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the difference between the lightning and the lightning bug
Hello Livejournal - I know we haven't talked in a while (though I'm rubbing shoulders with many of you on Twitter and Facebook), but I am no longer capable of objectivity on this. As names for the website of a freelance proofreader/editor/occasional print designer, do any of these appeal to you? Or really not appeal? Boxes tickied are appreciated. Comments even more so.
[Poll #1540094]
I’ve been making a website for my freelance proofreading/editing/layout work – something that people can click on from my Daily Info ads, for example. It’s nearly done and I’m really pleased with it. But as ever, I’m making heavy weather of naming the damn thing. When I try to name something one of two things happens. I get all wound up about finding the exact right name, and the more I get like that the less likely it becomes that a good one will occur to me. Alternatively, I think of a name I like, fall in love with it and lose my objectivity, when in fact it’s not so great for the task in hand. (I'm fine at suggesting names for other people's things. It's when they're my own that it goes wrong.)
I wanted something that would convey the abstract text-wrangling I do as though it were tangible real-world work, because this is how it often feels in my head – like I’m rolling up my sleeves and tuning up an existing text like an engine, or hammering out a new one till it’s the right shape. I’ve always had a fascination with old printing presses and industrial machinery, and I wanted a name with a whiff of smoke and a smear of soot or grease to it. The design of the site features an image of rows of old metal type blocks.
wordworksweb.com: “The Word Works” was my working title. I liked the suggestion of a word factory and also the alternate meaning of words that worked as they should. But: there are practical address-related problems with this. The closest .com I can get to this is “wordworksweb.com”. I found this on stuckdomains.com, a website of domains which have recently become free. I briefly got excited about this and then started to realise there was a reason it was in the domain-name dumper.
I wanted an address which was the same as the actual name of the site, and I didn't want to refer to it as “Word Works Web”. If I was a stranger trying to find this site after being told about it in the pub or wherever, I’d probably try numerous variations on thewordworks.com and then maybe google it, if I hadn’t already given up at this stage. I would never remember the extraneous –web bit.
And it sucks from a search point of view: there’s a number of writers’ groups called Word Works out there, and a couple of Bible organisations, and wordworks.co.uk is the site of a freelance IT copywriter very like my own site. I can imagine people even thinking it was me, until they scrolled down as far as the dude’s name.
It's only really on the list because I'm wondering if you'll see the same problems with it as I do.
thewordforge.co.uk: this is... all right, but I’m not mad keen to get a .co.uk – all my sites are hosted together at Dreamhost, whom I love and am comfortable with, and they don’t do .co.uk , and if I wanted to host it with them I’d have lots of transfer faff. If I even can point a .co.uk domain at them. And if I didn’t, I’d have to learn the idiosyncrasies of a new hosting provider, and have a separate bill. Which may not be that big a deal, admittedly, but I guess the point is that I’m not excited enough about the name to make the faff seem worthwhile. Also, the .com version is quite similar to what I'm doing.
moltenwords.com: I think this sounds sort of awesome. I was thinking of hot-lead printing presses (Monotypes and Linotypes), and how printworkers would make type blocks as they needed them, melting the metal in a furnace and turning it into letters or lines in moulds, then melting them back down later. I also have a nice logo idea for this one.
But I wonder: does it convey fiery awesomeness or disorder – words melted down into a shapeless mess?
hotmetaltype.com: I like this for similar reasons to the above, but... I dunno. Would it sound cool to someone who doesn’t have my weird printing/typeface fascination?
burnishedwords.com: sort of an afterthought. I like the polished/shining implications of it.
Of course, there's always the other route: the dull-but-serviceable name made up of bits of my own name and the word "editing", and such. But a) it's dull, b) no bugger can spell my name, c) because my surname ends with "ne", a combination of that and "editing" is going to have "need it" in the middle. Hey, subliminal advertising! Not really.
Edit: I am now being tempted by 'grammarislove.com'. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME
[Poll #1540094]
I’ve been making a website for my freelance proofreading/editing/layout work – something that people can click on from my Daily Info ads, for example. It’s nearly done and I’m really pleased with it. But as ever, I’m making heavy weather of naming the damn thing. When I try to name something one of two things happens. I get all wound up about finding the exact right name, and the more I get like that the less likely it becomes that a good one will occur to me. Alternatively, I think of a name I like, fall in love with it and lose my objectivity, when in fact it’s not so great for the task in hand. (I'm fine at suggesting names for other people's things. It's when they're my own that it goes wrong.)
I wanted something that would convey the abstract text-wrangling I do as though it were tangible real-world work, because this is how it often feels in my head – like I’m rolling up my sleeves and tuning up an existing text like an engine, or hammering out a new one till it’s the right shape. I’ve always had a fascination with old printing presses and industrial machinery, and I wanted a name with a whiff of smoke and a smear of soot or grease to it. The design of the site features an image of rows of old metal type blocks.
wordworksweb.com: “The Word Works” was my working title. I liked the suggestion of a word factory and also the alternate meaning of words that worked as they should. But: there are practical address-related problems with this. The closest .com I can get to this is “wordworksweb.com”. I found this on stuckdomains.com, a website of domains which have recently become free. I briefly got excited about this and then started to realise there was a reason it was in the domain-name dumper.
I wanted an address which was the same as the actual name of the site, and I didn't want to refer to it as “Word Works Web”. If I was a stranger trying to find this site after being told about it in the pub or wherever, I’d probably try numerous variations on thewordworks.com and then maybe google it, if I hadn’t already given up at this stage. I would never remember the extraneous –web bit.
And it sucks from a search point of view: there’s a number of writers’ groups called Word Works out there, and a couple of Bible organisations, and wordworks.co.uk is the site of a freelance IT copywriter very like my own site. I can imagine people even thinking it was me, until they scrolled down as far as the dude’s name.
It's only really on the list because I'm wondering if you'll see the same problems with it as I do.
thewordforge.co.uk: this is... all right, but I’m not mad keen to get a .co.uk – all my sites are hosted together at Dreamhost, whom I love and am comfortable with, and they don’t do .co.uk , and if I wanted to host it with them I’d have lots of transfer faff. If I even can point a .co.uk domain at them. And if I didn’t, I’d have to learn the idiosyncrasies of a new hosting provider, and have a separate bill. Which may not be that big a deal, admittedly, but I guess the point is that I’m not excited enough about the name to make the faff seem worthwhile. Also, the .com version is quite similar to what I'm doing.
moltenwords.com: I think this sounds sort of awesome. I was thinking of hot-lead printing presses (Monotypes and Linotypes), and how printworkers would make type blocks as they needed them, melting the metal in a furnace and turning it into letters or lines in moulds, then melting them back down later. I also have a nice logo idea for this one.
But I wonder: does it convey fiery awesomeness or disorder – words melted down into a shapeless mess?
hotmetaltype.com: I like this for similar reasons to the above, but... I dunno. Would it sound cool to someone who doesn’t have my weird printing/typeface fascination?
burnishedwords.com: sort of an afterthought. I like the polished/shining implications of it.
Of course, there's always the other route: the dull-but-serviceable name made up of bits of my own name and the word "editing", and such. But a) it's dull, b) no bugger can spell my name, c) because my surname ends with "ne", a combination of that and "editing" is going to have "need it" in the middle. Hey, subliminal advertising! Not really.
Edit: I am now being tempted by 'grammarislove.com'. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME