Thoughts on Names

[Claude Desmoulins]

Diderot posted some name ideas on names in one of the town hall threads. Here are some other thoughts.

There are two different naming issues here, the existing sim and the whole enterprise.

If we go to a multiple sim setup , we'll need an overarching name, which needn't be Germanic or have anything to do with the present one.

As to the present sim, naming is tied up with theming. A relaxation of the Medieval Bavarianess of the current sim might make something less Teutonic appropriate.

Since the Colonia Nova Proposal is on the table, there's the possibility of using some translation or variant on "new" in each sim name to create continuity. Colonia Nova - Neualtenburg, etc.

If we pick an overarching name, we could use that as a prefix. Say we decide to be the Virtual Democratic Republic (I'm not proposing that name, merely a placeholder). Then the sims would be VDR-Neualtenburg(or VDR-whatever), VDR-Colonia Nova, etc.

[Dnate Mars]

As far as naming goes, we need to have 2 sets of names. We need to have an overall name for the entire community, the way that Dreamland covers all of Anshe Chung’s island sims, and we need to name each “city.â€

[Pelanor Eldrich]

Deleted. Keeping names under the radar.

[Dianne]

I like this idea also. A few thoughts of the top of my head (feel free to correct me if this is innacurate).

- It's always bothered me that we call ourselves a City when in fact we are a whole sim. It probably doesnt matter too much, but a lot of our documents refer to the "City of Neualtenburg," without any designation to the at least one third of the sim outside the walls.

- Confederation is a verb isn't it? I think once confederated, we would be a "Federation" only. So it would be "Democratic Freestate Federation" (DFF), or "Freestate Democratic Federation" (FDF), or my favorites "Freestate Federation" "Federation of Freestates" (FF).

- A Republic cant be a Federation AFAIK, "Friestadt" might be a Republic, but the group of sims together would be a Federation maybe? It would depend on what degree of internal governance there was in each sim I think.

- If the various sims had no government at all and everythign defered to the central sim (our current sim) then that would be more of a Republic I think, but then the idea of calling it a Confederation or Federation would not be correct.

I'm pretty sure it's only a Federation if its a group of units with internal governments cooperating in a bigger one. Canada for instance is technically a federation even though few people see it that way today.

So whether we are a Federation or a Republic and the overarching name might depend on the way we envision the structure we would evolve into.

[Jonty Peel]

A confederation is a union of states.

So for instance the Confederation of Helvetia, Switzerland to us English speakers, is an alliance of the 26 Helvetic cantons Zurich, Lucerne Berne, Vaud, Zug, Thurgau, etc

Presumably we would need to form an alliance with another republic to become a Confederation.

JP

[Dianne]

[quote="Jonty Peel":31zyjdsy]A confederation is a union of states. ...[/quote:31zyjdsy]Ah, never heard the word used that way before.

In Canada, confederation is the act of forming a Federation. I think it will be hard to decide on the overarching name without knowing the eventual structure we will have though. Maybe we should stick to just naming the sim for now?

[Jonty Peel]

Good news, we are both correct.

According to my copy of the Oxford English dictionary:

Confederation is either a

union of states

or

The act or instance of confederating.

JP

[Dianne]

[quote="Jonty Peel":2fj2zmwb]Good news, we are both correct...[/quote:2fj2zmwb]Yes.

I hope I didn't imply that you were not correct.

[Gwyneth Llewelyn]

Just to be annoying, the "City of Neualtenburg" is not just the bit inside the walls... that is the "inner city" only but the valley is naturally part of the city as well!

Around here, cities have "urban" and "rural" areas (for administrative purposes, and also some legislative ones); they're not defined by their "walls" only.

Federations (and confederations) can be republics, too, and use that in their names. Examples are the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany:hobavh2y]Federal Republic of Germany[/url:hobavh2y] and the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil:hobavh2y]Federative Republic of Brazil[/url:hobavh2y], just to name a few of the most obvious ones (Nigeria and Ethiopia are federal republics as well). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_republic for the usage of this weird combination. The Wikipedia's author of that text seems to distinguish "federal republics" from federations that are actually monarchies, like Canada, Australia, or Malaysia.

Switzerland is a [i:hobavh2y]very[/i:hobavh2y] special case It's traditionally "Confederatio Helvetica", although technically, a federal republic. Traditionally, it has no "head of state", but a "Federal Council" of seven members, although also traditionally, one of them is elected president for a year. This is at the same time a legislative body (also traditionally!), although, unlike most modern governments with a cabinet (or similar council), formed of members nominated by a single faction/party elected by the citizens, in Switzerland this strange executive body has members from all parties. Also, almost everything in Swiss law is based upon direct democracy, and has been so for uncountable years. Any citizen can contest a law, any citizen can propose amendments to the constitution... yes, it's that weird (My apologies to any Swiss members of N'burg; to redeem myself, I'll just say that part of my family lives in Switzerland — my cousins are the only persons I know that enjoy [i:hobavh2y]triple[/i:hobavh2y] nationality — as well as several of my very close friends) One would expect that such a system wouldn't work for 7 million people — but it has worked rather well for over 700 years.

Of course, to fully understand how it works, you have to be born a Swiss We foreigners will only frown upon their alien ways; Switzerland has really a totally unique government system which [i:hobavh2y]works[/i:hobavh2y] — for [i:hobavh2y]them[/i:hobavh2y], not for us common human beings

[Jon Seattle]

There is a (reportedly medieval) central european folk saying “city air is free airâ€

[Salzie Sachertorte]

[quote="Jon Seattle"]There is a (reportedly medieval) central european folk saying “city air is free airâ€

[Claude Desmoulins]

I presume Jon is thinking of "Stadtluft macht frei" here.

[Dianne]

I keep going back and forth on the name issue and this morning I am thinking this...

It's looking less and less likely that Ulrika has even filed a DMCA action, and even if she has most opinion is that she can't copyright the name anyway. Since most people also seem to be leaning towards having a second "over-arching" name for the whole project that would be tacked onto each sim name as we get each new sim, why not just tack that on to Neualtenburg?

Thus we change our name to something like "The FreeCity of Neualtenburg" and the sim name gets changed to "Neualtenburg - FC" or something. It doesn't have to be "free city" per se, it could be Democratic Federated Republic or anything else. The next sim would then be "Nova Colonia - FC" or "Nova Colonia - DFR" and so on.

I think such a move might more closely parallel what would happen in this situation in real life. Just another suggestion anyway.

Edit: I guess I am not awake yet as I did not realise that this is essentially the same idea as the thread started with. Probably I meant to say that I personally am leaning more and more towards keeping the Neualtenburg name at least as a part of the new name.

[Diderot Mirabeau]

[quote="Dianne":2yyh4ayh]Probably I meant to say that I personally am leaning more and more towards keeping the Neualtenburg name at least as a part of the new name.[/quote:2yyh4ayh]

This is out of the question. An LL forum exists carrying the name. This forum is being used on a daily basis to slander the reputation of the government of our sim and tarnish the good name of our community. Furthermore, it was decided unanimously at the Town Hall meeting that we would initiate proceedings to change the name.

I find it difficult to understand that you seem to view this as still an unresolved issue. The question was addressed at the town hall meeting where almost 20 citizens were present and indicated unanimously what direction they wished to pursue with regard to naming.

[Flyingroc Chung]

[quote="Diderot Mirabeau":wxu3ya8a]
I find it difficult to understand that you seem to view this as still an unresolved issue. The question was addressed at the town hall meeting where almost 20 citizens were present and indicated unanimously what direction they wished to pursue with regard to naming.[/quote:wxu3ya8a]

I wasn't at the town hall, but I thought the vote there was not binding?