this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2024
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Literally just yesterday my wife learned of Minetest's existence and said it was a terrible name
Just tell her that you told them your wife didn't like the name so they changed it.
I've seen it a few times in passing and always assumed it was like, a tech demo or proof of concept.
It initially was that. Also the name wasn't meant to stick around forever.
But, out of a sudden, between updates, not even the new website URLs ready?
I don't follow Minetest development that closely anymore, but last time I checked there were no issues or pull requests on their GitHub, nor something official regarding a name change in the forums.
This feels like there are just a bunch of people haphazardly deciding there is a new name now.
Here's a post from May in the ~~Minetest~~ Luanti forums discussing the name change: https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?p=425205#p425205
I'm not going to search further to find the original discussion, but another user in this thread mentions seeing talk of this about a year ago. I agree that it's not very professional for the new website to be in a less than functional state, but it feels like excitement or decision fatigue may be the culprit, not a rushed process. Then again, it's an open source video game, not everything has to be "professional" all the time. Meanwhile, enjoy this meme from luanti.org:
There were plenty of those threads and discussions happening during the past few years. This is a constant topic that came up in the forums and sometimes GitHub over and over again.
Yes, and in the last twelve months those discussions clearly accelerated, and that post made it clear the lead/original dev had made their mind up. Which very much negates you saying this was rushed.
"good news honey, they heard your complaint and renamed it"
It IS a terrible name. But it also is an over one decade old brand.
It will be hard to propagate the new name and have it as recognizable as "Minetest".
Those in open source circles will see through places like GamingOnLinux, Lemmy, Reddit and the official IRC/Discord. Those that don't find out probably are no where near the open source gaming community so it won't really matter.
It made sense at the time...
the new name is equally terrible, at least in terms of pronunciation.
Lu-aunty