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Post by Togasko on Jul 16, 2018 12:04:21 GMT
Such a simple question to something that is just so hard for a lot of us. But for some? You lucky buggers have it easy!
What Im wanting to know is how you'd come up with a name for your site? Be original, a fandom based like Pokemon or even a recourse site like Pixel Perfect. What do you do to come up with a name for your sites that suits, that hooks, and when you say it, you think of that site and what it represents.
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344 posts
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come take a look before fallin at my feet. all i'll ever know is life up on a throne
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Post by lychee💖 on Jul 16, 2018 14:31:54 GMT
honestly I'm HELLA lazy in this aspect and almost always just use some sort of song lyric that helped inspire me to write the plot or code the skin. I'll loop a song on replay while I work and try to pick out a nice 1-4 words from it/inspired by it that I feel like fits the site ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2018 14:39:26 GMT
For all the sites I've made but never opened (lol), I always pick a name last and try to achieve three goals:
1) It gives you an idea what the site's about
2) It's memorable
3) It's either short, or reaaaaaally long; no inbetweens
For example:
Digital Defect - you know it's about something digital going wrong, alliteration makes it a bit memorable and it's short. Was a MegaMan Battle Network fansite.
We All Reincarnated After Being Hit By A Truck, But Where's Our Cheat Skills?! - WARABHBATBWOCS has no nice acronym or alliteration, but you'll remember the ridiculously long name! (Or at least if someone writes it out, the site springs to mind.) Also perfectly explains the major plot point and what it'll be about. Perfect A++. Obvious Isekai is obvious.
11:11 - Really short, only numbers and it's a specific time. That sticks to you. The site was about the auspicious 11:11 time that unlocked mysticism. Was a detective mystery site about solving the weird happenings in a small town kinda inspired by Gravity Falls.
Vrepit Sa! - Galran phrase from Voltron. Guess what it's about?
Conch, or How We Heard The Ocean's Voice Call Out To Us - Roleplay set on the Mighty Montana, expanded and converted to an island that drifted across an oceanic earth. Dealt with the people diving to explore submerged world cities. The Living Ocean guided the MiMo. "Conch" refers to the idea of "listening to the ocean" and it's a good shorthand way to refer to the site.
Basically I get everything ready first, then come up with a name based on the setting and then I shelf the idea indefinitely and I try to make it memorable and descriptive. It's like how you'd title a book; I definitely believe people are attracted by a good name.
And I feel a good name gives an idea of what the site is about. A recent site I saw was named, "Whispers of the Heart", memorable for the Ghibli film and clear on it being about love. (Would've loved if it had the Ghibli atmosphere but eh.)
I realise I never went into how I get to it. All right, let's take Conch as an example.
I decided I loved ships, and inspired by the museum battleship Missouri wrote a setting that involved everyone being a crewmember during WW2.
I axed that, and instead went with a fantasy world in which the USS Montana would actually exist. Could even say Trump actually built it (thanks Donald, one thing you gave me at least). Anyway, from there I submerged the world 'cos I love water.
Threw in a magical living ocean for extra fantasy and a romantic setting.
For a name, Mighty Montana was vague, Mighty Mo Adventures too cartoonish. Adrift is a game name. Almost went with deep divers.
Then I remembered Conches exist, and gave it a subtitle to be memorable.
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Post by 「イオタ」 on Jul 16, 2018 16:01:39 GMT
Should probably be in site management.~ My site's name is Kismet Divided. I'm not sure sure if it hooks people, though. xD I asked Mizo to make me a banner about 6 months ago and they asked me for the name of my site. I was like "uh, uh, uh, crap---/pulls out thesaurus and looks up "fate"/ ...Kismet Divided?" I figured I could always change it later if if it seemed really "stupid." Then Mizo presented the banner and it had the words Kismet Divided on it and it looked so right.  So, I stuck with it. XD Edit: kismet means fate, so the title is "fate(s) divided." Our site has people connected to fate in a more "tangible" way, where others are not and there's political segregation between the two. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2018 16:06:17 GMT
The url for 'Victory Road' was taken.
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137 posts
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Post by Clear on Jul 16, 2018 16:31:56 GMT
i've not named a site on my own, but if i were to i had always imagined three possible criteria.
A) a known, short phrase, hopefully no more than 3 words long. (e.g 'Together We Fall')
B) a single, uncommon word. (e.g 'Megalomania') (this one's my favourite)
C) two-word alliteration. (e.g ...)
these are the stickiest ones imo, and also the easiest to come up with.
edit, to expand:
a site doesn't have to have a content-encompassing title. as you've pointed out, it's a name but perhaps more importantly a hook. at least for me, i'm more likely to click on a site with a vague name, because the ambiguity is enticing. the association comes after, and as long as it's at least vaguely related, it needn't be very descriptive.
the quintessential example might be Chaos Theory. the name has some relation to the site content, but if you haven't heard of the site, you might be hard pressed to guess precisely what it's about. and yet i know what it is and probably most people who read the name also had the site involuntarily pop into their mind. it's a hook first, descriptor second.
obviously if your site attracts enough attention you can create that effect using almost any name, but the point is that 'what a site represents' isn't as crucial.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2018 16:59:35 GMT
i'm either clever or not. clever in that i do tons of research and find a phrase or word from the concept that pops out and can be used as a url. not in that i was inspired by katya's naming sense and i ask her if i can do it and she's like yeah wynaut.
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Post by Antiviral on Jul 16, 2018 17:13:35 GMT
As people have said already, I try to keep it simple, relevant, and just... hook-y. I haven't actually opened any of these forums, but some of the names I have for WIPs are:
Alone Together - A zombie apocalypse rp with a heavy plot/story focus. Basically, a bunch of people meet up and work together to survive. So they were alone together.
Tapping the Glass - An Ergo Proxy inspired rp where some event caused humans to live in domed cities. The lands outside the cities is populated by monsters, so they're the ones tapping the glass.
Enter the Labyrinth - A Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic rp. Pretty self-explanatory. Made around the beginning when it seemed to be a dungeon crawling manga.
Of Gods and Men - A DC/Marvel crossover forum. Supers tend to be god-like, and there's also normal folk. So, it's a story of gods and men.
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108 posts
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Post by Togasko on Jul 16, 2018 21:12:08 GMT
Eh, maybe the thread should be moved there. But this seemed like the suitable place? Its rp related I think.
I cant come up wiht good names myself, for anything. Its a struggle for me so i always end up getting help from more skilled people. Last thing I actually came up with was "Pokemon Nations" and it sucked. But the idea behind it was to have this whole MMO feel rp with all the regions of pokemon.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2018 21:35:11 GMT
Eh, maybe the thread should be moved there. But this seemed like the suitable place? Its rp related I think. I cant come up wiht good names myself, for anything. Its a struggle for me so i always end up getting help from more skilled people. Last thing I actually came up with was "Pokemon Nations" and it sucked. But the idea behind it was to have this whole MMO feel rp with all the regions of pokemon. Pokémon World is the name of the season 2 intro song ( link), and it's shorter than "Pokémon Nations." That'd be a small adjustment you could make. Simple is also possible: PokémOnline. I doubt either of those really tickles fancies, but it's good to see what processes other people have. I think even if we don't all agree your site's name should give someone an idea of what it's about, most everyone likes names that are memorable and short. Naming sense is something you develop, I think, rather than something you "learn." |
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Post by pharaoh leap on Jul 17, 2018 0:58:05 GMT
Nine times out of ten, my sites are named after song titles or song lyrics, because music means everything to me. There are exceptions, of course - Pixel Perfect, for example, was named because I was explaining to someone my issues with making mocks. Everything has to be perfect down to the pixel: pixel perfect. And then I was like, "Wow, that'd make for a really cute resource site name", since two of the three main "titans" (namely coding and graphics) work on the basis of pixel measurements. Names should be kept short, mostly so that they can be easily remembered. In the past, I've done some longer names - Tonight the Stars Revolt and At the Price of Oblivion, to name the... only two I can think of right now - and looking at them now, I probably wouldn't choose those names again. I also think names should have an easy-to-remember "shortening". Tonight the Stars Revolt had... nothing, skjldfhkdjfhsd, but At the Price of Oblivion was often shorted to Oblivion or, more commonly, @poo because everyone in the RP community is a godless heathen. To Bitter Endings is historically known as TBE. We're all Tibbies. It sticks more than the formal name. Names don't necessarily have to be a perfect "fit" for the site in question - honestly, this is super nit picky, but I'm more likely to avoid an RP that has the name of the series in its site title; alternatively, I swear that half the Game of Thrones RPs had the exact same name. So long as there's some thematic connection, it's a suitable name. Using a site I haven't open and may never: Decadence Dance, a song about ignoring the struggles of life through indulging in a decadent lifestyle/decadent ventures, used for an RP in a crumbling city where the struggling lower classes go unnoticed over the brighter, livelier parties and festivities enjoyed by the wealthier higher class. Another: Synchronicity, an idea of almost supernatural connectivity, used as the name of a site where time travel is used to connect three separate timelines suffering under a single obstacle that must be overcome by the RPers. Shorten those to, like... DD and Synch, and boom. Distinct names. Thematic ties. Easy to remember shortcuts. I get to jam because every time I see the names, I hear the song in my head, and all is good in the world. Lastly, I would avoid using "common" names, or names that are really "oh, duh" in nature - mostly because the more people who think of and use those names, the less unique they feel, and the less unique the site in question feels. If your URL is taken, and it's taken by another RP site technically, Synchronicity was taken, but by a forum dedicated to discussion the actual supposed phenomenon, kjlsdhfkjsdhf, it might actually be worth it to consider another name. The more sites a person can mentally connect in their head to a single name, even if they weren't necessarily ON those sites, the less impact that name has, and the less likely your site is going to be the one people think of when they hear the name. Even just two sites with the same acronym can have difficulties. I can't count the number of times someone's called Chaos Theory CT and I've had to blink like, "Wait, when the heck were you on Cryptic Truth????" Not that... *wheezes*... you should make sure your site doesn't share any acronyms with any other site, but just that idea: if even just acronyms alone, not even the full title can mess people up, think about the weight of having two sites ran within a year of each other with the same name. Wouldn't that undermine yours?
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435 posts
bits
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you're a world away, somewhere in the crowd. in a foreign place, are you happy now?
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Post by 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚒 on Jul 22, 2018 20:36:15 GMT
when it comes to fandom related sites, i try to pick out something that captures the essence of the concept, but isn't super obvious. like, for example, i've had a harry potter site (or a few but who is rly counting) and i had it named after a wizarding slang phrase. like if you are familiar with hp, then you know what it's gonna be about. but if not, it's kinda like huh. whazzat.
outside of that, i usually turn to song lyrics/the online thesaurus/etc for inspiration. i am almost always looking up useless stuff (useless to others) and getting it stuck in my mind. sometimes, i don't even have the site concept in mind. just a url that i'll come back to after a bit like this finally fits somewhere.
in all, i try to keep things short and simple. easily abbreviated if need be. easy to remember.
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Post by ♕ RISSY on Jul 23, 2018 21:41:03 GMT
i usually make a playlist of songs that remind me of the theme/plot behind the site and go from there. and if the site url is taken, i just move onto the next song title/lyric from said song.
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even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return.
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Post by valka on Aug 6, 2018 11:00:32 GMT
/performs necromancy
like a lot of people, i tend to name my sites (and threads) after songs and lyrics. some songs just have names that are like, tailor made for site names, i swear - like danger zone by kenny loggins. heck, sometimes i'll even name sites/threads after a track from a video game. i like the sound of under an ancient sun from skyrim, for example.
i think the thing i do that not many other people do, from my knowledge, is the use of episode titles from tv shows. it's literally where i got chaos theory's name from. agents of shield had an episode in season 3 called 'chaos theory', and i really liked how it sounded and after some research into the concept, it sounded pretty accurate for the site's concept? of course, chaos theory is an actual concept, so it's not an entirely original episode name, but it still offers inspiration and ideas.
i'll also draw inspiration from other things in video games, like quest titles and dialogue and whatever else. video games are Big Inspiration for me tbh.
at the end of the day, whether it's a fandom or original site, i will always try to get a site name that is unique and captures the essence of the site. i've seen far too many sites that use the same name, and it's always awkward because you'll never know which site someone is talking about, and you always want your site to stand out.
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Post by 「イオタ」 on Aug 6, 2018 22:43:42 GMT
I forgot until recently, but several years ago I was trying to make a .hack site after the one I played had shutdown (but then it resurrected so I never finished mine; maybe I'll finish it and adopt it out). I named it "World Beta" because the .hack MMO is called "The World" and ICly, this was like an R:3 beta or something.
I've been thinking about making a fantasy site to play my char at (and potentially adopt out if I can't handle two sites), but... but I can't think of any names. XD It's terrible. It is now that I realise that I kind of rely on spontanous decisions, like Kismet Divided. ;;
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So, I stuck with it. XD
