Re-naming / re-branding the community

[Dasquian Belargic]

Hi all

As you may be aware from discussions (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=23164) taking place over in the OOC RP forums, we have begun the process of upgrading 'Fans to a new version of vBulletin. My more technically minded counterparts are already under-way with this upgrade and will, at some point, be looking for volunteers to help out testing the functionality of the new set-up... but that isn't happening just yet!

For now, we do have one thing that we as a community can work on, and that is deciding the 'brand' of SW-Fans as we go forward. Although this community started out as a box office discussion community and later became focused on Star Wars roleplay, we have since evolved to include numerous types of roleplay as well as a focus on hobbies outside of writing, such as gaming, crafts, art, etc.

With this in mind, we are thinking of purchasing a new domain, and I have suggested that we might like to re-brand the forums. We are not *just* about Star Wars anymore and by using the words Star Wars in our name/domain, we are limiting our appeal.

A couple of new domain names have been bandied about so far, but one that I'm particular fond of is TheHolo.Net. It's still tied to Star Wars, but it has a broader sci-fi/fantasy feel to it. Not only that, but it's short and memorable.

Re-branding the community would involve shedding the SW-Fans name completely, aside from probably mentioning somewhere on the front page / in the FAQ that we were formerly known as SW-Fans. It's a big step, because we've had the name for so long now, but if we were to take on a new name/brand, I think it would make sense to go all in with that name/brand.

What do you all think?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lets do this thing

[Charley]

I have swfans more or less tattooed into my flesh so I'd rather keep the name ;)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Those of us with the tattoo are collectables now ^_^

[Serena Laran]

Never get a tattoo of someone's name, didn't you ever hear that?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I regret nothing.



I do like TheHolo.net, and I believe Kam(q)an put out sff-fans.net, which I like as well.

I looked up gamut.net, and while it is available the price is... outrageous.

So digging a little deeper, I came up with dyaspora.net. Diaspora.net was already taken, but dyaspora is not, and I rather like the meaning behind it:


A diaspora (from Greek διασπορά, "scattering, dispersion")[1] is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established homeland"[2] or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location",[3] or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands"

It seemed a rather fitting name to me :)

[Ilias Nytrau]

I regret nothing.



I do like TheHolo.net, and I believe Kam(q)an put out sff-fans.net, which I like as well.

I looked up gamut.net, and while it is available the price is... outrageous.

So digging a little deeper, I came up with dyaspora.net. Diaspora.net was already taken, but dyaspora is not, and I rather like the meaning behind it:


A diaspora (from Greek διασπορά, "scattering, dispersion")[1] is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established homeland"[2] or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location",[3] or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands"
It seemed a rather fitting name to me :)


Still like theholo.net, sff-fans.net, and dyaspora.net. As much as I'm still attached to sw-fans.net, it's not very indicative of what we really are, now. Also,I literally cannot decide on one because I will be happy with these suggestions, they all work, they all fit, and I can't say that I don't care either because I do care.

I care lots. :love

And if you keep calling me Kamqan, it really will stick. :mischief

[TheHolo.Net]

Note: Even if we do change the main URL to one of the sugested re-branded ones, sw-fans.net will still lead here too.

[Morgan Evanar]

The Holo is excellent and would reflect our expanded scope more accurately. I still think we should brand the Star Wars forums under sw-fans.net for the sake of continuity/search/nostalgic value (I am not a nostalgic person as almost all of you can attest, and this is a good idea), and have some throw-back style sets as well.

Dyaspora is only good in the specific context of this form's genesis and is a general tag. There is an implication of generality that we do not have. We're a Star Wars board that's moved to encompass most all things nerdy. It's also a misspelling that might get us filtered negatively. Personally I hate word bastardization unless used for humor/effect, and I don't want it as an official name/url.



The Holo accurately reflects both what this forum now is and leaves room for related change/growth.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I would be reluctant to use anything related to diaspora because it has fairly strong connections to historical events, and doesn't give any indication what the site might be about.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

If we go with theholo.net I want to call us The Holonet, not the holo. :uhoh

[Captain Untouchable]

I agree with Chris and Jenny's sentiments about dyaspora. I also like Chris's idea of branding Star Wars stuff under Star Wars fans and having some Star Wars style sets that reference that in some way. We could possibly manage to brand ourselves as both: have a logo that is something along the lines of -


- SW FANS -
THE HOLO

We still visibly keep / honour the old name, which means that no one visiting the site via the sw-fans.net url will be all "Huh? This site doesn't have the name I was expecting", while making the Star Wars aspect of things less in-your-face for any non-Star Wars people we attract.

We could possibly theme some of our forum names as well... Star Wars related stuff might fall under "The Holonet"; Mutants, Unite stuff could fall under "The Danger Room" (the holographic simulator that the X-Men use); or something like that. I'm not sure how we might use those sorts of specific names/titles, but a big part of marketing at Coke was making sure that you were brand-consistent (websites / presentations had to be red and white, bars on bar charts had to match packaging colours, etc), so it seems like a potentially smart thing to do.


If we go with theholo.net I want to call us The Holonet, not the holo. :uhoh
I'd have reservations about calling it "The Holonet". Sure, we've got Holo.net in the url, but the Holonet is an extremely Star Wars specific thing. Since the main reason for rebranding is to move away from being so overtly Star Wars, I personally feel that swapping from one Star Warsy name to another Star Warsy name would defeat the object of that somewhat.

[Dasquian Belargic]

My intention with suggesting TheHolo.Net is that we would be known as that, not just as TheHolo.

I'm of the opinion that we should make whatever our URL is be the most prominent part of our branding, but we could have small references to SW-Fans in there somewhere. I don't think individual RP sections warrant name branding in their own right (ie. everything should just be branded as whatever the URL is, with the forum names themselves explaining the content as they so now) but having style sets unique to those settings - which use the main brand name on them - would be cool.

[Droo]

I'm easy with the site being recognised as The Holo, or The Holo.Net. The reasons for calling it the later are obvious, and appealing, so I won't go into them. But there's something quite cool about a rather abstract term like "The Holo." If we look at the etymology of "holo," derived from Ancient Greek, meaning "whole," it kind of lends itself to the idea that this a community of all-encompasing interests, no longer devoted solely to Star Wars. Whatever way people look at it, it sounds cool, and from it we derive a geeky new identity... the ultimate nerd... the Holonerd. Holonerds, arise!

[Morgan Evanar]

More like whorelo nerd am i rite

No I am not. We'll be all from beyond the grave Tupac up on this stage.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

We put SW-Fans.Net up on everything as our name I don't see why we can't use TheHolo.Net as our new name.

It's not like I don't privately call the site Star Wars Fans, instead of Ess Double-you Fans. Maybe I'm the only one :uhoh

[Crusader]

I am cool with the Holo.Net

Are you sure this URL is still availabel?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Aye, It's still available.

[Reshmar]

As long as SF-fans is part of it Theholo.net sounds cool to me.

[Makhaira]

I really like TheHolo.net :) its delightfully neat, and I'm so glad Droo brough up the Greek meaning already. I was ready to do it myself until I found his post :D Points to you, sir :D

Holly, I verbally call it Fans all the time. Frankly my friends are tired of hearing about it ;)

And Kaman, it had better stick...I've already renamed you Kamqan in my IM list :p

[Atreyu]

Two thumbs up for TheHolo.Net - I'm surprised it hasn't already been registered since it's such a clever combination of words and URL.

It will be sad to see 'SW-Fans' go but it's not like we haven't been through other names before, afterall we originally started off as 'Star Wars vs. Titanic (a subsection of JawaFortress.net)'.

I will say though that I disagree with the ideas of using the label of simply 'The Holo'. Fine if it's just a reference people use individually when talking about the site (just as people often just say 'Fans' now), but for official branding, logos, icons etc I'd say you should use the full 'TheHolo.Net' title. As I said above it's a very clever wordplay that stands out whereas 'The Holo' ... isn't much of anything really.

(as for the SW connotations associated with 'Holonet', well a majority of our forums are SW related anyway, SW still dominates the RPing scene here and we do have a new SW film coming out in a couple of years that will help drive interest as well)

[Droo]

Actually, I have to agree that in as far as branding goes, we should use the full title with the .net thrown in. If we think of it from an advertising angle, we want to provide people with the full address of the site (or as close to as possible, at least). That way, when they see TheHolo.net, they know immediately where to go to find all the awesome people. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

Two thumbs up for TheHolo.Net - I'm surprised it hasn't already been registered since it's such a clever combination of words and URL.It is registered now..... Registered by me yesterday! It already directs to this site. :D

I would also prefer that any logos, branding, and official references to the name be "TheHolo.Net".

[Crusader]

We have multiple options to adopt this for a Logo:
1. TheHolo.Net
2. theHolo.Net
3. theHolo.net
4. The Holo.Net
5. the Holo.Net
6. the Holo.net

I think I prefer Option 1 simply because you can copy and paste it as an URL.

Do we already have any ideas for logos?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

We should make it in 3D ;)

[Droo]

We should make it in 3D ;)

Get out. :colbert

[Lilaena De'Ville]

LOL

Here are your 3D glasses, Droo!

[Crusader]

A gif or some kind of other animation would be cool so that the title would appear as a Holo and vanish again now and then.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Two thumbs up for TheHolo.Net - I'm surprised it hasn't already been registered since it's such a clever combination of words and URL.

Why thank you :smug:

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Something simple (and it gives me a chance to use the tattoo) ^_^;

Crisp
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/silancy/holo2.jpg


Fuzzy
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/silancy/holo1.jpg

[TheHolo.Net]

Integrating the Tatoo is a great idea!

Would it be possible for you to make a version that is only 45 pixels in height and uses transparency that will work with light or dark backgrounds?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Oof, it's been a while since I've fooled with transparencies.

Test
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/silancy/holo5.gif

haha that's baaaad. I'll tweak it, and as far as placement I'll move the tattoo around a bit to see how it looks in different spots.

edit - It's like learning how to walk all over again >_<


edit2 - There we go
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/silancy/holo9.png

[TheHolo.Net]

That looks pretty damn good, but needs a black outline or drop shadow or something to make it pop better on light/neutral backgrounds. :D

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Drop shadow
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/silancy/holonet4.png

Stroke
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/silancy/holonet3.png

[Darth Turbogeek]

wait a moment, I wonder if........

[Dasquian Belargic]

If...?

:ohno

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Ok, a few different placements:

1
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/silancy/dsholonet1.png

2
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/silancy/dsholonet2.png



Brought the tattoo back to the center this time, but lowered the opacity on the top design layer so it wasn't so obstructive of TheHolo.net
http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh126/silancy/dsholonet5.png

[Darth Turbogeek]

If...?

:ohno

:D

I am laughing so hard right now. Time to resurrect an ollllllllld account :)

[Ilias Nytrau]

If...?

:ohno

:D

I am laughing so hard right now. Time to resurrect an ollllllllld account :)

Hahaha. :uhoh

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I have a feeling that this level of diabolical glee from Mark is just ramping up for a disappointing reveal. ;)

[Dasquian Belargic]

I suspect you may be right :P

[Lilaena De'Ville]

much like his wedding night ;)