Wikipedia talk:Village pump/Agora

Proposal: Rename Village Pump as Agora. Optim^·.· 21:48, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Proposition withdrawn. Reason: English-speaking people don't recognise the word Agora, and some may not even know its cultural significance. Optim 23:13, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Why?

• Agora is one word. "Village Pump" is two. Agora is shorter and easier to remember and understand by newbies.
• Adds cultural value to our project by relating a frequently-used utility discussion page with the Ancient Greek civilisation.
• In Greek Wikipedia (el:) we (I) decided to use Wikipedia:Agora as the title of the "Village Pump" discussion page. I found it a nice name, so I thought whether you would be interested to "import" the name into the English Wikipedia.
• Actually I never understood the rationale behind the name "Village Pump". I expect that newbies also understand nothing. Agora is well known to educated people.
• "Village Pump" can very easily be written as "Village Pimp" by mistake. There are no such problems with Agora.
• Agora is cool. :)
• Village Pimp Pump is a very old name. It's time to rename it. :)

Agora is better

1. Optim^·.·
2. Fennec - but I don't expect this will pass in any event :)
3. Seth Ilys. I like Agora more than Village Pump, but we may be able to brainstorm something even better...

Village Pump is better

1. Adam Bishop
2. Garrett Albright
3. Marnanel
4. Bevo
5. Dori
6. Jiang
7. fabiform | talk
8. Hephaestos|§
9. Arwel
10. Jamesday Using words which are meaningless in English is not an improvement.
11. IMSoP (just for the record)

Neutral / Don't care

1. Kokiri 22:39, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC) don't care that much ;-)

Discussion

• Uh...why? Agora isn't even an English word, and I would guess the vast majority of people would not know what an agora is. If they recognize it at all it would be due to "agoraphobia." Is this a joke? Adam Bishop 21:55, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Are you sure speakers of English can't recognise this word? If this is true, then I will vote to keep the name as "Village Pump". I can't believe that someone doesn't know the word "Agora". We need more people to tell us their opinion and whether they know this word... Optim^·.· 22:00, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
    • To the extent it's recognized, it'll be recognized as meaning 'marketplace' rather than as 'gathering place'. As we're not selling or buying, it's a bad choice. -- Nunh-huh 22:27, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
      • I understand your point. Of course we should note that agora was something much more important than just a place to sell and buy goods. Optim^·.· 22:30, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• I strongly disagree that this will be easier to understand and remember by newbies. Even if someone is unfamiliar with the concept of the communal "Village Pump," it is easy for them to pick up. "Agora," though, being a word many people (including myself) have never heard before, comes off as far more abstract. Garrett Albright 22:02, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • You mean there is a concept called "Village Pump" outside Wikipedia? What is it? And how can someone haven't heard of Agora? Anyway... I see two people who consider this word unknown, so it probably is to English-speakers. Optim^·.· 22:09, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
    • a village pump is like a waterhole or a water-cooler, just somewhere people gather because they go there every day, and therefore somewhere people end up chatting. fabiform | talk 22:16, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
      • I see... Optim^·.· 22:30, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• I like VP much better, it's already in wide usage, and it's more understandable. Dori | Talk 22:12, Mar 3, 2004 (UTC)
• People have never heard of Agora and will less likely remember it and more likely misspell it becuase they can't remember it. --Jiang 22:13, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)~
  • I'm already thinking of it as the Angora :) fabiform | talk 22:18, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• I've never heard the word agora before, it's not in common English usage. If you think the name "village pump" is confusing, perhaps you should ask for suggestions (of English names) to replace it with. :) fabiform | talk 22:16, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Wikipedia:Water cooler! :) - Fennec 22:23, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
    • I may be wrong, but I've always thought of that as an Americanism. I quite like the rustic feel of Village pump, which nicely avoids bias to any "modern" culture [I'm sure people in some parts of the world have village pumps, and consider themselves perfectly modern, but hopefully you know what I mean...] - IMSoP 22:48, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
  • Well, I learnt something new today: that english speakers are not familiar with Agora. I am really surprised you don't do this thing in school. To say the truth the name "village pump" doesn't say much to me... anyway: even if a small percentage of the people don't know what agora is, then probably we should not use it as a name! Optim^·.· 22:21, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
    • I had heard of the word agora, mainly as a name for projects and the like: used precisely because it had meaning without being a "real" (English) word - in the same way that wiki wiki was taken from Hawaaiian [or however it's spelled!] to be the name for something completely new. - IMSoP 22:48, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• I've never heard the word used in English either. Arwel 22:26, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• I'm afraid I haven't either. Secretlondon 22:28, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• Agora? Isn't that a type of wool?... ;) Morwen 22:31, Mar 3, 2004 (UTC)
  • Optim, not everyone knows/is Greek. I like Agora. Kokiri 22:37, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
    • Actually it's western civilisation (or, that's my idea). Optim 23:13, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• Proposition withdrawn. Reason: English-speaking people don't recognise the word Agora, and some may not even know its cultural significance. Optim 23:13, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
• (After the event) - Not only do I not know what it means, I wasn't even aware it was a word. -- SGBailey 10:18, 2004 Mar 4 (UTC)