A few years ago I worked for a multinational European company that decided to rebrand itself and get one company name that was equally inoffensive across Europe. After paying a brand naming company to look at the business and find a name that worked across all European languages we duly started the rebranding. Then one of the programmers went on this newfangled internet thingy and found that the domain had already been snaffled by a site that gave information about how to grow marijuana.

Moral of the story, getting a name that makes sense or at least isn't wildly inappropriate in multiple languages is a non trivial matter, and the more languages you have to worry about the more difficult it is. We have been focussed on English but Wikimania is a global event so any rebrand has to work on all languages.

Happy to change my mind if ISIS rebrands itself as WKImania or some country elects Ms Wickinamia as head of state.

Regards

WereSpielChequers


On 3 Nov 2016, at 15:26, Lodewijk <lodewijk@effeietsanders.org> wrote:

I think we haven't had this discussion for at least five years, so I guess it's fine to have it again. I don't feel a particular need to change either, but there's no other way to find out if many people do feel such need, than to have this discussion. I'm fine with people putting arguments together in a constructive fashion like this, and then after that, seeing whether there's a widely shared sentiment to change, based on that. 

Lodewijk

2016-11-03 16:13 GMT+01:00 Luca Martinelli <martinelliluca@gmail.com>:

Sorry for my bluntness, but... are we REALLY having this conversation? We're about to question our annual summit's name after 12 editions? Is it really a problem?

L.


Il 03 nov 2016 14:29, "Chris Keating" <chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com> ha scritto:
Well, the idea of "-mania" meaning "collective outpouring of enthusiasm" rather than "mental illness" dates to at least the 1960s with Beatlemania, even if the original use of the formulation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisztomania - was intended to have clinical meaning. 

I am unaware of any actual objections to this usage from, for instance, psychiatrists or mental health organisations.

Chris



On Thu, Nov 3, 2016 at 1:16 PM, Stuart Prior <stuart.prior@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:
"Mania" is not a word where the meaning has completely changed, and is still evidently used in current psychiatry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mania#References

A prescriptivist view of the word would be deciding what it doesn't mean, as much as what it does.
Gordo is rightly pointing out that nowadays it just has more meanings, and has stigmatising qualities like the words "lame", "retard" etc. And we should think about that as a movement that tries to be inclusive.

Personally I've always thought that Wikimania needed a name change (Wikimedia Conference needs a name change too). WikiGlobal? WikiSummit? WikiFest?

S



On 3 November 2016 at 12:54, Stephan Schulz <schulz@eprover.org> wrote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymological_fallacy

> On 03 Nov 2016, at 13:52, Pierre-Selim <pierre-selim@huard.info> wrote:
>
> I'm not specially shocked. In France we have a video game retail company called Micromania (based on microcomputer and mania), who targeted video game player (I don't think the name of the company is confused by anyone as a medical condition or an insult).
>
> Long time ago I heard a good joke about the naming of the conference: it should be called the Wikimedia Conference and what is call now the Wikimedia Conference should probably be called Wikimania
>
> 2016-11-03 13:28 GMT+01:00 Gordon Joly <gordon.joly@pobox.com>:
>
>
> Is it proper and correct to use the term "mania"?
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mania
>
> Would we say "WikiMad" or WikiCrazy"?
>
> Gordo
>
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