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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
I feel any reference to a specific domain ties this forum to that reference- so if we were to use Adams (and I do like Adams…), we look like an Adams-centric board.
It’s my feeling that the board needs to have it’s own identity (in as much as is possible) unattached to those things around us.
Said another way: I don’t want to define ourselves as what we’re from (boing or otherwise), and I don’t want to define ourselves via reference to established “brands”.
