DGN Name Change?

[n0Mad]

I'm wine posting!

Well at least that's better than some of our members whine posting.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

There are a lot of interesting points, some of which I'll have to reply to later, but...

DDN

DetroitDarkside.net

This was (something) like what I had in mind.

i draw a parallel between this and the concept of moving 'dgn night' to another location. dgn night stays at cc for the sake of consistency, because it's easy for people to remember - "dgn night = always saturdays!"

same thing with the name - change the name, people will wonder, "is this the same place? not sure, so maybe i'll try somewhere else!?" kind of like a band changing their name & no one being able to find them anymore...

i say, leave it the same. consistency is key for recognition.

This is the key reason that has biased me toward keeping it over the years (this idea has been rolling around in my head for at least 5 years) and probably the reason it will stay. Most of the other reasoning is missing the mark of growing DGN rather than trying to have it be more "L33T" and uber-specific.

Usually when a company chooses to change it's name they do it out of desperation to get a new pull or because they feel they need to change to keep there numbers up, but in the process lose there old pull.

Example: When Sears bought out K-mart they decided to change all there K-marts into Sears essentials, people didn't see it as a cheap Sears but an expensive K-mart, the new crowd wasn't strong enough without the old crowds back up.

That is true in many cases but not all.

For instance the Science Fiction Channel is/was at the height of its popularity and changed its name. They did their homework (and i personally hate the name change) but its helped them, mainly in their case, get female viewers that were turned off by the name (for some bizarre reason).

Companies also change their name just due to being merged with other companies and want both clients of the two companies to feel represented. Like when Citibank and Travelers Group merged into one of the worlds largest companies they became CitiGroup.

In both of the above cases it helped, rather than hurt business.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Even in the first post, to reinforce my point, we should never consider ourselves "gothic tolerant"! We're supposed to be "mainstream tolerant". This is the haven where we can come and not have to worry about being "tolerated" but embraced...uhm darkly. Preppy people should have to be shown tolerance here, not the other way around.

Poor choice of words on my part, sidetracked the point I was trying to make. "Gothic Embrace" probably just sounded a little too much like twilight (lol, not really, I just picked the wrong term to describe what i meant).

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I say leave it. I think it becomes too diluted and the original mission is lost if we water-down the name with a more encompassing term. I think, even though "it's just a name", it's also a loose label of who we are, it's taking a baby step in the wrong direction.

I try not to assume too much. Broadening the focus isn't self-evidently a bad thing. It might be a bad thing, but off the top of my head I cant really come up with a reason why its a bad thing. "Watered down" has a bad sound to it, but thats all it is, an asumption of negativity. The focus can be "more broad" without being "unfocused". Just having a larger pool , rather than a smaller pool. Is that bad? It doesnt seem like it. It could be, I'm just not seeing it (unless we turn it into a cartoon example which wouldnt be helping get at "the truth")

In any case, DGN is broader than "just about goths" if more than 3% of DGN would identify themselves as Gothic I'd be surprised.

The forum posts, have less than .01% of anything to do with "Gothic" so the broadening idea is already there, its just not reflected in the name.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

keep it the same.

yeah, i think dgn is just better off as dgn

i vote no.

Keep it DGN.

I'm glad you like the name and I'm glad you guys are here, I love you. In this case though its not a vote its meant to be:

"will it help or hurt DGN" that is:

- Will it help grow DGN?

- Will it cause more or less friendships to be formed via DGN?

- Will it encourage or discourage douchebags?

etc.

Not just "do i like it" lets say.

I think too often what is happening is its more about what "I" like, rather than "what would be best long term for the community as a whole". Which, might be to keep the name the same, but it also might be to change it, which is not really getting a full shake I don't think.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Having said all that , the likelihood of the name being changed is very low.

I doubt I'd change it even though above I'm making the case why the stated reasons might not be so great to keep it as-is, its more for conversation sake. Even if in the "long, long run" changing the name might be a net gain, I don't have the energy to deal with the short term drama it would cause.

My DGN batteries are low. The upside of trying to worry about DGN for the REALLY long term is not worth it to me. I just get too much grief over DGN so much so that its more job than enjoyable. (there is a lot of negativity that you don't see on the board, and little to off-set it).

Along with the reason torn states, which, unless we are thinking say 20 years in the future, is a very strong argument.