• Jupiter Rowland@sh.itjust.works
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    10 days ago

    When Friendica was launched in 2010 (yes, it’s way older than both Mastodon and Lemmy, go figure), it was named Mistpark.

    Which, to a German like me, sounds like “dung park” or “manure park”. Which, by the way, is the reason why Mike Macgirvin renamed it.

    • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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      10 days ago

      goodness, mistpark kinda sucks even in english

      mist park? i mean it could be the right rhythm if you stress MIST but why “mist”?

      Mist is … like fog. It obscures. it also sounds like “missed”, which evokes a sense of loss.

      Also the ‘stp’ in the middle is a phonetic stumbling block that REALLY hampers its casual pronunciation; in practice you’d end up saying “misspark” and people who hear it in conversation would not hear the ‘T’, go searching for it, and not find it because they have the wrong term.

      why the fuck are they so consistently BAD at naming things???

      • Jupiter Rowland@sh.itjust.works
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        10 days ago

        why the fuck are they so consistently BAD at naming things???

        Because the guy who developed Mistpark within four months in 2010 in his spare time on a budget of exactly zero didn’t have millions for hired marketing experts to design a name for something that literally had never been done before.