Reddit never had to compete with a musician in search results.

  • TBi@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    No issues with the name. My problem is I can’t just do a simple search and add lemmy to make it search lemmy, like you can with Reddit.

  • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
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    6 days ago

    I confess that it is always odd to see a musician, now deceased for a decade, when searching for this platform. Mind you, that is an ongoing tribute to their legacy, which is how it came about.

    In a 2020 post, Lemmy’s co-creator Dessalines wrote about the origin of the name Lemmy. “It was nameless for a long time, but I wanted to keep with the fediverse tradition of naming projects after animals. I was playing that old-school game Lemmings, and Lemmy (from Motorhead) had passed away that week, and we held a few polls for names, and I went with that.”

    Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy_(social_network)#History

            • WraithGear@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              It took me three hours to decide upon mine, this was back when i needed one for the xbox 360. I literally sat there on the set up screen, and thought. You should see me struggle with character gens.

              • golden_zealot@lemmy.ml
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                6 days ago

                Way back in 1997 or so, I was not sure what to use, so I just chose “Foxtrot” from the phonetic alphabet because it sounded a little neat, and it has my favorite animal in it. It was not such an issue because you could still get that name everywhere at the time of course. Since then, I have mainly used variations of that, but at some point branched out into some others such as the one I use here.

                It’s always kind of funny to me though, when I go through some old backup and see one of my forum signatures with my original name on it.

                • WraithGear@lemmy.world
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                  6 days ago

                  For me i went with WraithGear because i personally feel that i am not here, or real, that i am just piloting my corpse around. It crossed with my thoughts on gaming due to making an xbox account and all, and i have a framed art cell of metal gear acid on my desk, and it all kinda clicked. Its gear as in metal ‘gear’ more so then a cog.

  • paequ2@lemmy.today
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    6 days ago

    Eh, names may sound stupid at first, but after saying it a million times it’ll start to sound normal. “Google” sounded stupid and silly when they just first started, but now it sounds formal and makes you think of dystopia and dread.

      • redhorsejacket@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        Just anecdotal experience to relate, but the opinion I see most commonly in various threads is that being concerned about SEO and growth metrics and the like fundamentally misunderstands the opportunity the fediverse provides.

        At least for me, it’s nice to have a corner of the internet where, for the most part, discussions don’t escalate to the polemical levels that occur when everyone needs to shout to get a word in edgewise.

        I admit that my logic stems from the impulse to gatekeep, but my intent would be that we tend to our gardens, as it were, and let the folks who are seeking that kind of experience filter in at a natural rate. For example, while I don’t think that Lemmy needs to juice it’s SEO, I do think it would be a good idea to continue to improve the onboarding process for folks that don’t give a rip about the tech running their social media.

        I’m willing to entertain arguments to the contrary, but I think that this approach encourages growth by improving accessibility, while not overwhelming the aspects of the culture that has gotten folks to stick around here at all. The assumption I’m operating under, and I acknowledge its optimism, is that a person who finds themselves on Lemmy is clearly looking for a different experience than what traditional social media offers them, even if they can’t articulate what exactly it is that they’re missing from corporate owned platforms.

        To that end, I don’t think it’s necessary to try and ensure our Lemmy beats out Lemmy Kilmeister, who is the singer I’m hopefully correct in assuming people are talking about lol

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    As the name of open source projects go, Lemmy isn’t the biggest dumpster fire I’ve come across. It’s clear how to pronounce it, at least.

  • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    when I say ‘fediverse’ people think I’m saying ‘fetiverse’ and sometimes they ask if it’s like open source fetlife. 🫠

  • Hanrahan@slrpnk.net
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    5 days ago

    It’s indeed an odd name but holding it back from what ? Its not a popularoty contest . Why is “widespread adoption” seen as the metric for success? That onky needed for shitty commercial products, to me it’s great right now…

    • 3dmvr@lemm.eeOP
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      4 days ago

      its a link aggregator based off reddit, showing up higher in the resulrs when it’s own name is googled would be nice

  • hperrin@lemmy.ca
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    6 days ago

    Based on Twitter’s success, I don’t think names matter much. If it were named something like CockAndBallTorture, sure, but Lemmy is fine.

  • flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 days ago

    I have to admit, the name did directly lead to me taking longer to adopt it.

    Dead musicians aside, it’s not a cool name. It’s not a cute-in-a-quirky-way name, and most egregiously, it’s an actual name. For a person.

    I think that the fediverse is held back by its name, but since I don’t have a solution, I usually never mention it. I try not to observe problems unless I have some solution, no matter how weak or terrible.

    • flicker@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 days ago

      Also I am from the American South and I have met people named Lemmy in my life. (I’m older and they were older than me but still.) The one that sticks out in my memory had no teeth from obvious meth use, skin more leathered by cigarette smoke and alcohol than the sun, and tended to wear a leather vest with no shirt.

      If you’re imagining someone that was not cool, you would be correct.

      So again, definitely not helping. Made me take a couple extra months after hearing about it before even researching it, because “oh, ew, it’s called Lemmy?”

      • nutomic@lemmy.ml
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        6 days ago

        Ive never met any person named “Lemmy”, nor seen it in any kind of movie. And the first time I heard about Lemmy the musicion was when I searched for Lemmy the software. For me it mostly sounds similar to cute little lemmings.

  • mtchristo@lemm.ee
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    6 days ago

    I don’t think it has that big of an impact. But most open source developers forget that it might end up being used by more people than just them .

    Mastodon. Lemmy, do a web search especially for Lemmy on reddit and you are more likely than not to end up on threads about the singer . and don’t get me started on the many unpronounceable names of open source projects.

  • I don’t really think the name of the software matters. My server is called The Vegan Theory Club, and that is what I ultimately want people to look for and know. The fact that we are running the lemmy software is a bit incidental imo, it is a good website platform and I think if you are looking for software it is an obvious choice and in that context people aren’t going to confuse it with Motörhead