Let's brainstorm a name for the next version of TiddlyWiki

#1

For context : How to stimulate User Growth of TW? - #56 by jeremyruston

Both @Mark_S and @jeremyruston made very good points. In my opinion if the name should be changed, it would be best sooner than later, while the community is still relatively small. So let’s start brainstorming !

In my mind, tiddlywiki is like a tree progressively growing a multitude of branches. It relies on ever changing networks, interconnected network that can become truly massive while being at its core a single entity.

As a fun fact, the largest organism in the world is this aspen tree : Pando. It occupies 108 acres (43.6 ha) and is estimated to weigh collectively 6,000 tonnes, making it also the heaviest organism on earth and may be the oldest too (several thousand years old). Pando is Latin for “I spread”.

The longevity of that organism, the fact that it is a single entity and yet a multitude of interconnected individuals spanning from a common root make me think this would be an appropriate name for TiddlyWiki. The name is also perfect : a tiddlywiki file is always growing, its content spreading in all directions.

Thus, my suggestion is “Pando” or “PandoWiki”. What’s yours ?

Edit: Following the comment of @Jon, I changed the title of this thread from “Let’s brainstorm a name for the next version of TiddlyWiki” to “Let’s brainstorm a name for the next version of TiddlyWiki”.

TiddlyWiki is almost 20 years old!
How to stimulate User Growth of TW?
#2

Pando may be too close to https://pandoc.org/ and given there’s some connection (markup documents) it can be confusing.

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#3

Good point ! Here’s another suggestion in the same spirit : Mycelium.

It’s a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. A mycelium may be minute, forming a colony that is too small to see, or may grow to span thousands of acres as in Armillaria. Interestingly, mushrooms may be able to communicate with each other by using up to 50 words, which remind me of the basic and yet very powerful language of tiddlywiki. The network that mycelium form is also very reminiscent of the network formed by the relationships between tiddlers.

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Similar : Canopy, Filament

#4

Another idea : Modular

TiddlyWiki is highly customisable. According to oxfordreference.com, a modular organism is

An organism in which the zygote develops into a discrete unit which then produces more units like itself, rather than developing into a complete organism. Modular organisms (e.g. plants, fungi, sponges, etc.) usually have a branching structure and an overall shape that is highly variable and determined mainly by environmental influences. Mutations of cells along branches may lead to heterogeneity between different parts of the organism.

Tiddlywiki is able to self-replicate, can adapt and evolve to the user’s needs… the parallel is striking.

Similar : Quine. Tiddlywiki is notorious for being a quine ( a program that takes no input and produces a copy of its own source code as its only output), so … QuineWiki ? See also GitHub - Marxsal/Quinoid01: Application to use TiddlyWiki on Android

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#5

More philosophical/abstract : Noosphere

The noosphere is the sphere of human consciousness and mental activity especially in regard to its influence on the biosphere and in relation to evolution. It is a philosophical concept that represents the highest stage of biospheric development, its defining factor being the development of humankind’s rational activities. The common thesis is that together human reason and the scientific thought has created, and will continue to create, the next evolutionary geological layer, that is part of the evolutionary chain.

TiddlyWiki (and wikis in general) are often compared to the organization of a human mind. The noosphere is the philosophical result of the interactions of all conscious entities on Earth, which recall the ability of tiddlywiki to be shared/integrated and it’s open-source nature, tiddlywiki being itself the result of thousands of contributions.

Similar : Gestalt, which in science fiction is a synonym of hive mind, or “group mind”. In psychology, gestalt qualities is what emerge from the whole, rather than merely the sum of its individual component (like a melody, or a painting). A tiddlywiki certainly fit this description : each individual tiddlers can be used to produce a whole experience/database.

#6

Caro @telumire

I like your foraging of words, a gerunding … process opening … :smiley:

TBH, I’m very unclear how you could describe TW “universally”.

Maybe there needs be many names , each matching a specific end-use?

Just a comment
TT

#7

To expand on my last post and try explain better what I meant.

IF we consider (pacé @TW_Tones) TW is a kind of “platform” or (pacé @TiddlyTweeter ) a kind of compact “operating system for web pages” … then you might get the problem TW becomes everything.

I seriously doubt an end-user is interested in everything.
They likely only interested in specific applications for their needs.

What is my point?

Merely that the naming of (many) apps differently may give a traction that trying to encapsulate a whole system in a word won’t?

NOT wanting to derail your thread.
But I thought this worth the writing.

Just a comment, TT

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#8

@telumire

What is wrong with a global name being “RUSTON”?

TT

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#9

Lest ye forget…

#10

I love that! It honors Jeremy and it’s rather unique! Brilliant idea!

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#11

Did you forget?

lovely idea, but I think Jeremy will worry, that other people would think, he wrote his name all over the creation.

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#12

That’s a fair point, as far as the Jermolene aspect goes.

I do like the honoring of the creator with it being something relative to mr. Ruston though, but if that doesn’t work for others, I’d like to offer a few other ideas, and maybe we can hold a poll on each of the major platforms and compare the results, whether people want to stick with TW or call it something new?

Some I’d recommend to add would be:

  • RustonWiki
  • OceanWiki
  • SilkWiki
  • BioWiki

names in-place of tiddler:

  • Rustles
  • Jerms
  • Cells(relative to BioWiki)

Some side-notes for consideration, wiki is of Hawaiian origin, meaning “quick” (or so Wikipedia tells me, so tiddlywiki is literally “small fish quick” which, i mean- yea that’s true ig.) and being that a tiddler is a small fish, we could consider an aquatic theme, since there are different areas of the ocean, and an ocean of knowledge is always desirable, and it is usually used on the internet, net of course invoking imagery of using a net to catch fish. There’s also the term “web” used for the internet, which gives the image of a spiders web, so maybe that could be incorporated?

Just spitball’ing, in case anything I bring up inspires someone else!

Personally, I enjoy TiddlyWiki for its name, and the origin and history of the name is interesting to me, as I often call my TW a “TiddlyKasten”, as a little side note.

Just my thoughts, hope this helps!

  • JMH

Edit: question for the community / creator - why is the mascot a cat’s silhouette? unrelated sure, but if there was meaning behind that, that could also be incorporated?

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#13

The one issue with that is, in UK, is that JERMOLENE is an homophone of the common cream GERMOLENE … 51Oi5PNwXJL.AC

Just saying, TT

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#14

A good name for problem solvers then? No matter the spelling?

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#15

Something that has always fascinated me: what causes projects, particularly big ones, to fail.

A thought I have had for a long time: if you have no way of measuring the cost of an activity, don’t do it.

So even before thinking of changing the name of something, it is a good idea to have a way to measure (account for) the costs.

The immediate cost of changing the name TiddlyWiki to something else: search results.

Do a search for “TiddlyWiki”.

As much as I like “Ruston”, do a search for it.

Do a search for other names.

And then, as much as some folk may dislike the name “TiddlyWiki”, you are going to get a bunch of folk who don’t like the alternative name.

I personally like “TW HyperLinked Solutions Platform”.

It is a long moniker, but it doesn’t matter. TW is the foundation for solutions, and people are looking for solutions to problems. The solutions that are built on TiddlyWiki, the names of those solutions are the ones that matter.

Take BASIC Anywhere Machine, aka “BAM!” (I just added the exclamation mark, which I might just make “official”). My pet project is extremely niche. It doesn’t look like TiddlyWiki unless you want it to. And the name says what it does (well, at least tries to).

“TiddlyWiki” or “TW Hyperlinked Solutions Platform” then only matters when a person wants to customize BASIC Anywhere Machine. A technical name for technical work is fine.

Something like “noosphere” or other, these ought to be names for TiddlyWiki use cases, a name that is about a very specific problem that is getting solved by TiddlyWiki.

Anyway, all of that blathering is mostly about: change the name, you immediately lose access to search results and history, and then have to change the names and url’s of so many things (plugins, related web sites, etc.)

And if it isn’t called TiddlyWiki anymore, then the word “tiddler” bites the biscuit. And I like the word “tiddler”.

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#16

I share your sentiment with that.
I’m sure a familiar discussion was being held when they were thinking of a name for what we now call a “wiki”, and others wanting something else.
Change is good, but no need to fix what isn’t broken, in my opinion.
It’s unique, almost unconventional name is something with a history now, and history is always important.

#17

Folks, like the title says, this is a brainstorming thread - otherwise healthy and lengthy discussion should be conducted elsewhere.

Spontaneity is the key!

#18

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall.

Trying to sell “Wiki” is silly.

Instead, one sells features and functionality.

“You need a way for a bunch of people to collaborate on content for an HR website. Let me build that for you.”

There is no mention of “wiki”, although that is what I’m going to give you. But I will be calling it the “Collaborative HR content solution.”

Same for TiddlyWiki. It isn’t the solution for end users.

It is the tool to build the solution. I would NOT tell folk who need to track an inventory: “hey, you need Visual Studio .NET; or Eclipse; or OpenText Gupta Team Developer.” We who build the solutions don’t pitch the tools with which we build the solutions. We pitch the solutions.

Oh oh, I’m getting into paralysis by analysis …

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#19

FWIW – For What Its Worth,

Google and Facebook changed their corporate logo and/or stock ticker.

So, i thought of TWKI as a “symbol” for TiddlyWiki. Heaven forfend we’d ever take our beloved to the publicly traded market. But this lead to my “discovery” of TWiki, as in twiki.org. What, if any common ancestors have TiddlyWiki and TWiki?

b.t.w, what ever name, if any, arises here, it should easily submit to fandom naming. e.g. i liked Pando, and would be pleased to be known as a pandonista!

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#20

Might have been a good idea to hold an agile brainstorming event with a well-defined scope.

Whatever intents in an open forum, you’re gonna get what you’re gonna get.

Whatever the title of the thread says, it is tagged “Discussion” and “user growth”.

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