34
votes
We need a loveable mascot
Reddit has the snoo, we need to have a cute mascot that can represent us. Any suggestions? What do you think @Deimos?
Edit: maybe we should organize a drawing contest for someone to make the mascot
I actually like the idea of not having a mascot.
Mascots tend to be a part of either/both a community trying to establish some kind of dominant site culture or corporate trying to give it's site more appeal. The former is pretty innocent but I reckon it'd be more interesting to intentionally leave things like those aside and let the site culture rest more on the quality of submissions and discourse rather then some kind of crowdsourced PR campaign.
I'm OK with tildes not having any official mascot as long as it can have an unofficial moe/anime style girl mascot.
We're not really an anime-centric site though. That wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.
And a noose isn't really anime related but here we are. And firefox isn't an anime browser but here we are.
Yes but all those are based upon a pre-existing mascot, which is then anime-fied. Contrast this to Tildes, which has no official mascot and nothing to base off from.
Nah, it'll be an anime girl with hair the colour of the logo.
Wha- don't you want to play with noose-chan Anon :'(
I really liked it. Why do you hate it?
You don't have to be anime-centric to have an unofficial moe mascot. Just a handful of examples on wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inori_Aizawa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-tan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetalia:_Axis_Powers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kantai_Collection_(anime)
Sorry. I guess I just don't really understand what a moe mascot is.
Think of it like a caricature of a person but it's in a cute anime style and often represents some abstract thing through their mannerisms, personality, and looks.
For instance, a moe Internet explorer would wear blue apparel and be seen crawling.
Don't diss Internet Explorer-Tan!
No why :(
I hate anime girl mascots for non-Japanese and non-anime-related things. In my experience they just come across as fetish fuel for shut-ins.
I suppose I can live with that...
Well we could set an example of not having a mascot because of those reasons. Also I always find it charming when a site has a mascot. I love the little Android guy and the wumpus from Discord.
I actually dislike wumpus for the very reason that I cannot shake the feeling that it is an engineered PR asset rather then an actual creative anthromorphization of something the creator(s) love, even though they do seem to want to pass it off as just that.
I actually like just having the ~ symbol. I can definitely see it being used on stickers and stuff down the road, and it's unique enough to stand out from other platforms.
That being said, I'm always down for cute drawings. Bring on the adorable silicon-valley-esque corporate animals!
Would be really cool to have a bunch of users build a sticker pack.
Just put out a basic design like this and have users/artists fill it in.
Could be a contest, best ten sort of thing.
It would also be an awesome way to support the site. Not just financially, but it would also help with exposure.
I would absolutely put a bunch of tildes stickers on my laptop so that when hipsters like me ask me about it in coffee shops, I could tell them about the site.
That's true. It's just that a tilde isn't very recognizable. People wouldn't know if it's referencing this site or something else.
That's kind of the point. Half the stickers I see on people's laptops are ones I don't recognize but if they look interesting enough I end up looking up what they mean. I love going down those rabbit holes.
I really like the minimalism of a ~ sticker. I enjoy the aesthetics of the Human Rights Campaign stickers even though it's not immediately recognizable to people who aren't already familiar with HRC.
Can we give the ~ eyes, a personality, and the ability to intrusively offer grammatical and formatting suggestions?
I'd buy a plushy ~ any day :)
Generally speaking this kind of thing doesn't happen this way though. An artist will create something iconic and people will want it to be the mascot, whether that's a caterpillar or a snake or an octopus.
A plushy would be awesome. A nice way to support the site also.
I have zero art skills and my only tool is MS Paint, but I couldn't resist a chance to try and be a part of Tildes history. Introducing... Tilda the snake.
Thanks!
Hope you don't mind. I can code about 1% as well as you paint.
Edit: updated with gif ani of tongue flicking
I love it! The tongue flicking is great.
That's awesome
"Tildaconda" maybe?
A previous thread. Just to see what has been discussed so far :)
Ah. Thanks. It's hard to know if I'm reposting without a search function yet.
Repost away. The site's young, let's enjoy it. Things get more complicated later. ;)
I agree entirely. No need to worry about posts from 78 days ago right now.
Let's make the mascot a search bar
No problem, my comment isn't meant to shame you or anything. I just remembered that there was a previous thread, found it in my browser history, and decided to post it so that you could have a look at older discussions. Tildes is getting large enough that it's unreasonable to expect anyone to be aware of or dig up older topics, especially without a search function being available, and there's not exactly a problem with reposts anyway. Besides, that topic is more than a couple of months old!
It's okay. I knew you weren't trying to shame me (:
We do? I think we're getting along just fine without one. What would a mascot do?
That said, I see a lot of suggestions for a snake-based mascot. Could we please keep in mind that ophidiophobia is one of the most common phobias in people? How about a nice cute cuddly caterpillar, as suggested by @Cetera in the previous mascot thread? Caterpillars are friendly! And they become pretty butterflies! And they're not snakes...
I'm not trying to be inconsiderate, but would a crude drawing of a snake really trigger someone's ophidiaphobia? I do like the caterpillar idea also though. That could be cute.
I'm mildly entomophobic (many or all insects) and severely arachnophobic. I can only speak for myself, but generally abstract representations don't bother me much.
They're still somewhat irksome, but I don't get that feeling of fear. I'll happily play RPGs, which always seem have spiders as a commonly encountered enemy for whatever reason. Hell, I can watch the spider scenes in LOTR or Harry Potter and be fine.
That's funny. I'm not entephobic and I find that Harry Potter seen freaky
Perhaps I'm used to it or know what to expect, but compared to seeing a real spider? Not even notable.
You didn't actually answer my question: why do we need a mascot? What's the point of it?
A drawing of a snake might not trigger someone's ophidiophobia but, if people are afraid of snakes, why would we choose one as our mascot? "Here's this animal that about one in ten people* are terrified of - isn't it cute?"
* Researching that statistic was like stepping into a minefield. Why would anyone think it's a good idea to put close-up photos of snakes on webpages about a phobia of snakes???
Have you ever seen bug spray/powder products? It's a nightmare :(
In my experience, they tend to have drawings of the insects and bugs they'll kill, rather than detailed close-up photos of them in action. (In my research, one of the pages had a close-up photo of a snake's face, and another page had a close-up photo of a snake with its mouth wide open and its fangs ready to strike. Fuck! I got the literal shakes from that.)
I see your comment that you're mildly entomophobic. So I'm guessing that my "nice cute cuddly caterpillar" is neither cute nor cuddly to you. :/
Some are definitely easier to look at than others :)
Real images of my phobia massively freak me out too, people seem to have very little empathy of it sometimes.
I wouldn't find such a mascot cute nor cuddly, but I can see how some people could. A caterpillar mascot/logo wouldn't bother me though, too abstract.
Sorry. I wasn't trying to belittle your fear. I'm sorry it came across that way ):
I'm not sure if you're replying to the right person but you haven't belittled me in any way, don't worry.
Oops. Meant to send that to @Algernon_Asimov. Bad service really screws with my commenting.
I was being sort of hyperbolic. We don't need a mascot. I just thought it would be a cute and fun way to represent the tildes community.
Perhaps the mascot can be public speaking at height? :D
I thought the ~ was the mascot. O_o
@blghns' idea was just too cute!
https://tildes.net/~tildes/172/how_would_tildes_feel_about_a_mascot#comment-9hi
https://i.imgur.com/nvmYSQy.png
(°~°)
How about a cat with a Tildes mustache? There is a severe lack of cats here. :P
More than there are dogs! We need more dogs!
I would support a dog with a Tildes mustache too!
There's also an inactive account called "cat".
You inspired me, sort of.
That's great! You should submit it to @Deimos and see what he thinks.
Well.. this is more of a doodle than a formal proposal, but thank you :]
Shouldn't we find out first whether Deimos wants a mascot at all before we start sending him suggestions?
That's true. He's been kind of quiet on this whole thing. He's probably doing something else.
Let's put it this way: based on hints and indirect evidence I've seen, I'm pretty sure that Deimos reads all threads in ~tildes (it's the group where people discuss what they want on the website he's building!). He would definitely have read the mascot thread from two months ago when the site was smaller and less active, and he has probably read this thread (I know he's been active here since you posted this topic). If he wants a mascot, he's had a couple of chances to let us know.
Yeah. I kind of wish he at least would give his thoughts.
To me, his silence speaks volumes.
This is better than anything I can imagine. Thanks for sharing!
I think we've found our winner.
It would probably resemble a snake.
Adorable snek buddy.
Could be an otter. Whatever it is, it would probably be show as being in some sort of herd for all the different groups.
A cute tilde-shaped snake?
I just realised the logo is a coloured version of a ~
We have a mascot. Its name is "pixelated thingie", and it's a creature made of color. Think Star Trek :)
Just a note: mentioning someone's username in the body of a topic won't actually send them a notification. Deimos will probably see this topic though, so you're fine. :)
That's in the issue tracker, sleepy priority.
Yeah it's next on my todo list unless something more pressing comes along.
Oops. @Deimos, checkout our mascot ideas.
Late to the party, but I'll just note that in addition to the entomophobiacs, there are serious product recognition problems with a plush tilde:
https://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/diarrhea.html
https://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/products/sleepingsickness.html