rebrand?

[slingamn]

I've been thinking about this for a while so I thought we should have an official discussion thread. Options:

1. Keep the oragono name a. Pros: easy b. Cons: name is unpronounceable, unspellable, and uninformative c. Action items: none
2. Rebrand as "ergonomadic" a. Pros: name is spelled phonetically, has a meaning b. Cons: name lacks explicit IRC connotations, is long c. Action items: we'd likely need a new GitHub organization. I already bought ergonomadic.dev. We'd need to update IRCv3 support tables, set up a new website, and get control of the Freenode channel (Freenode staff promised help with this)
3. Rebrand as "ora" a. Pros: short, easy to remember, it's already our nickname, might not require a new GitHub organization b. Cons: ora.${tld} domains are extremely expensive (ora.dev was $400/year); this is most likely a dealbreaker c. Action items: mostly the same as above
4. Rebrand with some other name a. Pros and cons: ???

Questions:

1. GitHub repository transfer should let us keep our current star count (this is critical for project reputation)
2. What action items haven't been enumerated yet?

[slingamn]

I just parked https://github.com/ergonomadic

[DanielOaks]

Aha, not gonna lie the Oragono name holds a special place in my heart, and I'd contest that it's also pronounced as it's spelled (Ora-go-no). I wouldn't be too opposed to rebranding, but the length of the name Ergonomadic gives me a lil bit of pause. Especially since we are the spiritual (arguably, the) successor to that project it'd make sense for us to move to that name though, so long as the peeps of Darwin and all are okay with it.

I dunno, I get the feeling that I'm a bit too close to this for my opinion to come from anywhere but a place of "oh no my precious name", but will give it a shot.

I reckon on the project reputation side, the stars are definitely a consideration but we'll also need to do a bit of messaging about it in the channel, to contributors, etc to make sure peeps know about it beforehand. I think we should probably keep the version number the same, we just reached our 2.0.0 not long ago and resetting that back would not only conflict with where the old Ergo got up to but send a bit of a weird message from our end.

Also extra Action item, we'll need to create new Dockerhub org and repoint things on that side. Note to self as well, may need to change things up on Netlify to make sure the site keeps building and also consider the testnet box's config, may need to do some updating of domains/etc on there so that records work properly. We might need to do some checking of CrowdIn to confirm that migrates over without any issues.

If we did go with 3 it'd probably be as OraIRCd or Ora IRCd or something, just the name 'ora' is already out there a fair bit aha (and there's an open source project or two with that name already).

[slingamn]

The US and UK pronunciations of "oregano" (the herb) stress different syllables, which contributes to the difficulty: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/oregano

If the "golang project" aspect of Oragono is salient to the reader, that's a hint to stress the "go" syllable, but that's not always the case.

It sounds like we probably won't change the name.

[DanielOaks]

Ah I didn't even consider that. Dang countries being weird with their accents, heh

[streaps]

I very much like the name Oragono, but I always have difficulties to remember the correct spelling. Ergonomadic sounds like completely different product to me. I'm not sure if Ora IRCd is better to google ... so maybe just stick with the name. Even I mess up the spelling all of the time, the name sticks out.

[bogdomania]

IMO, keep the current name. Some places have laughable names, yet no one changed them - see weird names list.

[DanielOaks]

This issue is now for tossing name ideas into.

OraIRCd, ErgoIRC Server, Agogo IRC Server, OranoIRC, NomadicIRCd. Oragno IRCd, Orano IRCd, OraNomadic IRC Server. CuddleIRCd, CudweedIRCd. LapisIRCd. Marjoram IRCd.

Ergonomadic is the name of the original server, Oragono I got to by trying to rearrange the letters of Ergonomadic into something new. Oragono is our 'branding' right now, and that name presents a kinda vibe that it'd be nice to keep. Something that we like about Ergonomadic is there's no way you're referring to anything else when you mention it. A word like Nomadic on its own, you're gonna get a lot of random hits so it'd probably need to be styled as NomadicIRCd everywhere if we used it.

[DanielOaks]

Honestly if we do change names I'd love to step away from the weird TLDs and stick with either a .net or a .org.

I think I'm gonna veto Ergonomadic here - it's just too long. Or-a-go-no vs Er-go-no-mad-ic, just too many syllables to be memorable (esp without some of them being 'ircd' which is at least memorable).

OrangeIRCd I like the idea of, but due to dodgy associations (trump and also towards hacker news) I'd rather go with a different colour/fruit than that one).

I looked into ergo+irc (and ErgoIRC) as naming options, but it seemed like that already had a lot of hits on google so I'd rather avoid it.

---

• nomadic / nomadic chat.
• oraircd / ora chat.

or stick with the current name, what do we reckon? any other fruit/colour-based names that sound interesting?

[DanielOaks]

ergochat / ergo.chat

I think we're both fairly happy with this name, calls back to Ergonomadic without being too long, includes go (which sorta lends itself towards oragono's name), etc. And 'ergo' meaning 'therefore', it sorta means 'therefore, chat', that kinda thing.

If we do go with 'ergo.chat', here's a possible precedent (both positive and negative): https://github.com/RocketChat/Rocket.Chat

[DanielOaks]

Alright, what does everyone think about ergo being the name of the project?

Reasoning is above, I don't think we've seen any real-world projects using the name, we have the domain ergo.chat, github repo ergochat/ergo, and googling 'ergo chat' or 'ergo irc' should redirect to us.

Reactions on this comment 👍 if you want us to rename as ergo 👎 if you don't (and want another option) 🚀 if you prefer sticking with Oragono

[poVoq]

Was totally confused when someone mentioned ergochat. I thought they were making fun about talking to yourself on IRC ;)

I always liked Oragono, has a nice ring to it.

[westor7]

I personally prefer Ora like OraIRCD

[DanielOaks]

Alright, we're renaming to the Ergo IRC Server, and the channel is moving to #ergo on Libera. The name Oragono does and will always remain special to me, but I think that this should be a fairly inconsequential change. And we'll end up overhauling the site to boot.

Thanks to everyone who's supported or used Oragono so far, and we hope you'll find the new branding and all easy enough to get used to (once it does exist)! Keep an eye on this GitHub org, it's where our active repos will be transferred to: https://github.com/ergochat/

<3

[vith]

Any suggestion/preference for package name where ergo is already taken? https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/?K=ergo

[DanielOaks]

@vith ergochat is the preferred name where ergo is already taken