I reckon you can’t hurry a good name. IMO a couple more days would help.
Eh?
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Happy Mutants is trademarked.
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Ah. I kinda like how that’s sorta giving the finger; it’d almost be hypocritical for BB to make with a cease and desist, given the history of attitudes to such stuff.
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I’m sensitive to that, but this is a big decision that will have a long term influence on what the site can (and cannot) become. I think it’s worthwhile to take the time to come up with more options that we’re truly enthusiastic about.
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Emergent forum.
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I agree - people are still just arriving, too, so I’d like to leave it open for a couple more days, at least. I’m mindful tho that as @CZAnne suggests, without some kind of deadline or limit, this could go on forever. Sometimes deadlines spur creativity.
So is, say, Wednesday a good first cut deadline? I like the process @CZAnne proposed. I’ll pull it all in to a poll. Maybe there will be an option for last-minute inspired ideas too, so we don’t cut things completely off.
I would also suggest that all proposals be a little more specific; don’t just include an idea, fill it out with an actual domain and make sure it’s available.
Does that work?
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BB is against IP overreach, but they’ve rightfully filed trademarks to prevent competitors from using their brand, which is what we’re doing (for the moment). More fundamentally, do we really want to define ourselves by what we’re against, or by what we’re for?
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Having a company registered in that name is not the same as a trademark.
I don’t see any trademark registrations for happy mutants…
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A DBA serves as a common law trademark in the state where it’s filed, and I imagine the same is true of an LLC. That having been said, I don’t think we need to panic that a cease & desist is going to materialize tomorrow, and even if that happened it would only represent a temporary disruption.
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Sure, it’s not like I think we should stick with the current name. I just like how we’re going with it for now.
Aside from IP, the other angle I was coming from was a more general idea about communities versus gatekeepers.
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Our main beef is with one individual. There’s no reason to get into a squabble with all the authors. We don’t know what may be happening behind the scenes over there. I agree that we should come up with our own name, but as @Haystack says, it would be nice to have as much input as possible.
If a deadline of a couple of days is too short, how hard is it to change to a placeholder name (HM.Space or some such) to give us time for discussion?
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At bare minimum, I’d suggest holding a vote on whether we’re ready to proceed with a vote, but I think that another week or so may be in order. Based on what I’ve seen, I feel like we need more time to come up with names that are truly inspired. What we have so far is mostly generic and derivative, but there are original themes emerging that can be further developed with more time and collaboration. Also, people are not only still arriving, but still trying to get a handle on what this site is supposed to be, and what possibilities may lay ahead.
In my experience, aha! moments arrive when you’ve had a problem in the back of your mind for a while, rather than when you’re trying to force them. I’m afraid that if we jump the gun, we end up with a name that leaves people feeling blasé about the site. If we want this to be more than just a quick-and-dirty replacement for the BB lounges (and I know you do), we need a name that harnesses people’s enthusiasm.
It would be nice to see more suggestions not only for names, but also themes and concepts that give people a target at which to aim.
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(all 3 mixes are great, though)
I thought this would be brilliant
not much of a ring to it, I’m afraid.
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I like suggestion 1 best.
That’s a little too blunt an instrument because some posts contain multiple suggestions (or additional discussion), and as @waetherman points out, we need to identify which domains are actually available. I suggest that we propose names as follows:
AVAILABLE NAME: xxx.TLD
POLL: (Yea or Nay)
COMMENTS (optional): Why you think that this would be a good name.
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Wednesday-Thursday is when I’d expect it, but Monday or Tuesday is not impossible. This got rolling on Friday, lawyers don’t work on weekends. A C&D is fairly simple, but the longer this exists, the more likely one becomes. (Yeah, it would be hypocritical. But that has never stopped anyone.) I don’t have hard stats, but I do pattern seeking for a living, and BBS feels a lot quieter than on a comparable Saturday. There’s a good chance traffic is down. Hitting someone in the wallet tends to make them reactive.
Midweek is probably fine. But we do need to decide when we stop brainstorming, and how we’re going to do this, and do so before too many bookmarks and links get established.
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Since you bring up the legal part, I’ll take it upon myself to spell out a few basics of trademark law. Remember IAALBNYL and this does not constitute legal advice;
Without going in to the full detail of trademarks, the two points worth considering are the likelihood of enforcement and the potential damages. On the topic of likelihood of enforcement, to maintain a trademark a company is essentially obliged to enforce it when becomes aware of a potential violation. If it doesn’t enforce (send a C&D, reach a licensing agreement, etc) it can lose the trademark, so the incentive to enforce is very high.
When it comes to damages however, they are not punitive, only compensatory. That means any damages have to be based on actual financial loss, not some arbitrary amount designed to punish the infringer.
I’ll leave it to everyone to decide what that might mean.
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“Rebel Mutants” looks available
Host rebelmutant.com not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Host rebelmutants.com not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Host rebelmutant.net not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Host rebelmutants.net not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Host rebelmutant.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Host rebelmutants.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Or, “SnarkExchange”
Host snarkexchange.com not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Host snarkexchange.net not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
Host snarkexchange.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)
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snarkexchange? I like. I like. 
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I like Annexia. Would it present any obstacle that Burroughs is still under copyright?
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I suggest “Mutandine.”
Is that so wrong?
No, but there could be a mutandi.ne, mutandine.silk, mutandine.show or… OK I’ll stop for now
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