A Poll!

[Captain Hesperus]

Okay guys, as you may or may not be aware, prior to the amalgamation of The Wayward Inn and Pattern Spider, there was a resource known as Lore 5, which was part of Pattern Spider and contained user-created content, mostly Charms, artefacts, custom Exalt types and so forth. We are planning to not only bring that resource back, but also to expand it to cover pretty much any system that interests people.


We've already blackmailed Grey into moderating the content so all we need now is a name for this puppy, and that's where you all come in. We have a shortlist of names that we would like to poll you guys on and they are:

• The Scriptorium
  
• Dreamforge
  
• Forge of Worlds
  
• Manaforge
  
• The Creation Toolkit
  
• Forge of Wonders
  
• Forge of Ten-Thousands Realms

So this poll will run for seven days after which the name with the most votes will be adopted. So , have a look and get clicking!


Captain Hesperus

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Nice poll. Needs more wolf in it, though.


Dreamforge, in lack of better wolves things *bark*

 

[The World is Flat]

I'm honestly fond of none of those, excepting "The Creation Toolkit". (And dropping the "The" would make it better.)


Resource Center?


System Archives?


Resource Archives?


Roleplayer's Archive


Roleplay System Database? (RSD)


Roleplay Information Center? (RIC)


Etc.


The problem here is that these names are all too playful and not too useful. You need something simple and descriptive - you can't understand what any of these things are from their names, which is a no-no. There is a reason why we changed the "Observatory" to the "Roleplay List", and also why we changed the "Chartographer's Table" to "Storytellers". (As a few examples). They are now effective and descriptive, where before you could only get a very vague idea of what it was from it's name. Again, this is bad; It's the job of the content to be playful, fun, and relevant. It's the job of the system to be effective and convey the content (The valuable part) effectively. Come back with some more descriptive names. (See a few simple suggestions above.)

 

[The Dark Wizard]

I'm honestly fond of none of those, excepting "The Creation Toolkit". (And dropping the "The" would make it better.)
Resource Center?


System Archives?


Resource Archives?


Roleplayer's Archive


Roleplay System Database? (RSD)


Roleplay Information Center? (RIC)


Etc.


The problem here is that these names are all too playful and not too useful. You need something simple and descriptive - you can't understand what any of these things are from their names, which is a no-no. There is a reason why we changed the "Observatory" to the "Roleplay List", and also why we changed the "Chartographer's Table" to "Storytellers". (As a few examples). They are now effective and descriptive, where before you could only get a very vague idea of what it was from it's name. Again, this is bad; It's the job of the content to be playful, fun, and relevant. It's the job of the system to be effective and convey the content (The valuable part) effectively. Come back with some more descriptive names. (See a few simple suggestions above.)

I have the really bad urge to come up with a custom name for this system.


Instead of just "resources" because then it won't become popular. So it can't use the site's typical policy of having simple names like the forums and different areas.


Also when we were trying to merge the site and come up with a new name before I settled for simplicity and domain functionality with google(Since that is important)


I had started to make up words and throw them together like one of the big things on the table was "Avvros"


So I know that going with a simple name here will not be needed unlike the site's main name and its sections because we are not trying to impress google and the such, we need to come up with something that isnt too complicated but would get burned in people's minds and create a brand so it spreads and becomes popular, I know if it has a decent enough name and we advertise it on WW and finish the dark pack site as well we will explode with activity.


I know for a fact people on the WW site would love a database system like the one we will release for this for their custom content and artifacts/charms as well as other areas for WoD and such so they can always link because their threads on that site get washed away.


TLDR: the idea was to build a brand for this but if people feel a simple name is better then that could do as well.

 

[The World is Flat]

Well if you're building a brand then it needs to be special. All of these names are Playful-Generic. RPDOM is the brand you need to be building right now, not this. Label this as something very much RPDOM. RPDOM's Resource Archive, etc. That is the brand you need to build right now.


The names you have above are very generic fantasyish names that aren't really special or standoutish in that category, they are fun, yes, and there isn't anything really wrong with generic fantasy-playful names, but if you want to build a brand these are the wrong way to do it.

 

[Millershipper]

I'd vote for something like RPDom's Creation Toolkit.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

I'd vote for something like RPDom's Creation Toolkit.

Possibly.

 

[Alexandra]

[QUOTE="The Dark Wizard]I have the really bad urge to come up with a custom name for this system.
<snip>


TLDR: the idea was to build a brand for this but if people feel a simple name is better then that could do as well.

[/QUOTE]
Your tl;dr almost hit the nail on the head there. Simple is good. Simple means clarity, and efficacy of communication. There is still room to be a bit clever with it, but some of the names in the poll feel more like something someone would stick on a blogspot or Tumblr page.


And if you're planning to build it into a brand, some serious brainstorming will be needed. I'd nearly say Avvros is the most effective name I've seen anywhere in this thread so far when it comes to brand identity. It is indeed a made-up word, but in terms of treating this resource naming like naming a company for a moment, there are hundreds of successful companies that used made-up words. Google, for instance, is an interesting variant on that;


Eventually, they changed the name to Google, originating from a misspelling of the word "googol" the number one followed by one hundred zeros, which was picked to signify that the search engine wants to provide large quantities of information for people.


The above snippit is from the Google Wikipedia page. If you can come up with something to convey the precise function of the resource simply, then you'll be on to a winner.

 

[The World is Flat]

But one of the key factors here is that it isn't a truly made up word, in so much as it has direct inspiration from a "real word" and as such has some degree of morphological sense and phonetic sense, which appeals to humans on a subconscious level.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

I'm leery of using the term 'Archive', that implies data which is old and not up-to-date. We archive things we no longer need, some use 'archive' as a euphemism for 'trashcan'. I feel something that reflects a growing, active, creative effort would be a better 'brand' to establish.


Captain Hesperus

 

[The World is Flat]

Sure. I was thinking of that myself, but at the time it was the only word that came to mind. This is where thesaurus jumping is fun.

 

[Alexandra]

But one of the key factors here is that it isn't a truly made up word, in so much as it has direct inspiration from a "real word" and as such has some degree of morphological sense and phonetic sense, which appeals to humans on a subconscious level.

Oh yes, this, definitely this.


I was going to suggest looking at Nike too.


I don't think "archive" needs to be used; something that's in constant use, being constantly updated...doesn't sound like an archive. We need a concrete mission statement.

 

[The World is Flat]

I don't think "archive" needs to be used; something that's in constant use, being constantly updated...doesn't sound like an archive. We need a concrete mission statement.

Quite right. This is more apparent now that both you and captain have pointed it out.

 

[Feantari]

Agreed with the above. I read your names and was like oh those are neat, but... The but mostly comes in because of your stated intent. They are just fine for internal users and such. All the regular rpdom members will find and understand it fine I imagine. But you want to make it accessible for new folks and guests and people who might come here just for that.


You don't necessarily need to have RPDOM on the front of it because if someone is going to reference it that is how it will look. (unless you are making a separate way to get to it other than something with the rpdom domain)


I think for the system to be a good resource it should probably stick to more plain descriptive names. Things like someone might toss in a google search almost?


PS: I hope you don't mind us going all constructive criticism all up in your plz help make simple decision thread.


Excited for the to roll out, whatever the name.

 

[The World is Flat]

PS: I hope you don't mind us going all constructive criticism all up in your plz help make simple decision thread.
Excited for the to roll out, whatever the name.

Ditto.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

That's why we put this thread up. We want constructive feedback on a resource we hope will bring a lot of traffic to the site, otherwise we would have gone with 'The Dark Wizard's Super-Uber-Awesome Repository of Awesome Roleplaying Stuff'.


Captain Hesperus

 

[The Dark Wizard]

Agreed with the above. I read your names and was like oh those are neat, but... The but mostly comes in because of your stated intent. They are just fine for internal users and such. All the regular rpdom members will find and understand it fine I imagine. But you want to make it accessible for new folks and guests and people who might come here just for that.
You don't necessarily need to have RPDOM on the front of it because if someone is going to reference it that is how it will look. (unless you are making a separate way to get to it other than something with the rpdom domain)


I think for the system to be a good resource it should probably stick to more plain descriptive names. Things like someone might toss in a google search almost?


PS: I hope you don't mind us going all constructive criticism all up in your plz help make simple decision thread.


Excited for the to roll out, whatever the name.

!


Its fine, this is what we wanted, a discussion.

 

[Millershipper]

Definitely no "Archive" in the title. I like the words 'creation' , 'toolkit', or 'resource' and think at least one of them should be in the final title.

 

[Alexandra]

brb...looking up synonyms for things....

 

[JayTee]

Dreamforge sounds fucking badass

 

[Millershipper]

Dreamforge of Creation?

 

[Freeman]

I like the word Tool-Kit....

 

[Ian Hanrahan]

Dreamforge