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Riot is now Element

element.io

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Re: Riot is now Element

#371

Post by loco5niner »

_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…

As someone who uses none of the above, "Hey bro, let's chat on Element" and "Hey bro, let's chat on Riot" have the same ring.

Re: Riot is now Element

#372

Post by Raddix »

usbfingers wrote: post #223

If you dislike the new name, branding, or user experience, instead of arguing over why or why not it is a good decision, I'd encourage you to get yourself involved and be that change. Before the rebrand, or even any talk user experience and design from Element (Riot), I didn't want to wait and started working on a privacy centric matrix client that focused on branding and user experience. I managed to get E2EE workin…

In many respects, Syphon is a good name. Short (two syllables!), memorable, reasonably easy to write and set to become easy to search for.

And yet you've failed.

It's not just that siphoning something off has shady connotations already in general usage[1], but that in tech reporting specifically, it's referring to the mass exfiltration of data:

"How Facebook Was Able to Siphon Off Phone Call and Text Logs"[2]

"StrandHogg 2.0 can also hijack other app permissions to siphon off sensitive user data, like contacts, photos, and track a victim’s real-time location."[3]

"Perhaps the most sinister of them all is an attack designed to siphon off your organisation’s data, otherwise known as data exfiltration."[4]

"Data exfiltration is how hackers siphon out valuable intelligence from a business."[5]

"Report: Chinese Hackers Siphon Off ‘Massive’ Amounts of Undersea Military Data"[6]

To name a messaging app like that might almost seem like overt cynicism to casual observers.

I'm surprised nobody else has pointed this out. What is it that I have missed?

[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/sipho...

[2] https://newstalk1290.com/how-facebook-was-able-to-siphon-off...

[3] https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/26/strandhogg-malicious-apps-...

[4] https://www.csa.gov.sg/gosafeonline/go-safe-for-business/sme...

[5] https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2017/10/02/dns-exfiltration/

[6] https://threatpost.com/report-chinese-hackers-siphon-off-mas...

PS: Nice graphics on your website, very pleasant to look at and built with diversity in mind–but what the heck is the dude looking at the black circle supposed to signify? I'd get rid of that one. To be very frank, it appears to be something vulgar to me. O;)

Re: Riot is now Element

#373

Post by rvz »

bovermyer wrote: post #236
CydeWeys wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you're missing the point that "Apple" is a decades-old brand that everyone knows. It doesn't need to be explained to anyone now. Element is a new chat app that people won't have heard of and thus does need to be explained, and the "Element" name isn't helping in that regard because it's extremely generic and has nothing to do with messaging. Even worse, it has bad name collision problems; I just Googled "element…

I was talking about when Apple originally came about, not Apple today.

You might as well say the same argument about Snapchat Inc. who is now known as Snap. Even more generic than 'Apple' as it is used as a verb, adjective and now a company name which appears at the top of the Google search results despite the founders launching their company as Snapchat Inc.

From a SEO point of view, The transition of 'New Vector' -> 'Element' is just as bad since the continuity of the name is completely lost and has to compete again in the SEO rankings.

The thing is with very generic names in search engines and word of mouth, continuity is essential and the creators of Riot have to rebuild it again with a generic name.

Re: Riot is now Element

#374

Post by HeavyStorm »

TuringTest wrote: post #328
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.

Really? I'm a native Spanish speaker, and the first thing I thought when learning about the app was that[1] ad. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W16qzZ7J5YQ (Forgive me, it was still recent around here at the time the app got popular).

I don't even have to open the link to know that it's that budweiser ad. That's where my mind goes too when I think about the name of the app.

I think whatsapp has a nice ring to it, even if people doesn't know how to write it. Surely being able to write it on a store search is important, but not as important as sounding good.

-----

And does people get the name of Waze? It took me a while, because in this case not being a native English speaker is a real problem.

Re: Riot is now Element

#375

Post by HeavyStorm »

lostcolony wrote: post #304
quasarj wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

85% of people hear their voice when reading / forming thoughts.

And then there are the others [1].

1 https://twitter.com/KylePlantEmoji/status/122171379291396506...

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