based on taste can be taken into account.
> 
> After this 24 hour period is over, the finished list is posted. There
> is no complaint process after this, but a 24 hour cool-down before a
> poll is posted. This is a "just-in-case" period, where people may
> comment, but ideally, it should not affect the final list. The final
> poll is posted after this, and will go on for one week.
> 
> This will (yet again) delay the naming process, but there are too many
> good complaints about existing names and the way the poll is handled
> to ignore this problem.
> 
> The person in charge of the process should not require a good
> complaint, that's why it is required to have more than just one. A
> short one, like "coral - numerous other projects, see www...com" or
> "Blitz - Radical semi-political organization in Norway and refference
> to WWII" should be enough, even if the person in charge does not agree
> with it being a problem.
> 
> Input on this?
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 ;) ...).

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).

Rico

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