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Developing Mastodon, I strive to use terminology that is familiar to as many people as possible so as to not put up unnecessary barriers in understanding. For this reason I am happy that we went away from calling posts "toots". It has always been a point of friction for people. Not that I dislike branding, quite the opposite, but in my experience receiving feedback over half a decade, it had a negative effect on the platform for little benefit.

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Eugen Rochko

Probably not a lot of people know this now, but Mastodon's web app started out with "Publish". In 2016 a famous YouTuber jokingly offered to support Mastodon's Patreon forever if I changed the button to say "Toot" instead. Needless to say, this was a really early, and not very informed decision. The first glimpse of attention and financial support. As a non-native speaker I had no idea there was another meaning.

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YᗩY ᖴOᖇ ᗷIᑕYᑕᒪEᔕ

@Gargron i prefer toot & now Imma tootler

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Roger Erik Tinch

@Gargron “toots” is still being referred to in recent how-to articles I’ve read. So glad you made the change since it sounded ridiculous to say.

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Peter Kahlert

@Gargron it's still charming somehow

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ChiefGyk3D

@Gargron I don't know, aren't we all just farting into the internet? LOL

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ocdtrekkie

@Gargron I didn't even know they weren't called toots anymore.

...Still gonna think of them as toots though.

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dimi

@Gargron Now I feel embarrassed for going along with and using "toot" :blobcatrainbow:

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Traceva

@Gargron It does sound silly 😁

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ok, doomer.

@Gargron I'm glad it changed.

Honestly, it's one thing that kept me from using this site a bit... I heard about mastodon and loved the idea from years ago, but it was like... Open source 😍 twitter like social network 😍 Decentralized 😍 Posts are called toots :blobconfused: It just felt... unserious.

And Im also not a native speakers, I didnt know it meant fart, I just didn't like the sound of toot.

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Kristin Henry

@Gargron Fantastic! "posts" is so much more relatable, especially to newcomers.

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Speyquine (Lucy)

@Gargron ha, I'd just learned that was the word but I do prefer posts.

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John L. Grantham

@Gargron Bummer, I always thought “toots” and „Tröt“ were adorably cute. 😅

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Zerov

@Gargron I like this approach very much. I think technology should use more simple and self explanatory terms to make it more accessible.

I've seen someone suggest calling them "communities" instead of "instances" or "servers" and I totally agree.

We're dealing with humans, so let's use human language.

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Chris Pitts

@Gargron @Pwnallthethings Personally I find it endearing. It’s a differentiator, fits with the Mastodon theme and a great bit of fun - something which is important to me. Too many developers and companies take themselves far too seriously. There’s no reason to conflate ‘professional’ with ‘dull’ or ‘serious’.

Keep up the great work!

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Ann Lipton

@Gargron okay but @nathanrichardson was calling threads "toot suites" and i think we need to keep that.

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@Gargron I'm very confused, what weird thing does Toot mean? Besides the meaning related to elephants and wind instruments I'm unable to find another meaning anywhere.

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𝔗𝔲𝔩𝔲𝔩𝔞 𝔗𝔢𝔫𝔞𝔫𝔱

@Gargron Good move, esp that "toots" are synonymous with "farts" in some parts, among the preschooler set.

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Shmarkus

@Gargron the "Toot!" button works well for me. Every time I press it, my mind says "Toot" which is pronounced "Tuut" which, in Estonian, means "beep" :)

Tuut

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jrm4

@Gargron

now let us talk to the fine fellows creating the GNU Image Manipulation Program

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jeffeb3

@Gargron someone should tell @Tusky

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