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Riot is now Element

(element.io)
550 points J_tt | 1 comments | 15 Jul 20 07:07 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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badrabbit ◴[15 Jul 20 10:07 UTC] No.23843202[source]▶
No!!! Of all the names in the world why this. "Hey bro, let's chat on Element" ,not quite a ring to it.

The hardest problem in computer science strikes again!

Matrix,Riot and Libolm are epic projects, I wish them all the success but man, even Riot was a hard sell as a brand. I would seriously be dissapointed if it loses popularity over this. I don't think the project maintainers understand that their core users/fans are waiting for a product they can sell to friends,family and coworkers.

People who don't know tech rely on branding/brand reputation and word of mouth reputation to decide if they are intetested in even trying out a product to begin with.

Which of these is unlike the others?

1) Signal

2) Telegram

3) Element

4) Whatsapp

Hint: The theme is messaging and communication.

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bovermyer ◴[15 Jul 20 11:56 UTC] No.23843923[source]▶
You're allowed to dislike the name.

I like the new name.

If you're pissed about Element, you must be absolutely livid about Apple.

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rvz ◴[15 Jul 20 12:23 UTC] No.23844154[source]▶
> If you're pissed about Element, you must be absolutely livid about Apple.

Nope. 'Apple Computer Inc.' already marketed themselves specifically first in 'computers' and that association was built over the years.

After they had success in products that weren't attached to only 'desktop/laptop computers' it made sense to remove 'Computer' from the name. The same was done for Tesla Motors Inc. to Tesla Inc.

This is more like a full blown renaming of Riot, New Vector, Modular -> Element. You need to rebuild that SEO and previous associations from scratch again.

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bovermyer ◴[15 Jul 20 12:59 UTC] No.23844522[source]▶
Sorry, you missed the point of my comment. I was addressing the original commenter's dislike of the specific name Element because of its generic nature.
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CydeWeys ◴[15 Jul 20 13:24 UTC] No.23844839[source]▶
And you're missing the point that "Apple" is a decades-old brand that everyone knows. It doesn't need to be explained to anyone now.

Element is a new chat app that people won't have heard of and thus does need to be explained, and the "Element" name isn't helping in that regard because it's extremely generic and has nothing to do with messaging. Even worse, it has bad name collision problems; I just Googled "element app" and all the results are other apps named Element, including one hosted at elementapp.com (which will seem like a more legitimate domain name to many casual users than element.io).

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bovermyer ◴[15 Jul 20 13:35 UTC] No.23844986[source]▶
I was talking about when Apple originally came about, not Apple today.
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1. rvz ◴[20 Jul 20 12:02 UTC] No.23896908{3}[source]▶
You might as well say the same argument about Snapchat Inc. who is now known as Snap. Even more generic than 'Apple' as it is used as a verb, adjective and now a company name which appears at the top of the Google search results despite the founders launching their company as Snapchat Inc.

From a SEO point of view, The transition of 'New Vector' -> 'Element' is just as bad since the continuity of the name is completely lost and has to compete again in the SEO rankings.

The thing is with very generic names in search engines and word of mouth, continuity is essential and the creators of Riot have to rebuild it again with a generic name.