[nanomonkey]

From my experience on Scuttlebutt and other decentralized/alternative social medias, thousands will try something out just to kick the tires; it's staying, contributing and utilizing the tool for things it wasn't intended for that really matters.

[freehunter]

And convincing people to use a service named “scuttle butt”.

[tossAfterUsing]

annecdotally, my attention isn't usually held for long by people who are unwilling to engage with a service because of it's weird name...

https://scuttlebutt.nz/

[freehunter]

And that’s fine for you. But it’s not fine for the service.

Technically anyone can use the dating service Christian Mingle. But you might not find a lot of atheists or Jewish people on there, simply because of the name and the implication of the people who would use a service with that name.

[kick]

It's not a "service." They owe you nothing, and they don't need you to use it for them to keep using it. Especially given you aren't the target audience, all that really happens is you become a waste of bandwidth for anyone hosting a public peer.

[iamnothere]

Oh. Name bikeshedding again. Funny, people had the same criticisms about Twitter, yet it doesn't seem to be a problem now. And what the hell is a Google? (No, not a googol, which is the correct spelling.)

[nanomonkey]

That being said, the protocol is called scuttlebutt (which means gossip, or water cooler) and all the clients have more palatable names like Manyverse, Patchwork, Patchfoo, etc.

Fortunately, the protocol name is almost a filtering function that removes anyone so immature as to be put off by the name. The rest embrace the name, who doesn't like a good butt?

[freehunter]

I probably wouldn’t use it anyway because the way the name is defended online makes it likely that I wouldn’t enjoy the company of the service’s user base.

[detaro]

A word for chatting is somehow unsuitable as a name because you have to say the horrible 4-letter word "butt"?

[freehunter]

An archaic word that was only chosen because it includes the word “butt”?

[wutbrodo]

I wouldn't extrapolate the the level of immaturity it takes to make that connection to whoever named the service. The last time I giggled at hearing the word butt as part of a larger word or phrase was probably the second grade (cigarette butts, pork butt, etc)

[detaro]

Given the history of SSB, it seems quite unlikely that's the case. Originally developed by and for someone living on a boat, they used a nautical term to name the project.

[josinalvo]

Just watched the video about scuttlebutt.

To confirm: a copy of my messages and images is permanently stored in my friend´s and my friend´s of friend´s diaries (up until the point where they delete them, I presume)

[thephyber]

Even Facebook had the Games platform to create gravity and staying power... but only for a few years until FB turned off the spigot of free viral News Feed spam to friends of the game player.