NerdZone is rebranding

[AllThingsTech]

While I respect others may feel differently, I don’t like old skool forums or keep it classic, as it feels off-putting to neurodivergent ppl like me, who’ll assume a community isn’t progressive in terms of its thinking or thought process. I bloody well know how @Retro aims to make this place welcoming to everyone and is open to difference, so would strive to avoid names with negative connotations

 

[AllThingsTech]

I like “keeping it real”, but I also am aware that @Retro encourage members to remain anonymous, and so this may contradict that. Different values I suppose with all due respect

 

[Hitcore]

as it feels off-putting to neurodivergent ppl like me, who’ll assume a community isn’t progressive in terms of its thinking or thought process

No they won't. Not all of them, that is. I don't think this is a neurodivergent people thing. This is probably more a you thing, interpretation wise.
From one neurodivergent to another.

 

[Mars]

I don't see why 'old skool-keeping it classic' is discriminatory in any sense at all.
Should a neurodivergent person wish to join, all they have to do is to just take a peek at our forum, and they will soon see that we are totally non judgemental.

I like “keeping it real”, but I also am aware that @Retro encourage members to remain anonymous, and so this may contradict that. Different values I suppose with all due respect

Yes, we do encourage members to remain anonymous, I do not see where you see the contradiction.
BTW, it is 'keeping it classic' not 'keeping it real'.

 

[Mars]

No they won't. Not all of them, that is. I don't think this is a neurodivergent people thing. This is probably more a you thing, interpretation wise.
From one neurodivergent to another.

Ditto. Short and to the point.

 

[petermarkley]

I can’t help but notice a possible lesson for us all here, that good branding is hard. This is why it constitutes an entire professional career field, which I daresay is often taken for granted…

 

[Retro]

Founder comment: indeed, I don't discriminate against anybody, I hate you all equally!

 

[Hitcore]

This is why it constitutes an entire professional career field

"...so it's like a nerd zone, but retro."

 

[Mars]

I can’t help but notice a possible lesson for us all here, that good branding is hard. This is why it constitutes an entire professional career field, which I daresay is often taken for granted…

Too true, this thing you said about branding; you have to take so many variables into account, and even then, you will never win everyone over.
There is a lot of psychology and reading the current mood, when you decide to create a new brand. Whether it be in food, clothing, cars, kettles....Everyone has to eat, wear clothes, drive cars, use a kettle, and most people don't even realize how influenced they are by a clever ad.

 

[Retro]

While I respect others may feel differently, I don’t like old skool forums or keep it classic, as it feels off-putting to neurodivergent ppl like me, who’ll assume a community isn’t progressive in terms of its thinking or thought process. I bloody well know how @Retro aims to make this place welcoming to everyone and is open to difference, so would strive to avoid names with negative connotations

Honestly, this isn't disciminatory to people at all. It's simply embracing the fact that this is an old skool forum and making a feature out of it rather than tacitly accepting it as a liability in 2025 due to the likes of faceless multibillion organisations like Facebook and their controlling, exploitative excuses for forums that everyone flocks to. It invites people who are into my kind of forum and real community feel to join and embraces this difference and feel what a real community can offer.

I've pretty much decided on this name now - oldskoolforums.com - and like that troublemaker @Hitcore's suggested slogan of Keep It Classic, making for a tagline at the top of the homepage of "Old Skool Forums - Keep It Classic", or maybe "Old Skool Forums - Keeping It Classic", I'm still torn between them as the meaning is subtly different and both are valid.

 

[Retro]

I can’t help but notice a possible lesson for us all here, that good branding is hard. This is why it constitutes an entire professional career field, which I daresay is often taken for granted…

Crikey, you're telling me! It's a core part of marketing and I'm not the marketing type, although I'm not hopeless at it, either.

Thinking up a good name is hard enough, designing a great logo is even harder and for that I'll need help for sure as I'm not artistic, but one step at a time.

 

[Retro]

I've just discovered that there's an English town with the name "forum" in it. How cool is that?!

Blandford Forum (/ˈblænfərd/ BLAN-fərd) is a market town in Dorset, England, on the River Stour, 13 miles (21 km) north-west of Poole. It had a population of 10,355 at the 2021 census.

Blandford Forum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Blandford Forum Town Council – Information about the activities of the Town Council in Blandford Forum

 

[Hitcore]

and like that troublemaker @Hitcore's suggested slogan of Keep It Classic, making for a tagline at the top of the homepage of "Old Skool Forums - Keep It Classic", or maybe "Old Skool Forums - Keeping It Classic", I'm still torn between them as the meaning is subtly different and both are valid.

Take another look at what that troublemaker did with the tagline in that Mad Men meme. It's just the kind of quirkiness that fits both sides of the coin.

 

[Mars]

I've pretty much decided on this name now - oldskoolforums.com - and like that troublemaker @Hitcore's suggested slogan of Keep It Classic, making for a tagline at the top of the homepage of "Old Skool Forums - Keep It Classic", or maybe "Old Skool Forums - Keeping It Classic", I'm still torn between them as the meaning is subtly different and both are valid.

I know, at times even troublemakers do come up with some damn good ideas, as is the case here

The way I see it: meaning is indeed subtly different, but nevertheless the difference is there, and @AW put his finger on it: 'keep' is more of an order, while 'keeping' is a positional statement. It says something about what we are all about: old skool, laid back, it gives no orders, and it has a friendly aura to it. That is my feeling.

 

[Retro]

I did see that and it's clever and satirical as a meme, but I don't think it would work for real.

This is how it would look: "Old Skool Forums - Keep(ing) It Classic". It's got to flow and also, a gag that one sees constantly soon gets old and irritating, so I have to choose one or the other.

 

[petermarkley]

I feel like I should say this now before I regret not saying it later.

When we were considering “xenforums” or even “discussiondock,” I was more ambivalent. And of course I can’t know for sure what would’ve happened in a counterfactual reality…

But right now I feel like if Nerd Zone had been originally pitched to me as “Old Skool Forums” instead, I genuinely might not have looked at it with as much of an open mind, and possibly wouldn’t have joined.

Of course I also recognize that I’m often an outlier, and if the goal is marketing to a general population then sometimes my response is contrary to that goal.

So take that for what you will

 

[Hitcore]

It's got to flow and also, a gag that one sees constantly soon gets old and irritating, so I have to choose one or the other.

Yeah, I get that. Oh well, it was worth a try!

 

[Hitcore]

It says something about what we are all about: old skool, laid back, it gives no orders, and it has a friendly aura to it. That is my feeling.

Mars actually makes a great case here.

 

[Mars]

Of course I also recognize that I’m often an outlier, and if the goal is marketing to a general population then sometimes my response is contrary to that goal.

So take that for what you will

Hi Peter, there are two of us then, being an outlier I mean.
Always been like this, and I like it; it feels so free, no constraints, gives me freedom, I take heed of what goes round me, but ultimately I am an outlier.
However, on this occasion of rebranding, it is not just the outlier in me that talks; I have given it lots of thought, because as you say, re-branding is not a walk in the park.
I am glad @Hitcore (who I reckon is also not a bona fide herd member) agrees with my last point re: keep vs keeping.
What is your view?

 

[Hitcore]

More or less what I said before: I really like the sound of Keep It Classic. This is subjective, of course. But there are good arguments made for Keeping It Classic. So I'm still very much in between these two.

On a side-note: I've changed my vote in this thread's poll to "Hell yeah!", given the current developments.

 

[AllThingsTech]

Honestly, this isn't disciminatory to people at all. It's simply embracing the fact that this is an old skool forum and making a feature out of it rather than tacitly accepting it as a liability in 2025 due to the likes of faceless multibillion organisations like Facebook and their controlling, exploitative excuses for forums that everyone flocks to. It invites people who are into my kind of forum and real community feel to join and embraces this difference and feel what a real community can offer.

I've pretty much decided on this name now - oldskoolforums.com - and like that troublemaker @Hitcore's suggested slogan of Keep It Classic, making for a tagline at the top of the homepage of "Old Skool Forums - Keep It Classic", or maybe "Old Skool Forums - Keeping It Classic", I'm still torn between them as the meaning is subtly different and both are valid.

I wasn’t suggesting that was your intention, and @Retro my friend, I know you are certainly far from discriminatory

I’m just saying it’s how it may come across. You know what, @Retro ? I tried googling “neurodiversity forums” with no results. It would be super great imo if you consider adding some kinda slogan about diverse minds or some kinda statement “welcoming to neurodivergent people and people with differing viewpoints” I want this community to gain the attention it deserves!!! You’ve got this @Retro Never sell your values short

 

[Retro]

@petermarkley your example of having possibly not joined is actually a good illustration of the whole point of rebranding. How many people see "nerd" in the name and just think "no!" and we never see them? Impossible to quantify, but I get the sense that it's happening, really holding back growth. Even with the tide of change against classic forums, this one can still be more successful as there are still a significant number of people who prefer this classic style.

Also, at the time, I couldn't think what to call the forum. I wanted a dotcom and thought up lots of names, but they were all taken which is why I ended up with a .uk TLD, which was only ever second best, but at least it's a character shorter. Also, the nerd theme was never my first choice either, but after researching it, I found quite a few online businesses and forums with this theme and discovered that it doesn't carry the same stigma that it did before. However, it hasn't gone away completely which is why I think it's holding it back, plus, even without it, most people don't identify as nerds anyway, which can put them off. I don't identify as a nerd either. Does that surprise you?

The nerd theme fitted with my personal interest in the technical and scientific which was the original aim of the forum, so I ended up going with it, unable to think of anything else and those sections are here. It's just that this area gets almost no traction at all from members, so I've focused on other areas, as you can see. It's also a clue that the nerd theme isn't working. Had I thought of oldskoolforums.com back then, I'd have jumped at it and I'm surprised that the domain was free now.

 

[Retro]

I wasn’t suggesting that was your intention, and @Retro my friend, I know you are certainly far from discriminatory

Ok, glad you see that.

I’m just saying it’s how it may come across. You know what, @Retro ? I tried googling “neurodiversity forums” with no results. It would be super great imo if you consider adding some kinda slogan about diverse minds or some kinda statement “welcoming to neurodivergent people and people with differing viewpoints” I want this community to gain the attention it deserves!!! You’ve got this @Retro Never sell your values short

The About tab at the top gives a good idea of what the forum is about, within the nerd theme and is effectively an advert for the forum. When I rebrand it, I'm going to completely rewrite that section and lose all mention of all things nerdy, instead focusing on the old skool theme.

I'm going to make it appeal to the widest demographic as it's just marketing 101, so it will just be something along the lines of "welcome to all" without specifying neurodiversity. As you've seen from your Googling, that's not a thing and being explicit about it, especially in the tagline, is bad marketing and likely to kill the forum.

 

[Retro]

Ok ppl, I've got an announcement to make.

The issue with the Online Safety Act has finally been resolved, so the lengthy hold on developing the forum further has finally lifted! While this legislation is still onerous, it doesn't have all that much effect on a forum of this size thankfully, but it's not zero either, so I don't have to shut it down for fear of falling foul of it. This means that I'll be moving the forum to the oldskoolforums.com domain and related things like a new logo, About section, renaming sections, etc; it's quite a lot of work and something I've done before.

I'm in no hurry and have to do this in my free time, so the pace will be quite leisurely and I'll keep you all posted of significant developments.

Also, I've decided to make the slogan, "Old Skool Forums - Keeping It Classic", despite me preferring the shorter, punchier version of "keep" as this seems to fit a little better. Thanks for all your feedback everybody, it really helped to resolve this question in my mind as the differences are so subtle. I have an especially big thankyou to @Hitcore for his multiple suggestions, of which this was one, without which I may not have landed on this slogan in the first place.

Finally, there's nothing stopping me from changing the slogan to anything I want in the future either as it's just a text field in the ACP and I've made changes before. I may change keeping to keep if I feel that might work better, but I'm going to start off with keeping.

 

[petermarkley]

I … discovered that it doesn't carry the same stigma that it did before.

Hopefully this doesn’t make you feel old, but it seems to me like it’s been almost my entire lifetime that the positive uses of “nerd” outweighed the bad uses in casual discourse … I honestly can’t remember the last time I heard “nerd” used in a negative way except:

1. by a frat boy or sports jock, or
2. in a period drama from the '80s or earlier

But do what you must. Just offering my perspective