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A symbol for the Fediverse

symbol.fediverse.info

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Re: A symbol for the Fediverse

#41

Post by tokai »

glenstein wrote: post #34
tokai wrote: post #20

I don't get the need for this. What is the use for a 'logo' that can be copy-pasted into text? If you write text you can just use the name - fediverse. Its like they get the worst of both worlds; a bad logo that is not even theirs but is an unicode character. And a shitty way of writing their name that makes it incomprehensible to outsiders.

Setting aside the logo itself, where I'm not sure how I feel about it yet or whether there's a need for it, you're losing me with this point about Unicode. The rationale for having symbols I feel is so self-evident it shouldn't need any explanation. You know the save icon, you know the power button, you know the Twitter, well, X logo. You probably know the 'share' icon. I don't know if anyone's going to buy that it's…

Regardless of the unicode issue (some trademark lawyers are going to make a lot of money from this one day), its not more accessible at all. It hides any information behind prior knowledge about the fedi-use of the symbol. It's even very hard to look it up, if you see in print or on a device you are not controlling so you can't copy-paste the symbol for lookup.

Re: A symbol for the Fediverse

#42

Post by glenstein »

yawgmoth wrote: post #27

Arguably @ is a Fedi symbol already. Adding the domain is generally all it takes.

The one bummer I have about Mastodon is that it takes what used to be a kind of sort of meaningfully understood usage of @ and turns it into scrambled eggs with @user@instance.social for it's usage in use names. It's the one place where I would begrudgingly acknowledge that blue sky has a compelling rationale.

And yes I'm aware that Mastodon omits the second @ for users on the same server, it's a imperfect compromise that sometimes helps but largely leaves the problem unresolved.

Re: A symbol for the Fediverse

#43

Post by 082349872349872 »

quicklime wrote: post #9

I hate to say this but it looks like a group of snowflakes.

But those asterisks are (at least in my font) all identical?

I'd argue that a better representation (unfortunately it's not in unicode [yet?]) of independent servers would be Figure 3.8 "Atoms of different species in a single box": https://archive.org/details/kittel-thermal-physics.-80/page/...

Re: A symbol for the Fediverse

#44

Post by tarball »

glenstein wrote: post #34
tokai wrote: post #20

I don't get the need for this. What is the use for a 'logo' that can be copy-pasted into text? If you write text you can just use the name - fediverse. Its like they get the worst of both worlds; a bad logo that is not even theirs but is an unicode character. And a shitty way of writing their name that makes it incomprehensible to outsiders.

Setting aside the logo itself, where I'm not sure how I feel about it yet or whether there's a need for it, you're losing me with this point about Unicode. The rationale for having symbols I feel is so self-evident it shouldn't need any explanation. You know the save icon, you know the power button, you know the Twitter, well, X logo. You probably know the 'share' icon. I don't know if anyone's going to buy that it's…

You know all those icons because someone, some industry or some culture imposed it to you. Nothing is self-evident. We are constantly learning new symbols to be able to share graphic languages with other persons or interfaces.

Re: A symbol for the Fediverse

#45

Post by solarkraft »

I don’t hate it, but I also like the ActivityPub logo.

> However, its design is a little too complex to be used at small sizes, as you would in text or in a button.

I somewhat disagree and would say this applies equally to the asterism logo.

> It’s also only available in image form, not as a typographical character.

That’s typical for logos and usually indicates that they’re unique.

Re: A symbol for the Fediverse

#47

Post by red_trumpet »

card_zero wrote: post #25
account42 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this proposal is silly but come on, no keyboard has a twitter icon either.

X?

No, blackboard bold X [1]. Unfortunately HN doesn't allow it...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_bold

Re: A symbol for the Fediverse

#48

Post by tarball »

solarkraft wrote: post #45

I don’t hate it, but I also like the ActivityPub logo. > However, its design is a little too complex to be used at small sizes, as you would in text or in a button. I somewhat disagree and would say this applies equally to the asterism logo. > It’s also only available in image form, not as a typographical character. That’s typical for logos and usually indicates that they’re unique.

That’s the point. ⁂ is not a logo because the fediverse is neither a brand nor a product.
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