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Riot is now Element

element.io

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Re: Riot is now Element

#301

Post by anon_cow1111 »

simias wrote: post #102
_8j50 wrote: post #85

No!!! Of all the names in the world why this. "Hey bro, let's chat on Element" ,not quite a ring to it. The hardest problem in computer science strikes again! Matrix,Riot and Libolm are epic projects, I wish them all the success but man, even Riot was a hard sell as a brand. I would seriously be dissapointed if it loses popularity over this. I don't think the project maintainers understand that their core users/fans…

I actually don't like "Signal" either, because it's such a common word that it makes it hard to search for it online. "Telegram" is marginally better, since original telegrams are not very relevant today. But yeah Element is arguably even worse, it's a super common noun and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with communication. But in the end these naming discussions are always going to end up as bikeshedding. If…

Mint's default image viewer is called Pix. I tried looking up a crash/bug I was getting... it's basically impossible to search for. I still don't know what some developers are thinking when they name things.

Re: Riot is now Element

#302

Post by amandine »

marcinzm wrote: post #230
x87678r wrote: post #191

I still dont understand why Slack is popular when there is a free open source solution matrix/riot/element that works just as well.

Slack and Matrix solve different problems. Slack is "a company wants it's employees and select outside parties to communicate with themselves." Matrix is "we want everyone to communicate with each other." A broader solution is almost always less efficient for a specific constrained sub-problem. For example, a Slack instance can be configured to log every conversation (including DMs) for audit purposes by company admi…

You can disable e2e on your server if you wish so. The option already exists in Synapse and it is part of Element Matrix Services customers.

For those who are legally required to be on record, there are other ways to keep track of the conversations for audit purposes without compromising the e2e encryption. For example, every room could have an audit bot invited by default, visible by the users, and which would record everything being said. Then you can setup the access to the logs from the audit bot to only be unencrypted in certain conditions, e.g. if the 2 halves of a key giving access to the account are put together. It's secure, clear for the users and legally compliant.

[disclaimer: I'm from the Element team]

Re: Riot is now Element

#303

Post by patmorgan23 »

snarfy wrote: post #198
_8j50 wrote: post #85

No!!! Of all the names in the world why this. "Hey bro, let's chat on Element" ,not quite a ring to it. The hardest problem in computer science strikes again! Matrix,Riot and Libolm are epic projects, I wish them all the success but man, even Riot was a hard sell as a brand. I would seriously be dissapointed if it loses popularity over this. I don't think the project maintainers understand that their core users/fans…

It fails the two syllable rule. All the best companies/bands/groups have two syllable names. If by chance a company succeeds without the two syllable name, a two syllable pseudonym will materialize.

Amazon Microsoft Mac and cheese Oreo's Doritos McDonald's Whataburger

Re: Riot is now Element

#304

Post by lostcolony »

quasarj wrote: post #291
ndarilek wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, native English speaker and I didn't even get the pun until this comment. I thought it was a stupid play on "What app should we message each other on?" and thus kind of a silly name. But folks use it regardless.

Also a native English speaker, also had no idea it was supposed to be a pun until right now. I just thought it was another silly name from an Asian company.

Complete tangent, but, by any chance, when you read things, do you not 'hear' a voice in your head reading them?

Curious, because I'm pretty sure the first time I ran across Whatsapp it was in text, but I tend to 'hear' the things I read/write in my head, as though a voice read them to me. And because of that the pun stuck out. It might just be I'm more inclined to look for puns (playing games with them all the time with friends and family), but wondering if that might be part of it: if you just see the name and it's just a word, not something sounded out in your head, you of course would not notice the play on words.

Re: Riot is now Element

#305

Post by patmorgan23 »

Markoff wrote: post #155
_8j50 wrote: post #85

No!!! Of all the names in the world why this. "Hey bro, let's chat on Element" ,not quite a ring to it. The hardest problem in computer science strikes again! Matrix,Riot and Libolm are epic projects, I wish them all the success but man, even Riot was a hard sell as a brand. I would seriously be dissapointed if it loses popularity over this. I don't think the project maintainers understand that their core users/fans…

element and whatsapp have clearly nothing to do with communication, element must be some chemistry app and whatsapp some social network I guess

Whatsapp sounds lile what's up

Re: Riot is now Element

#306

Post by Allower »

_8j50 wrote: post #85

No!!! Of all the names in the world why this. "Hey bro, let's chat on Element" ,not quite a ring to it. The hardest problem in computer science strikes again! Matrix,Riot and Libolm are epic projects, I wish them all the success but man, even Riot was a hard sell as a brand. I would seriously be dissapointed if it loses popularity over this. I don't think the project maintainers understand that their core users/fans…

WhatsApp is the stupidest name of the bunch, your argument is weak.

Re: Riot is now Element

#307

Post by surround »

On the thread 3 months ago for Launch HN: Riot (YC W20) - Phishing training for your team

> Hi Ben - cool product! Speaking as the lead for Riot.im, I would recommend picking another name asap, if nothing else because Riot Games has an awful lot of lawyers (as we know first hand, unfortunately).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22677841

Then, 22 days ago, We’ve decided to rename riot

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23611863

Re: Riot is now Element

#308

Post by wmf »

easytiger wrote: post #240
detritus wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one thing I always loved about The Economist - it didn't matter how obvious an entity might seem, they would always qualify what it is when mentioned in an article, never presuming upon their readers' knowledge, eg. "...Google, an internet search engine, ..." - ed: typo

You have to consider than in 100 years, people may not really widely know what Google was.

But the only people reading 100-year-old articles will be historians who can/should track down those references.

Re: Riot is now Element

#309

Post by mywittyname »

dyingkneepad wrote: post #300
_8j50 wrote: post #85

No!!! Of all the names in the world why this. "Hey bro, let's chat on Element" ,not quite a ring to it. The hardest problem in computer science strikes again! Matrix,Riot and Libolm are epic projects, I wish them all the success but man, even Riot was a hard sell as a brand. I would seriously be dissapointed if it loses popularity over this. I don't think the project maintainers understand that their core users/fans…

Every time I see news about Riot I immediately think about Riot Games and League of Legends. I guess most people who don't know Element will assume Riot in the context of a messaging app is some client they have done to work alongside LoL. Riot Games is too big for anything else computer-related to manage to succeed, especially if males between 15 and 35 years are a significant part of their target customer base.

I don't even play LoL and I still think of Riot = Riot Games.

I'm willing to bet that was also a factor in their name change. In fact, a quick Google search for Riot brings up Riot games as the first result and the wikipedia entry for them appears on the side bar. So I'm guessing this was the case for the vast majority of Americans.

Re: Riot is now Element

#310

Post by rocha »

ethelward wrote: post #278
rocha wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not great, but it is also not a disaster. See Go, React, Rust, Processing, Atom, Windows, etc...

I agree that these names are kind of meh, but they stand for things that will mostly be chosen on their technical merit, and that you don't have to sell to your friends/mom/gf/brother/etc; so it does not really matter.

Right, good point. It is a quality of uniqueness for searchability and marketability. On top of my head I can only think of a couple of counterexamples: Windows and Messenger, but your point is still very valid.

I guess in practice, for search purposes, we will see some kind of suffix attached to the name, Element Chat or similar.

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