On: Show HN: Mastodon, a federated microblogging network

[JustSomeNobody]

But that name...

"Can you mastodon me?" Ugh.

I don't see this going mainstream with a name like this. I don't think anyone at NBC is ever going to say, "let's see what's trending on mastodon."

[gargron → JustSomeNobody]

Actually, "let's see what's trending on mastodon." doesn't sound wrong to my ears at all, but maybe that's because I've been around people who say that for a couple of months.

For reference, the community-decided verb/noun for posting on Mastodon is "toot" (as in, the elephant sound), so that would be "can you toot me". I mean. It's ridiculous, but I like it. It's endearing.

[zdean → gargron]

In America (and I may be biased b/c my kids say it all the time) to toot means to blow your car horn...but it also means to fart. If I say "I tooted this morning," most people will assume I farted. You might want to reconsider that one.

[ColanR → zdean]

haha!

[JoshTriplett → gargron]

"trumpet" would have been more fun, and sound less off-color in casual conversation.

[Mithaldu → JoshTriplett]

Community didn't like it for being too long.

[adfm → JoshTriplett]

Oddly, "trump" is a euphemism for fart in UK.

[grzm → adfm]

What does this have to do with the topic at hand other than a common sequence of five letters?

[detritus → grzm]

Because it was raised as a concern a couple of posts up in relation to Tooting a mastodon message?

[INTPenis → JustSomeNobody]

Mastodon is the software. Welcome to the world of community powered social media. You could name your site twatter if you want, or quitter ;) and still use the mastodon software.

[guessmyname → JustSomeNobody]

Not as weird as "Can you Facebook me?" — OR — "Can you Twitter me?"

[JustSomeNobody → guessmyname]

I think it's called a tweet. Can you tweet me?

Facebook is horrible. I guess mastodon will succeed after all.