The DeRailed Challenge

[Kevin Bealer]

Brad Anderson wrote:
> Robby wrote:
...
> I agree, and don't like the DeRailed name.  It would serve no purpose any
> longer, if the project were to far surpass RoR in feature/function/acceptance.
> 

In addition to this, there is the 'mainstream acceptance' problem.  Most 
business folk would be reluctant to something like "the gimp", "dapper 
drake" or "estupido" as a publically visible name.  Not necessarily that 
they don't get the humor aspect, but the basic fact of business is that 
you need to interface both with people who have or 'get' your sense of 
humor and those who don't.  You simply can't afford to cut out the 
second group.

"Ruby on Rails" is an upbeat name, 'DeRailed' is a cool name to people 
like me, but would implies a 'failed project' to a lot of people, 
unfortunately.  This won't be important to CIOs, but it will be 
important to marketing and would probably keep someone like Chase 
Manhattan from ever putting a "powered by derailed" sticker on their 
website.

(For that matter, if someone I didn't know at a party asked me how I did 
a painting, I would say "the gnu image manipulation program" and 
probably not mention the acronym.)

Kevin