I am writing a lengthier missive on this topic, but I wanted to briefly summarize my point of view. After much deliberation I have come to agree with most of Robert's points. Right now my top choice is "We support the digital commons".
Well, ok, I'll make this one a little longer right now. There are a
couple things I think we need to address explicitly that have gotten
only passing mention so far: Who is the audience, and what is the
context for the message?
It seems quite clear that the audience is the general public, and I
think it should be. That means FLO is out. Libre is out. Free is out.
Open is meh. "The commons", on the other hand, is a well-established
noun (late 14th century, according to etymonline.com) that means
exactly what we want. "The digital commons" is the perfect narrowing
of focus that reflects who we are. (Sorry, Robert, it definitely needs
"the" to be proper English.) "Support" is the most concise word to
describe our mission, a point I will expand on in my next email. It
also has a delightful double meaning that is so en vogue for slogans:
It evokes both a statement of solidarity ("We support workers'
rights...") as well as hinting at what we actually do.
Now, what is the context? I think the context is "a phrase we can put
next to our logo, wherever we deign to put our logo". I can think of
two concrete examples that demonstrate it: a t-shirt and a flyer.
Let's start with the flyer:
Help Free The Commons!
We at Snowdrift.coop lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet, consectetur
adipiscing elit. Donec a diam
lectus. Sed sit amet ipsum
mauris. Maecenas congue ligula
ac quam viverra nec consectetur
ante hendrerit. Donec et mollis
dolor. Praesent et diam eget
libero egestas mattis sit amet
vitae augue. Nam tincidunt congue
enim, ut porta lorem lacinia
consectetur.
<S> Snowdrift.coop
We support the digital commons
Note the difference between the catchy header at the top, and the
slogan, which is attached to our name. I think, in this example, this
is definitely how we'd want things laid out. If we take the catchy
phrase and make it the slogan, we have to reach for something else,
something inferior, to use as the header!
Similarly for a t-shirt, with both phrases occurring but in their
appropriate positions:
FRONT
Help Free the Commons!
<Mimi and Eunice do something clever on a field of snow>
BACK
<S> Snowdrift.coop
We support the digital commons
Now, try putting "Help free the commons" in the slogan's context. It
just wouldn't work. To me, that makes it very clear which one is the
slogan, and which one is something else. Basically, I think anywhere
we think to put our logo is a place we could also put the phrase "We
support the digital commons". That, coupled with the fact that it
accurately and concisely describes the project, is what makes it a
good slogan.
As a final remark, I want to point out that nothing would stop us from
having e.g. multiple buttons, each with different phrases. We can have
more than one slogan or catchphrase. :) But if we're going to pick
just one that will most commonly be paired with our name and logo, I
think we should pick "We support the digital commons".
Coming up, I want to talk about why we might want a *second* slogan,
one that actually uses the terms "FLO" or "Free" or "Libre". I'll get
to it later, in a couple days maybe.
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
_______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.snowdrift.coop https://lists.snowdrift.coop/mailman/listinfo/discuss
