Why did Just Use Atom only just come about?
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The origins of the Just Use Atom craze pre-date the movement of 2003-09-25, given the Just Use Atom proposal on AtomNameDiscuss. That vote was overturned, however, and yet the tides have changed again.
What's changed between now and then?
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Many of the reasons are given by Morbus "idiot, immoral, smells bad, has no friends (for good reason), and all around is evil" Iff in his atom-syntax address. But there's no denying that the original suggestion had great approval, and that the current social engineering is being well-conducted.
Who came up with the original name Atom?
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As far as it's possible to discern from the wiki, it was Matt Haughey.
Why did Atom not get chosen as a name straight away?
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People seemed to be on edge because of the problems that Echo had, and when someone suggested that Atom had legal problems too, the name was dropped like a hot potato. Since then, it appears that the name doesn't have a legal problem.
So what started the new Just Use Atom trend?
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Well, therein lies a story...
*** #echo Morbus (morbus@morbus.totalnetnh.net) joined the channel * Morbus shifts eyes evilly. <sbp> hey verbosus <verbosus> hey sbp <sbp> (#echo? geddit? :-) <sbp> ) <Morbus> what's going on with the naming process? <Morbus> someone needs to step up and choose one. <sbp> the naming process is currently stagnant, but trying to proceed <Morbus> this is getting far too destructive. <sbp> http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/NameFinalVote <verbosus> Is there a closing date for the current vote? <sbp> that's the 50th round of voting <sbp> yeah. September 30th <verbosus> Bloody hell. <sbp> and then we all wreak havoc changing the name all across the wiki <sbp> and when anyone complains, we slam them for not taking part in the vote <sbp> muahahaha <Morbus> Nota? <Morbus> so like, NotAGoodSpec? <verbosus> Heh <Morbus> winer'll love that . <rubys> suppose the complaint is: "have you obtained legal approval for this name"? <sbp> heh, well I was being flippant. I'd really like to see the same level of participation as we've had in the past <Morbus> hasn't that stuff been researched already in the recommendations? <sbp> since there basically needs to be a name at some point <sbp> but part of the vetting process guidelines was to seek legal approval <Morbus> i'm not choosing Nota for reasons of mispronounciation. <sbp> of course, I doubt that anyone did a significantly thorough job <Morbus> in four years, we'll have soundclips of how to pronounce GUI and MySQL. <sbp> my-squeal <Morbus> wrong ;) <sbp> I know <verbosus> Was this thing of being looked for legal approval posted on the wiki? <Morbus> sigh. i think i'm gonna abstain from the vote, then. <Morbus> not sure i like any of these names. <Morbus> was Atom legally taken? <sbp> can you think of a better on? <sbp> Atom legally taken: not sure. people dropped it because they believed that it is, though <Morbus> that'll be more destructive than anything sbp. <Morbus> someone who hasn't been part of the process swoopign in with new suggestions. <sbp> heh, heh <Morbus> like i'm reinventing the world. <verbosus> Heh, the same here, Morbus. <rubys> one big complaint on Atom was that it only obtained a pluratity, not a majority. I have it from numerous sources that Atom is "probably" OK legally. <sbp> and the plurality seems to me to have been people sheeping after the big bloggers <Morbus> i think, honestly, that Atom should be used. <Morbus> everyone refers to it as such, same with the media. <Znarf> [+1] ;-) <sbp> yeah <Morbus> regardless of whether its voted on, its been as common as wite-out or rollerblading. <sbp> as much as I dislike the name, it seems bound now <sbp> I think there'd be great value in that <Morbus> indeed. <Morbus> we'll have to reeducate thousands of people on the name. <Morbus> that everyone has, in some aspects, been referring to as atom (either solely, or as echo/atom/pie). <Morbus> less confusion, less reinvention. <verbosus> 8om <Morbus> 80m? <sbp> plus there are many things which won't be changed <sbp> old blog entries referring to Atom etc. <verbosus> In the US, don’t you pronounce it eigh-tom? <sbp> "up and adddam" "up and atom!" "up and adddam" "up and *atom!*" "up and addam!" "sigh... better!" <sbp> i.e. no. aht-uhm <sbp> AFAIK <sbp> there are probably some states that voted to say it differently <Morbus> hmm. verbosus, interesting point. <Morbus> but, that seems more like "potato" and "potahto" then "note-a" and "not-a". <Morbus> potaaaato, potaaaahhhto, i mean. <sbp> yeah. 8om and aht-uhm are mutually intelligable <sbp> heh <verbosus> Yeah. <verbosus> 80m! <Morbus> 8mm? <verbosus> Looks crap, though. <Morbus> let's make a snuff film. <sbp> looks lee7 <sbp> er... 1337 <verbosus> Yeah d00d. <sbp> r0ffle <Morbus> now, now. <Morbus> signal to noise, people, signal to noise! * Morbus chuckles knowingly. <verbosus> Morbus: as if… <sbp> come on, man, we use utf-8! how can anything we say be signalless? <verbosus> Yup. <Morbus> yeah, verbosus is annoying the hell outta me with his utf ;) * verbosus chats in UTF-8 since, err, last night. <sbp> it's funny really--makes me want to start learning all the encodings <verbosus> Morbus: what pathetic IRC client are you using that doesn’t grok UTF-8? <Morbus> verbosus: trillian on win32. * verbosus is using XChat Aqua on OS X. <verbosus> Yeah: I used to use it and used to be pissed off at UTF-8 aware fellows as well. * bitsko peeks in to see he missed all the fun <Morbus> loads, oads. <sbp> heh. perhaps it could be approached from an "it's going to be called atom unless anyone raises legally confirmably reasons why it shouldn't be" point of view <sbp> s/ably/ed/ <sbp> garner consensus by subtle force <sbp> on September 30th, Nota is bound to be ahead on NameFinalVote <sbp> on October 1st, Atom is still bound to be called Atom <xian> why bad Nota? <sbp> oh, I'd be fine with it being called Nota. don't get me wrong. I even voted for it, as has bitsko, as has verbosus <sbp> it's just that the current participation in NameFinalVote is miniscule <verbosus> Yeah, +1 for me. <sbp> if Sept 30th comes, and suddenly every Pie/Atom/Echo covering blog out there proclaims Nota the new name, and heralds the start of a permanently named format, then fine <sbp> but I rather doubt that'll happen <sbp> which is a shame because this has been the least turbulent round of voting :-) <verbosus> BTW, if there are problems with Nota we can go with Mota, reverse for Atom. <sbp> I think that'd require a re-vote, though... <Morbus> we'd need to form a committee. <verbosus> Which I think has some nasty spanish meaning attached to it, not sure. <sbp> babelfish says "Speck" <sbp> which doesn't seem too nasty <sbp> but babelfish is also crazy <verbosus> sbp: I’m referring to some swear words (in a Black Crowes record, at the end of a song, someone says something like ‘esta es la mejor mota’) <verbosus> Whatever, Mota isn’t even in the candidates. <verbosus> Morbus, what about that committee? <sbp> Mota was the name of an Offspring song, too <sbp> good song IMO, but it lends creedance to that point, yeah <sbp> aha. '"Esta es la mejor mota" --> loosely translated to english, "This is the best weed"' - http://blackcrowes.net/archive/FAQ.doc <xian> the mota in gopod's eye * verbosus is amazed at his level of understanding of spoken spanish <sbp> okay, so mota would almost certainly need a re-vote <sbp> Asbjorn: "It's scary to see the lack of participation and activity on the Wiki these days." - NameFinalVote <sbp> the fad has seemed over for a couple of months <sbp> but that's nice because the few hardworkers (Sam, bitsko, etc.) are still at it <bitsko> I'll be taking a break for a bit while move ;) <sbp> heh. of course