Community sites, the name flavour.

What’s in a name? Let’s talk about some of those famous community sites and their popular names. Just the name, not the fame. Fact is, all of these communities are highly popular, despite the incorrectness of the names. Language Pimp makes a selection:


1. Facebook.com (Sounds like ‘fees-boek’)
So: Great pitch, the book of faces. People easily remember this name and it can be used as a verb f.e. “I’m facebooking until vanishing point arises”. Even a print of your bum counts for a face.
Not so: facebook is not written with a capital ‘F’, or is it? The registration page is dubious, the logo is with a low-grade, tiny, undersized letter f. The text version is with a nice & tall big-o letter F. Who cares anyway, nobody writes about facebook, people are always on facebook.

2. NETLOG.com (Sounds like ‘net-loch’)
So: A transparent name, your log(files) on the net. No way you can write or spell this wrong. Well, some still can but they have that lobotomy alibi.
Not so: The name has a bit of a musty sound. ‘Netlog’ sounds a little too technical for an open community.

3. Orkut.com (Sounds like ‘Oor-koet’)
So: Strong and simple name. Comes from the first name of the developer, Orkut Büyükkökten. A wise decision not to use his family name…
Not so: This site is for some reason not very known in Belgium. Pimp does understand. It must have something to do with that infamous 2008 virus called W32/Scrapkut.worm. We don’t speak the language, now do we?

4. Hyves.nl (Sounds like ‘haaifs’)
So: Strong name. It comes from the word ‘beehive’ so the users are bees in a hive. The Dutch probably fancy this. The spelling of the name ‘hyves’ is wrong. It should be hives in English but that name was already taken. Which is good, ‘hyves’ is more abstract.
Not so: The Dutch only know about hyves so don’t go mentioning facebook or Netlog. As they would say: ‘Vat azzer saaits are zère dèn?

5. LinkedIn (Sounds like ‘linkt-in’)
So: You are the in-crowd, one of the guys networking your way to connectivity with the like-minded. You are linked in! Yeah! Pimp tries hard but throws a 50/50 on the canvas and stays indifferent towards the sound of this name.
Not so: Pimp always reads this as ‘Linkedel-n, with an ‘L’. WRONG!
Suggestion: Linkedin with ‘i’ reads easier. And the Flemish in-crowd keeps calling this ‘Linket-in’. STOP saying that! It hurts the ears and undermines my endless patience.


*Next time the Language Pimp honors the great Barry White with some L.O.V.E. copy.

Language Pimp* time!

How come we add so little variety in such large amounts of internet copy? Language Pimp needs to know.
The answer is quite simple, the extremely hip internaut collective don’t want to be bothered too much. They look at 5 websites per minute. They read 17 words per second. So Pimp says: pimp your copy! Dare 2 be different, play hide & seek with the sheep. So the sheep still read your words.

Ni hao, ferocious spoof.
Pimp doesn’t write for the ‘Members of division 17 gathering outsourced siblings in touch with their inner selves’. For sure they will read all the copy one throws in the feed box. Pimp must write to gather click through rates. Fast and frugal copy. Booyakasha! Who’s looking up the word ‘frugal’ right now? Isn’t it scanty enough maybe?
Any hao, this being the first blog of the Language Pimp out in the open, here’s a question: Can we keep motivating people with numb copy? With all those ‘click here’ and ‘it’s your life’ messages? Or has the time come to motivate and inspire the mass with intelligent and interactive text haggis? Combine smart words with slim design maybe? Future proof will come…

Question:
1. Did you read every word of this blog?
2. Did question 1 make you read all of the content again?
3. Are you afraid you missed the part where it says: Win iPhone now?
4. Have you scanned the text again, even when you knew Pimp was playing games?

Until we meet again,
The Language Pimp.

Website Pimp likes
http://www.bash.org/?350939 Good copy, very accessible design, a little heavy on the header .

Website Pimp doesn’t like
http://www.havenworks.com/ – Inaccessible accessibility, superb combo of design and copy?

*Language Pimp is the alter ego of copyRAFTER aka strepieskode

Good web copy

Funny, when you do a Google search on how to write good copy for internet, you always (well... almost always) end up at sites written by half brainless geezers who've copied all their impressive knowledge off other less chosen web sites.

They provide some special rules and warnings in the baddest written language ever.
Example: 'You never write a copy that's to long for readers to understanding. They have no more interest.'

Woooww!!!! And you can follow them on Twitter. Mighty Mo that's awesome. The freedom of internet, having to cope with these perfect losers who only want to score and make fast money. Hell, has it ever been different?

The same goes for a belgian communication company that gives fantastic tips on how to score in Google with good SEO-driven copy. This company - bSeen - can have my humble opinion for free:
When you're a serious communication company giving online advice, please act as if you care!