You also dilute the value of the Wikipedia brand itself. Currently, it is associated most strongly with an encyclopedia; if you change that (e.g. "Wikipedia Species", "Wikipedia News", then the brand itself becomes less focused. Using the sword of name recognition goes both ways.
Titoxd.
-----Original Message----- From: foundation-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:foundation-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Erik Moeller Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 4:41 AM To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Rethinking brands
Currently, many projects are trying (and not rarely succeeding) to get their own identity, with their own plans and functions. By renaming them to "Wikipedia something", we would be telling them that that is not the way we want to go.
I understand the emotional reasons for projects to have their "own identity," rather than being directly associated with Wikipedia through their name. What are the rational ones?