Meaning
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"Sygnal" has about the same properties as "Echo", in that it resonates what the project is about.
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The "y" gives the name a certain mnemonic quality, making it easy to remember.
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Clear pronunciation.
Trademark
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Not only are there no conflicting trademarks, there are no live trademarks by the name of Sygnal, at all.
URL's
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sygnal.com is taken, contains only a splash screen
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sygnal.org is taken, contains nothing
Taglines
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Who's got some?
Usage
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"name" feed
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"name" your site
Icons
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display sample icons here
Discuss
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Potentially ambiguous when spoken, unless we resort to "Sygnal-with-a-Y".
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Nearly all names, when spoken about with someone who haven't heard of it before, needs to have the spelling explicitly explained; Elbo or Elbow, Axon or Acson, Feedcast or Feed cast, Wyre or wire, Barbwire or Barb wire, Loki or Low key, Sikus or Sicus, etc. This is not specific to Sygnal.
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A: Do you have a Sygnal feed?
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B: A what?
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A: Sygnal is an XML-based format for syndicating your weblog.
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B: Oh, cool. I'll look into that later.
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A: Do you have a Sygnal feed?
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B: A what?
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A: A Sygnal feed, it's an XML-based format for syndicating your weblog, kind of like RSS.
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Here, B could either suffer from a blackout due to the politics and inane discussions on xml-formats and kill A, or B might want to know more about the format, including the URL, which A will spell out for B, because we all know how important spelling is in URLs.
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A: Do you have an RSS feed?
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B: Did you say "orifice feed"?
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A: No, I said "R-S-S"!
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B: "Areses"? Hmm, no, what's that?
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A: It's an XML format to syndicate your weblog.
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B: Cool, I'll look into that later. Please don't tell me any URL or anything, I'll find one myself.
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[MartinAtkins] I don't think that's really the issue. 'Feedcast' isn't a word for anything else, but 'signal' is quite a common word. While it's true that all of them would need specific spelling instructions when the uninformed listener is going to be writing it down, 'Sygnal' might need such qualification just in an average conversation. I can't help but think of the many conversations I've had about text-mode web browsers where I've had to resort to saying 'links with an I' and 'lynx with a Y'. True, Sygnal and Signal are not so closely related, but "signal" is a common enough word that I feel like every introduction to it would result in a two-minute digression on how silly the name is due to the listener's initial confusion.
If it's going to be called 'Signal', why not just spell it 'Signal'? (I don't understand the 'mnemonic quality' suggested above. What does the Y stand for?)
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[TomasJogin] Unlike Lynx/Links, there is no "other xml-feed format" called "Signal", is there? There is no need to clarify "which" Sygnal/Signal xml format you're talking about, whereas there's Lynx, the browser, and there's Links the browser. By "mnemonic quality", I mean that the Y "sticks out" in written text, since the word is most often spelled with an I. The Y also eliminates *all* name conflicts. There are not only zero *conflicting* trademarks, there are no live trademarks by the name of "Sygnal", *at all*.
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[MartinAtkins] Imagine the following (aural) conversation:
I don't buy your mnemonic benefit. The capital letter at the start of a proper noun is there to serve the purpose of differentiating a proper noun from a regular word. If "Signal" has name conflicts as you seem to insinuate, then this is going to cause confusion in speech anyway.
I also don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that some people will read it and pronounce the Y like the word "eye". How many people in the world pronounce Cygwin as "Sig-win" vs. pronouncing the Y as "eye"? I know at least three people who commonly go for the latter. I'm pretty sure it's probably "Sig-win", but I don't really know for sure.
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[TomasJogin] Like you say, the name is not 100% sure to be pronounced right by everybody in the world. However, I fail to see how its pronunciation is more complex or arbitrary than any of the other proposed names, and English isn't even my native tongue. Regarding your strawman example of one of the millions of possible future conversations on the format, I can't think of any creative reason to discuss it, it's completely arbitrary. Imagine the following:
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[TomasJogin] Or imagine, if you will:
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[MartinAtkins] I never attempted to claim that RSS was a good name. However, the fact that it isn't a commonly-used word at least automatically causes discussion about the spelling, rather than the recieving party assuming that the spelling is obvious and thus not asking.
I don't know about you, but I rarely give URLs in conversation. You might hang around with a bunch of people who carry PDAs to record all the URLs they accumulate during the day, but most people I know don't have any such device and are thus liable to forget any URL given to them anyway. It's easier in this case for the thing to firstly have a sensible, obvious name which doesn't conflict with anything else, and for the person to remember that name and later on type it into a search engine.
What is the URL for RSS anyway? I certainly don't know it.