Gaia's new yet-to-be-named forum!

[WindowOpener]

So last month Gaia set up a brand new forum to improve communication. They even asked the community for suggestions for what to call it, and ten of those have now gone to a vote.

Opinions of course are divided on the names. "OMGaia" seems to have a clear lead (20%), followed by "Gaia News Network (GNN)" (15%), "Gaialogue" (14%), "What the Gaia?" (13%) and "Big Sticky Note" (12%). The idea that they all suck has naturally also gained some traction in Site Feedback.

Firstly, what do people think of the names? Anyone voted?

Secondly, does anyone else think the whole "But what do we call it?" question has overshadowed the real significance of the new forum? This is a major, much-needed and long-awaited assault on Gaia's communication problems, which were eating away at many of us long before Chisa made her very sensible suggestion two years ago for a staff blog.

Thirdly... go and subscribe to this thread now. smile heart  

[Pilotslover]

They DO all suck.

I was disappointed in Gaia's choices.

I certainly won't be using it if it's called OMGaia, it's far too much like zOMG (Terrible name ...)  

[shall she sail seas]

Ehh.... a name is a name is a name. The Big Sticky Note thing seems a bit catchy and the concept of "sticky" exists in forums outside of Gaia, so there wouldn't be too much head scratching among those familiar with online communities.

A simple Gaia Staff Communication Portal or Customer Feedback Forum or something similar would be more obvious, of course. But meh. As long as they live up to what currently just looks like well-intentioned dreams, I don't care what it's named.  

[WindowOpener]

You were both on the money there, it seems. whee On Thursday Simone announced it would be renamed Gaia News & Updates.

It's just like iSnack 2.0, if there are any Australians around who know about that. ninja

There are problems at every stage when you solicit names, choose a few and put them to a vote: it's possible for all the names to be inappropriate; the 'best' ones still mightn't be good enough; and if they're all of roughly equal quality, the vote splits, and the majority are opposed to the final choice.

For some reason, this isn't a problem in government elections, but it is with brand names.

It's funny watching the responses from people - I'm surprised by the sheer relief that comes through in that thread. There's very little lecturing of Gaia on the stupidity or moral wrongness of running a vote and then overriding the users' choice. Most people are just gasping, "Finally!"