Live data from Hacker News

Riot is now Element

element.io

251–260 of 375 posts

Re: Riot is now Element

#252
post #228
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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

Windows makes sense. Windows to the world. Go has a sensible keyword: golang for searchability.

Atom is awful. Rust is awful (programs rust and fall apart over time). React is not bad, it reacts to data changes. Processing is unknown to me.

Re: Riot is now Element

#253
post #237
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they'd have to change more than their name. The entire nomenclature of their app is gaming focused. That would also expose them to great risk of losing their core user base, at a time when another company Guilded has just launched a strictly gaming-focused chat app.

They've started to make changes, like changing their TLD from .gg to .com, and they removed the game store. They had a popup after a recent update describing the changes and why their doing it (to appeal to more than just gamers). I think that other than those bits of branding, it can be pretty gamer agnostic, though I haven't used it in a workplace to actually catch the inconsistencies.

> they removed the game store

seems like that might be because no one was playing? https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/13/20864278/discord-nitro-ga...

It certainly can be gamer-agnostic, but if they lose the gamer base, it could be significant for their success.

Re: Riot is now Element

#254
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…

You're allowed to dislike the name. I like the new name. If you're pissed about Element, you must be absolutely livid about Apple.

Apple is the company name. The product names (ios, mac os, ipad ...) are all unique enough.

Re: Riot is now Element

#256
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Toshiba, Mercedes, IBM, Microsoft, ycombinator, and my humble employer is Twilio. That is 10 seconds of names off the top of my head. I guess Mercedes is often shortened to Benz.

Microsoft = MS

IBM = Big Blue

Ycombinator = YC

Toshiba = Toshi

off the top of my head ;)

Not sure about Twilio, but upon first scan with my old eyes I wanted to read it as 'twillow'

Re: Riot is now Element

#258

That's been long overdue and will hopefully help Matrix make inroads into more conservative organizations; I believe the tech is really promising. It's a definite liability, trying to introduce people to Matrix, when the de-facto default client's name evokes all kinds of unhelpful associations – it doesn't sound like work at all and it does sound like gamers, toys, apparently even like a far-left political organisati…

Glad you like it, the original idea was to think of Riot in terms of a 'Riot of Colour', though in practice it can be interpreted in lots of different ways. We think Element has much broader appeal and really like the association with being the smallest indivisible unit.

I'm just now understanding that moving away from the name Riot was to distance it from recent US riots in mental space.

Re: Riot is now Element

#259

Discord is next.

Slack and Discord are respectively references to the Church of the Subgenius and Discordianism. Obviously Riot/Matrix should have gone with something Flying Spaghetti Monster-related, maybe even working in how word "matrix" refers to the connection to a womb.

Re: Riot is now Element

#260
post #252
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...

Windows makes sense. Windows to the world. Go has a sensible keyword: golang for searchability. Atom is awful. Rust is awful (programs rust and fall apart over time). React is not bad, it reacts to data changes. Processing is unknown to me.

I was trying to address the point of the parent comment, that using common words is detrimental to searchability. I think that is true, but as shown by the examples I gave, it is not catastrophic and can be worked around.

Processing: https://processing.org/

Post reply on HN