[pmwiki-users] Why all this zapping?

the Other michael xraysmalevich at gmail.com
Mon Apr 30 14:02:09 CDT 2007


This place is full of seriousness. Knee-deep in it.

Not that I'm encouraging people to create multiple pseudonyms, or
anything. That's reactionary, and, yeah -- confusing.

But, seriously folks, lighten up.

p.s. 'Historically, a brand was any visible mark created for
identification. Today, a brand includes any identifiable or
subconscious characteristic, including the many qualities and emotions
contained in a consumer's relationship with an entity, be it a
company, product, service or individual. Therefore, the term
"branding" is now synonymous with relationship-building.'
--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand

> The only parallel I can see between renaming the ZAP page to Acme is
> that it aids promotion by putting it on top of the (alphabetic) pagelists
> in the new cookbook by category index system.

People label things -- give them names -- so they can be found and
referenced. Descriptive is good -- but how do you deal with a
catch-all? 50-word Names? I don't think Steve McConnell would
approve... (Which reminds me, what descriptive functionality is the PM
in PmWiki describing, again?)

I didn't like the ZAP name. One, it was in all caps. Two, Zap meant
nothing to me but speed, and I couldn't figure out what the speed
component ways (almost every recipe is to speed something up, in a
way).

But I dislike the shift to Acme, simply because I was already used to
Zap. Move it here, move it there -- yeah, it's a wiki and we can
rename things, but it's still confusing.

Plus, it breaks the brand equity and recognition!

heh.



-the Other michael
http://www.xradiograph.com/interference
http://www.xradiograph.com/wrottings


On 4/30/07, Hans <design5 at softflow.co.uk> wrote:
> Monday, April 30, 2007, 5:57:55 PM, Ben wrote:
>
> > We deal with brand names every day, folks.  Acme appears to be a brand
> > name (like Apple), while ZAP is clearly a product (like Macintosh).  Is
> > that clear enough?  I think it might actually be more confusing if the
> > recipe itself were called Acme, because then the product would be called
> > by what we know to be a brand name... imagine if Ford released a model
> > of car called the Ford!  Calling the recipe Acme ZAP would be clearer
> > than the current convention of using the two names interchangeably.
>
> IF Acme is a brand name, THEN I object of its cookbook page use as
> brand promotion. I think cookbook pages are for describing or offering
> solutions and extensions to PmWiki, which may otherwise not be covered
> by PmWiki or its documentation. Extension modules as add-ons should
> ideally be integrating well with PmWiki, observe some standards, don't
> break too many other conventions or other modules if possible.
>
> Clearly cookbook pages are not to promote brand names.
>
> The concept of brand names is purely commercial, therefor I find Ben's
> interpretation above a little confusing. As for Dan saying in this
> thread that the "Acme" name can act as a red warning sign, I can only
> take his remark as sarcasm and not serious.
>
> The only parallel I can see between renaming the ZAP page to Acme is
> that it aids promotion by putting it on top of the (alphabetic) pagelists
> in the new cookbook by category index system.
>
>
>   ~Hans



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