What shall we call our sites?

Continuing the discussion from Consistent multi-site navigation:

Trying to think for a new users pespective; if you were a new user what would you expect our sites to be named?

What shall we call THIS site?

  • Community
  • Forum
  • Community Forum

0 voters

What shall we call the site where users can purchase OpenEnergyMonitor hardware:

  • Store
  • Shop

0 voters

There are no plans to change URLs, any changes will just be cosmetic.

You need another option - no preference :smile:

+1 - there should be a “No Preference”.

Checking a handful (or two) of US websites, some call the place you purchase a “Store”, a “Shop” or simply “Buy”.

Can we expand on where these terms will be used as you say any changes will just be cosmetic which is fine. but for example the forum could be titled the “OpenEnergyMonitor Community”, “The Community Forum”, “The Discussion Forum” or even the OpenEnergyMonitor Community Discussion Forum" in the title bar of the forum itself.

But the bigger concern is what is is called from every other location throughout the suite of sites so that you can find it.IMO of the choices given “community” is too obscure so the obvious choice would be “forum” for a concise single word for a link or button.

As long as users can find “the forum” you can call it what you like once they are there.

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I’m with you on this. I instinctively named it forum on the user guide link.

Please bear in mind this is a UK based site and users recognise they are on a UK site so the use of UK terms will be expected over any other. This is not a vote on how many US users there are online right now compared to UK users. All users would prefer to see the site labelled up in their own language but we are looking for the best global choice for all users.

Also think of context. we use the term store a lot when discussing energy and data on this site we don’t need another type of store when shop is quite obviously referring to the place to buy goods. Both store and shop can be correct depending on your perspective and origin but only one avoids any confusion with terms used in abundance on these sites.

Yes I’d agree with this, though I do think the word ‘community’ does work.

[quote=“pb66, post:6, topic:549, full:true”]

Please bear in mind this is a UK based site and users recognise they are on a UK site so the use of UK terms will be expected over any other. This is not a vote on how many US users there are online right now compared to UK users. All users would prefer to see the site labelled up in their own language but we are looking for the best global choice for all users.[/quote]

Yes - I completely understand. My comment was not a US versus UK. It was a comment on what I could find. In other words I did not look at the Apple UK website (as an example). I only looked at the US version.

In my honest opinion Shop vs Store really doesn’t matter. The important part is the OEM websites are consistent and intuitive. So if we we use “Shop” in one place, it should be the “Shop” in all OEM websites. OR if we we use “Store” in one place, it should be the “Store” in all OEM websites.

For what it is worth - a “shop” is someplace you take your lawnmower, vacuum cleaner, TV, or automobile to be repaired.

And I wouldn’t say it doesn’t work, any word will work once an association is made, but when you click a link that says “Community” where will it take you? to the forum!

Almost all English speaking users and many non-english speaking users will still call it the forum even when clicking a “Community” button. Nobody is going to search the Community for answers, they search the forum.

See the Discourse homepage and find their forum. They have called it “meta” but every time a user here has mentioned the discourse forum they have called it the “Discourse forum”, nobody here has referred to the interesting post they found on “meta” or even on “Discource’s meta”

IMO since “community” can never fully replace “forum” no matter how hard you try there is only one way to have a unified and consistent name across all sites and that is to embrace using the one term you cannot escape using. anything else will result in at least 2 terms being used for the same thing, an unnecessary potential for confusion.

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Took me ages to work out what it was. That is a word that does not work!

I agree and that is my point. Although some would argue it is quite an appropriate name for a forum that discusses the forum software, that it is also running on. A double “meta” if you like.

I bet they were well pleased when they thought that up. But it is totally useless when looking for the forum button.

Is “community” widely recognized enough (in other languages too) to (debatably, unnecessarily?) “jazz up” the forum label to be modern and trendy without causing a negative impact on the ability to navigate, which should be the sole purpose of the label. It can still be called a variety of things on the site itself, it can even be changed on a weekly rotation to whatever the coolest name of that week is. but for a consistent and functional navigation it must “say what it does on the tin” everywhere else.

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FTFY.:innocent:

Ha! In the 1950s - 1960s we did!

Now we park our car in the garage!

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I think that sentence presents a strong argument when you consider the ‘global’ nature of the forum. How many times do you read in the posts “excuse poor English” or something similar.
I wonder how those users would interpret a link to ‘Community’??

Paul

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I agree with PB, it needs to “work as advertised.”

There’s an often heard saying in the US automotive performance world, “Chrome is all show, and no go.” (Some phrase it “Chrome won’t get ya home.”) Like chrome, being new, cool, not out of style, etc. might look good, but does it actually make things work any better? Does it make it easier for users - especially new users, and those for whom English is not their first language - to find what they’re looking for?

Glyn, the question you and Trystan need to ask yourselves is “does it work?” IOW “will it pay the bills?” so-to-speak, or does it make things just that much more confusing to the users.

Each new user is a potential customer. Without customers there wouldn’t be an OEM shop, site, etc.

Community could mean many things. but an on-line forum seems to mean only one thing - the place where things are discussed, brainstormed, mulled over, etc.

Looking at the “numbers,” there’s definitely more UK and European users (combined) than US users.
That being said, I’d say the term “shop” is “better suited to the task.”

Thanks for your feedback. “Store” has been renamed to “Shop”

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the little caddy says it all … hardly any word needed to make that clear :innocent:

Sorry, I don’t follow?!

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