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Comment by thot_experiment | Hacker News Reader

ngl, my least favorite part of mastodon is the fact that tweets called toots, i guess the name might become rote if it gets popular enough but i've ventured out into the fediverse a few times and it's always struck me as really awkward/silly

is that just me?

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Shortening Mastodon to Masto is even worse

"Here are some #MastoTips" https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/mastotips

T-t-thanks

Oh man. Just “published” a Masto-Toot. The kids are not happy.

I believe the best way to phrase it is "pushed out a masto-toot"

did you mean: pinched out

It's even weirder in Canada, where "toot" means "fart" but also "toke" as in inhaling cannabis smoke from a joint / pipe / bong.

> It's even weirder in Canada, where "toot" means "fart" but also "toke" as in inhaling cannabis smoke from a joint / pipe / bong.

No, that makes it sound just about right.

Fair point

Means the same in the US afaik, but maybe it's regional. That's the first thing I thought when I heard it.

IDK, I live in Canada (Ontario) and I've never heard of the word toot referring to flatulence until people started complaining about Mastodon on HN. For me toot always referred to the sound a horn makes.

I listened to an old radio show from late 2000s and heard them making fun of the word tweet, so clearly it wasn't widely accepted at first either. But the people eventually prevailed because the platform was so much fun for them.

“Tweets” and “blogs” sounded stupid, too, but they got bludgeoned into our collective consciousness. If you step back and think about it for a second, “blogging” sounds like something you might do in the bathroom.

> “blogging” sounds like something you might do in the bathroom.

This is really stretching it.

There was a "hit" commercial in the Netherlands, IIRC somewhere early 2000's. Lot's of funny gags and word-jokes. Also this one (translated from memory).

> A. Also, my husband blogs twice a day.

> B. Eeww, Yuck!

(Joke being that, for people not knowing what "blogging" is, but who want to appear worldly, it's safe to presume it's something really gross)

I bet he googles himself too!

The term 'toot' is gone from the latest release. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/18583/files

Among other reasons they didn't want to get sued by HootSuite because toot rymes with hoot. (Just BSing)

Eugen, the CEO, feels similarly to you. A good chunk of the userbase likes that it's silly. Conflict has ensued.

No, it's not just you. It's an awful name.

Gimp is the worst offender amongst badly named products. Its name is both a kink sex term and a slur against disabled people.

"Toots" are in the same category as "Cockroach" DB. Not something you want to think about. From among similar feature offerings, I'd go for the one that wasn't horribly branded.

Cockroach DB makes sense in the "impossible to kill, would survive a nuclear war" connotation, which are desirable traits for a database.

Calling them "farts" might be accurate but seems strictly unflattering.

Now, here is the interesting part: I was well into my thirties before learning that Gimp was a slur, and HN is still the only place I know it from IIRC.

The third use I hadn't heard about until you mentioned it.

Just watch "pulp fiction" and you'll never hear gimp the same again.

Part of the solution though is to just pronounce it "jimp" which is the official way anyhow

The other part of the solution is to just use Krita instead. XD

(but seriously there are very very few things that "The Gimp" is good for these days when you have the option to use Krita)

Thanks for the recommendation, it looks very promising. Photopea is another great option that I've been meaning to try

I knew it was a slur in middle school

Then call them "posts." Everyone knows what that means, it's not Mastodon-specific, and it's not a euphemism for something associated with bodily function that I'm aware of.

I thought the same when I joined twitter with its "tweet". In my head it just seemed weird, but quickly didn't even think about it anymore once I found interesting things

no, i find it weird too lol.

however, remember how many people used to so confidently say things like, “i will never use the word tweet. i’m an adult with an adult voice!”

if Mastodon catches on, it’ll just naturally fall into vernacular just like tweet did.

For me it doesn't matter if its Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon, HN, ... - mentally it is "posts". I'd have to go look what the UI on my instance actually says (some change it).

I like it for the specific reason that it's ridiculous.

I honestly thought this was going to be something to do with flatulence before I clicked on the link!

> is the fact that tweets called toots

It hasn't even used that name anymore for a while already.

Better toots than the shamefully embarrassing “truths” label.

I think it’s cute!

I wonder if they could just use “tweet”.

is “tweet” copyrighted?

[as far as I know] hashtags were originally just a twitter thing and they spread outwards. obviously the word “tweet” is more interlinked with twitter’s name and identity, but, if it’s not copyrighted, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be able to spread like hashtags did

No idea if this link works, but Tweet™ is a trademark of Twitter®.

https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4806:hi...

It annoys me to no end that TESS links aren't sharable. But if you click the "TSDR" button, it will take you to an equivalent TSDR page for which the link is sharable:

(It seems Twitter actually has the "tweet"® trademark in two different classes, so I'm not sure which one you were originally linking too)

https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85116717&caseType=SERIAL_...

https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77715815&caseType=SERIAL_...

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