The PHPosxom-descendant naming competition is now <strong>closed</strong>.
Huge thanks to everyone who suggested a name - we ended up with around 35 possibilities!
The first step was to narrow the list down to the 10 most viable names. The most common reasons
for a name not making it into the list of 10 were: excessive length, difficult/ambiguous pronunciation,
overly whimsical quality, non-PG in nature (you know who you are), or inappropriate connotations.
After lots of crossing-out on a big piece of paper, we ended up with the following 10 quarter-finalists,
listed in order of submission:
Next, we narrowed that list down to five - the semi-finalists. Here are the five we <em>didn't</em> choose,
with notes as to why.
| Name |
|
Not chosen because… |
| Handsxom |
|
Felt that “handsome” sounded a bit too smug and conceited. |
| Meddlesxom |
|
A wonderful name! Alas, it conveys the wrong impression as to usefulness. |
| Andthensxom |
|
Clever, but ultimately too long and visually complex. |
| Threesxom |
|
Great justification (since the software will be 3rd-generation), but not quite PG-rated. |
| PHPlusxom |
|
We thought this might be too easily confused with PHPosxom itself. |
And then there were five. We now had to eliminate a further three, to end up with two finalists.
Here are the three which didn't make it through, with our thoughts.
| Name |
|
Not chosen because… |
| Bugsxom |
|
Didn’t want to imply that it was full of bugs (you can find that out yourself). |
| Hacksxom |
|
Similar to Bugsxom; didn’t want to convey a sense of rough edges or dodgy code. |
| Awesxom |
|
This was a really great name, but in the end we felt it was a little too bland. |
And so, the stage was set for the final to-the-death confrontation between <strong>Axsiom</strong>
and <strong>Thistle</strong>!
We were faced with a very difficult decision indeed. A table was drawn up of our perceived pros and
cons for each of the names. It was decided that each pro would count as +1, and each con would count
as -1. A total could then be calculated for each name, with whichever had the greatest total being
the overall winner. Here's the table:
| Axsiom |
Thistle |
| Pros |
Cons |
Pros |
Cons |
| Sounds cool! |
Not Scotland-related |
Scottish |
Not consistent with *osxoms |
| Positive connotations |
A bit clinical |
Flower, like “Blosxom” |
|
| Fits with *osxoms |
Difficult to design a logo |
Easy to design a logo |
|
| Tech-sounding |
Perhaps hard to pronounce? |
Fairly memorable |
|
| |
Looks awkward in text |
Easy to pronounce |
|
As you can see, "Axsiom" came out with an overall score of -1, and "Thistle" ended up with +4.
Accordingly, I'm pleased to announce the commencement of development of <strong>Thistle</strong>,
a new, <a href="http://www.celsius1414.com/phposxom/">PHPosxom</a>-derived, PHP-based weblogging system!
Thanks very much indeed to all you wonderful people who contributed suggestions - we love you in a non-pervy way!
<a href="http://www.celsius1414.com/blog/">Robert Daeley</a>, who suggested "Thistle" (and who is the creator of PHPosxom,
funnily enough), wins a mystery prize sent from bonnie Scotland. Once I've thought of what it's going to be, that is.
I hope that you'll follow the Thistle development process with me via my posts in this new "thistle" category here
on Irate Scotsman. I plan to post development notes regularly, and (naturally) also some pre-release versions for you to play
with.
Thanks once again to everyone who suggested a name via the comments system, or who sent opinions or thoughts privately.
You may rest easy, content in the knowledge that you shall be imbued with niftyness and groovosity for the rest of your days.
Or some very similar thing.