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Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

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Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#61

Post by mulmen »

bigyikes wrote: post #22

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…

Homebrew is awesome and I love beer but the names and metaphors really do not deliver value. I much prefer descriptive names to cute ones.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#62

Post by [deleted] »

int3 wrote: post #35
bigyikes wrote: post #22

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...

[deleted]

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#64

Post by Ancapistani »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #47
gojomo wrote: 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…

I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be musical fruit . That's why they make you toot.

It’s apparently a variant. I realized that the “magical” version was much more common than I’d expected a couple of years ago and did some informal research. It seems about evenly split, and I didn’t see any regional correlation.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#65

Post by xnyan »

wombatpm wrote: post #56
imwillofficial wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

My wife, exasperated at our two teenaged boys, asked me if men ever outgrow fart jokes. I laughed, said maybe, then asked her to pull my finger. Though when primed with the word Mastodon, I did think of the large trunk and a cartoon-like trumpeting of that trunk. Right after thinking how my grandmother would call her farts toots.

Fart jokes have always been found funny at all age and maturity levels. Even Martin Luther made fart jokes:

"When the argument that the Christian is without the law and above the law doesn’t help, I instantly chase him away with a fart."

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#66

Post by yifanl »

marcinzm wrote: post #33
bogwog wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is usually the result of too much time spent thinking about branding and not enough time building features. Uh, I think you might have it backwards there. The Mastodon folks probably didn't spend enough time thinking about branding.

I feel it's more that they spent too much thinking about branding but they were just not very good at it.

It was done entirely on the whims of a joke 5 years ago when mastodon was at single-server scale: https://mastodon.social/@Hbomberguy/146524

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#67

Post by DoreenMichele »

Ancapistani wrote: post #64
DoreenMichele wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be musical fruit . That's why they make you toot.

It’s apparently a variant. I realized that the “magical” version was much more common than I’d expected a couple of years ago and did some informal research. It seems about evenly split, and I didn’t see any regional correlation.

I'm not surprised. That's why there are qualifiers.

It's not intended as smack talk asserting "My variation is better than yours!" (Throws down gloves.)

Sometimes, it's nigh impossible to readily come up with the wording that captures the myriad thoughts flitting about my mind and account for all possible social bits and potential misinterpretations. And I comment anyway, knowing it's likely to go sideways cuz hoomans.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#68

Post by orblivion »

bigyikes wrote: post #22

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 like "Mastodon" because it's awkwardly long and just sort of sticks out this way, but it's still kind of bad-ass. As a counter-culture social network, not like a silicon valley company, I think it fits well.

"Toot" is cutesy and kind of lame, more of the usual I'd expect from the Free Software world. But I don't love the idea of changing it to "posts". I'd rather they find a different clever name.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#69

Post by inopinatus »

gojomo wrote: post #36
inopinatus wrote: post #29

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…

Note, this is botanically incorrect. Leguminous plants, as compared to angiosperms generally (and most starkly when compared to those with pericarpal fruits), may have differential edibility: that is, beans are not the fruit; the seed pod is the fruit (i.e. the mature ovary of the flower), and beans are an edible seed contained within the pod. Some legumes with edible pods (notably phaseolus vulgaris, the "green bean" or haricot verts) are known as beans in the culinary vernacular, but this is solely by common name, and does not hold up to anatomical scrutiny.

Regular correspondents to this forum may also encounter Java beans, but be warned that their palatability is disputed, and ungoverned use, particularly in their enterprise form, can lead to buildup of toxic and irrevocable technical debt.

Re: Mastodon Renaming “Toots” to “Posts”

#70

Post by inopinatus »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #45
gojomo wrote: 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.

Yes, this is the rhyme I learned as a kid, warning against the gastrointestinal consequences of oligosaccharide consumption but extolling the cardioprotective nutrients they accompany.

The GP form I have never encountered before, and by my assessment falls short in pedagogical qualities.

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