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by davnicwil 91 days ago
It's an opinion, and you feeling no particular way about it is equally valid.

But I did justify and maybe to reword slightly, surely if one of the main drivers is opening up research, the brand name should be something that's less obscure and more accessible / understandable as to what it is on first sight?

Maybe arXiv evoking the word 'archive' with an ancient Greek twist does that for some, but it's clearly a bit cryptic for many, and if the point is to open up probably the brand should just be something much plainer.
2 comments
aragilar 91 days ago
No, it's to be a pre-print server. If someone doesn't know what that means, then they shouldn't be using arXiv.
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davnicwil 91 days ago
everyone has a first time they see a thing and don't yet know what it is.

Using a brand as a filter where you have to already know what it means to get it is exactly the opposite of what it's supposed to achieve.

Consider the most exclusive (successful) brands that exist. Even there, where exclusivity is a brand goal, none of them have this property of being obscure on first contact.

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bonoboTP 91 days ago
You usually get introduced to it by your academic supervisor or collaborators as a masters or PhD student. If you're a solo researcher who has made a significant contribution on the frontier of science, I'm sure you'll be able to understand how Arxiv works as well. Because I assume you have had some conversations with other experts in the field. If you're a full on autodidact with no contact to any other researchers in the field, well, maybe it's better if you chat with some other people in that field.

Its reasonable to have a tradeoff here to avoid cranks and now AI psychosis slop. You can still post on research gate and academia.edu or you own github page or webhosting.

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Cordiali 91 days ago
I've never even connected the 'X' to the Greek letter chi. I just kinda accepted it as one of many groovy web 2.0 misspellings in search of a domain and trademark.
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matt-noonan 91 days ago
This is particularly funny because arXiv doesn't just predate Web 2.0, it nearly predates the public web entirely (only missing it by about two weeks)
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