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Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

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Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#41

Where does it say in the discussion that it was accepted? Someone suggested that it be done, and most seem to be against and no conclusion has been reached at the bottom, as far as I can tell.

Mastodon is open source, but Gargron 'owns' it and does most of the dev. He does what he wants, and he approves or not what other people want to do

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#42
post #35

I know little about Mastodon, but it seems like somebody went out of their way to make the cringiest sounding product possible. “Hey man, I just tooted on mastodon!” It really sounds like parody. I hope I am just missing the point. You might say this is a superficial criticism, but I think naming is important when it comes to social appeal. At least, it becomes important when the naming has gone so horribly wrong. If…

> I hope I am just missing the point. Pretty sure it's a pun for the French `tout suite` -- "right now / ASAP". Pretty clever actually given how much value people place on immediacy on social media...

Almost, it's 'tout de suite'.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#43
post #35

I know little about Mastodon, but it seems like somebody went out of their way to make the cringiest sounding product possible. “Hey man, I just tooted on mastodon!” It really sounds like parody. I hope I am just missing the point. You might say this is a superficial criticism, but I think naming is important when it comes to social appeal. At least, it becomes important when the naming has gone so horribly wrong. If…

> I hope I am just missing the point. Pretty sure it's a pun for the French `tout suite` -- "right now / ASAP". Pretty clever actually given how much value people place on immediacy on social media...

You're probably right, since repo is under the "tootsuite" organization. This also explains Hootsuite's name.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#44

I know little about Mastodon, but it seems like somebody went out of their way to make the cringiest sounding product possible. “Hey man, I just tooted on mastodon!” It really sounds like parody. I hope I am just missing the point. You might say this is a superficial criticism, but I think naming is important when it comes to social appeal. At least, it becomes important when the naming has gone so horribly wrong. If…

I am on Mastodon, and it feels very much like a non-corporate version of Twitter in its interface and content. I am not surprised that they went with "Toots" to match Twitter's "Tweets".

But it mostly doesn't matter whether they called it "Toots" or "Posts" (or Japanese localization of "Toots", which is what I get), since I mostly don't pay any attention to the UI elements after I have gotten used to it. It might make a difference for acquiring new users, but I don't get the feeling that rapidly growing the network is a priority for Mastodon.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#45
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a native English speaker from another country I don't possess this association at all, and have to dig quite deep to remember that Americans do. I do get tootsuite => toute de suite i.e. a sense of immediacy, the present moment, with greater impact for being a bilingual pun. Along with that, the onomatopoeic elephant. Cynical take: notwithstanding the denial in the PR, that original author knew the scatological…

As a very young child & native American English speaker, I was told the rhyme, Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot. That cemented the association with farts, but 'toot' as in 'toot your own horn' (idiom for self-promotion), or even just literally tooting a horn, are also strong associations. So it's not exclusively, or primarily, a word for farts to my ears – but that's one of the top…

Beans, beans, they're good for your heart. The more you eat them the more you fart.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just googled Mastodon, and I think you're right. Now I'm going to go tweet about it.

Even when 'google' as a verb was brand new, I don't remember it sounding awkward.

I don't find “to toot” sound any stranger than “to tweet”.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#47
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a native English speaker from another country I don't possess this association at all, and have to dig quite deep to remember that Americans do. I do get tootsuite => toute de suite i.e. a sense of immediacy, the present moment, with greater impact for being a bilingual pun. Along with that, the onomatopoeic elephant. Cynical take: notwithstanding the denial in the PR, that original author knew the scatological…

As a very young child & native American English speaker, I was told the rhyme, Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot. That cemented the association with farts, but 'toot' as in 'toot your own horn' (idiom for self-promotion), or even just literally tooting a horn, are also strong associations. So it's not exclusively, or primarily, a word for farts to my ears – but that's one of the top…

I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be musical fruit.

That's why they make you toot.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#48
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a very young child & native American English speaker, I was told the rhyme, Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot. That cemented the association with farts, but 'toot' as in 'toot your own horn' (idiom for self-promotion), or even just literally tooting a horn, are also strong associations. So it's not exclusively, or primarily, a word for farts to my ears – but that's one of the top…

Beans, beans, they're good for your heart . The more you eat them the more you fart.

[deleted]

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even when 'google' as a verb was brand new, I don't remember it sounding awkward.

I don't find “to toot” sound any stranger than “to tweet”.

In the US, “toot” is not only a word used for something you might do with a horn. It also means “a fart.”

A hilariously bad name if your humor is like that of a child. (Mine is)

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even when 'google' as a verb was brand new, I don't remember it sounding awkward.

I don't find “to toot” sound any stranger than “to tweet”.

Toot is a sophomoric word for passing flatulence in the US. So hearing “to toot” summons the mental connection of farting which any marketing person on here will probably tell you people don’t want to be associated with their product.
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