From 7ca2a1db0dd8baacd1a0e9c54d93c08e1ada83cd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Pablo=20Correa=20G=C3=B3mez?= <ablocorrea@hotmail.com> Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2025 17:55:48 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] 0003-name-change-plan --- 0003-name-change-plan.md | 133 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 133 insertions(+) create mode 100644 0003-name-change-plan.md diff --git a/0003-name-change-plan.md b/0003-name-change-plan.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5cf5fab --- /dev/null +++ b/0003-name-change-plan.md @@ -0,0 +1,133 @@ +# Plan name change + +* Date proposed: 2025-03-04 +* PMCR ID: + <https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/pmcr/-/merge_requests/6> + +## Summary + +After annoucing a name change in our +[blog](https://postmarketos.org/blog/2025/03/04/pmOS-update-2025-02/), we will +have to take extra steps in the implementation of the decision for a new name. + +## Motivation + +Duing a brand change is always a risky decision. The team agreed on it after +many discussions, and with some kind of general consensus, despite not everybody +fully agreeing. Extending on the discussion in the blog post: + +### Benefits of a name change + +* postmarketOS only reflects a fraction of what the project is, and could be. + The best example is Fairphone 4 and 5 support being added on release-day. + A new name could still reflect the sustainability aspect of the project, + without exclusively referring to one very limited aspect of sustainability. +* It is hard to pronounce. This is specially a problem when doing outreach to + non-native English speakers. This is a great problem if we want to grow as a + community and reach out of the hacker world. +* The capitalization is awkward, as easily becomes obvious in the first bullet + point of this point. +* An easier to pronounce and less specific name is certainly a better branding + to approach less-technical people that might already know about what + postmarketOS is. +* postmarketOS had very little chances of being accepted as a trademark, leaving + us in quite a vulnerable position against trolls. This came after discussions + with trademark lawyers. + +### Problems of a name change + +* Some people might feel alienated by it. Change is always hard, and we did not + do a great outreach before-hand. We might have also failed to explain some of + our rationale. +* Part of the reasons for name change come from a goal to expand the horizonts + of the project outside a group of very-technical hackers. This might be hard + to explain, and might not seat well with some. +* postmarketOS is already a well-recognized brand, and easy to find online. + We might loose some of that momemtum with a new name. However, we shoot high, + and it would be fair to assume that postmarketOS is only known by a tiny + fraction of the people that might at some point be able to use a device with + our operating system installed. So this might only be a relative downside. +* The rebranding might cause technical disruption, reason for which this PMCR + exists. + +In addition to this, a name change needs work. I personally do not consider that +a downside. The work will be put by motivated individuals working as volunteers. +People work on what they find best, and I do not consider it a downside when +people do volunteer work on their own will. When volunteer work applies, it is +not always for granted that people will do the same amount of work on some other +part of the project. They might simply not do it. + +## Consequences + +A name change could have the following consequences: + +* An easier to pronounce name, that will be more appealing and easy to share + outside the group of people that *don't yet know the project*. +* Allow the project to not appeal to a single and very specific scope within + sustainability. +* Avoid having to correct people over a non-intuitive capitalization. +* Having a name that could be defended and trademarked. + +It also carries some risks: + +* Alienating part of the community and causing some social backslash +* Requiring a transition for projects and branding +* Losing some recognition short-term. However, that does not seem to have been + an issue in similar projects that renamed around us. +* We choose a name that people don't identify with, or that is unnecessarily + "empty". + +## Draft implementation plan + +The plan has too parts: + +### Finish making the decision + +1. Set a deadline for the collection of names in the form +2. Discuss different alternatives withing CC and TC team +3. Research trademarks of the alternatives. postmarketOS was not possible + to trademark. +4. Come with a set of preferred alternatives (2, 3, 4?), and vote on them. + Voting should probably be done in a way that people's preferrences are + respected (and not top 1). Asking for votes outside the team was deemed + not-appropriate due to the risk of trolling (e.g: people registering + domains or trademarks). Finding some alternative so it can be discussed with + a broader community would be great. + +### Actually implement the name change + +I'm sure I'm missing things. Filling this out is one of the main reasons to open +this PMCR early + +1. Before going public, buy associated domain(s) +2. Make it public, with a rationale on the decision +3. Code/Reaname changes: + 1. pmaports: packages with postmarketos in the name, adding "provides" + for backwards compatibility + 2. bpo and pmbootstrap code changes (with alias/symlink to old name) + 3. postmarketos.org + 4. Visible parts of build.postmarketos.org + 5. Wiki branding +4. (Concurrently to point above) Infra changes + 1. Point new domain to gitlab.postmarketos.org and wiki.postmarketos.org + 2. Deploy website(s) to the new domain: + * <https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/postmarketos.org> + * <https://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/build.postmarketos.org> + 3. Add new aliases for matrix rooms + 4. Rename gitlab group and repositories with the name + 5. Create email aliases for everybody? +5. Do a blog post as retrospective + +### The proposer + +Pablo Correa Gomez, a Core Contributor. I am basically opening this so we can +start discussing on things that need change, and start drafting a plan. I do not +have infra access, but could totally do any parts of the other work. + +### Blocking issues + +* Decide on voting mechanism. We need to make sure that we have a voting process + that is fair with a situation that is not black and white, but people might + have multiple acceptable preferences. +* Decide whether we want to the keep the old websites frozen in time with some + disclaimer or redirect to the new ones (with or without disclaimer?) -- GitLab