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Why Mastodon? (reddthat.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Elden_Potato@reddthat.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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After joining lemmy I decided to check out what else the "fediverse" has to offer which naturally led me to Mastodon which is actually pretty neat. However.....I can't help but wonder why in the world the name Mastodon was chosen? I guess I can buy some kind of meaning behind it and if so, fair enough. But... I still can't ignore that it feels like the naming equivalent of soggy cold toast and generates about as much excitement. I just feel like a name bit less....lame? would help a lot to generate buzz and hasten culture adoption of it. No idea what that name would be, just throwing it out there. Happy to be enlightened if this is an unpopular opinion.

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[–] Elden_Potato@reddthat.com 6 points 1 year ago

Your comment I think more so gets to the point I had been trying to make. Mastodon doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue and just feels “off” for what the platform “is”. I realize this is a small thing, but twitter actually was a brilliant name that swiftly and concisely allowed its audience to understand its purpose. You “tweet” small snippets of opinions back and forth similar to the chorus created by a flock of birds tweeting amongst each other. The mental imagery is quite descriptive of what the purpose of the platform is. I think it would be disingenuous to discount that in twitters success in the past.