Award Name Picked - Only It's Not The One You Wanted [Archive]

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Jason Dunn

06-25-2003, 10:00 PM

In a <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13575">recent survey</a> I asked you all to vote on what a good name for our editors choice award would be. The "Thoughtworthy" award received 33% of the 456 total votes, but upon thinking about it further, I really liked the "Zen Award" idea. It aligned nicely with the idea behind all the Thoughts Media sites, because the idea of Zen is having everything in perfect balance. It also lends itself nicely to a striking design. So, I hereby reclaim the word "Zen" from the gnarled clutches of Palm. :mrgreen: <br /><br />Since Sunnyone did have the most votes, he/she/it will get one of the <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/pocket_pc_light_flat.jpg">Pocket PC Thoughts Microlights</a> anyway. Thanks for voting everyone!

TawnerX

06-25-2003, 10:03 PM

'Zen' is also what screwed Palm royally.

Janak Parekh

06-25-2003, 10:08 PM

I believe Sunnyone is a "she". Congrats Renee and Leximaea!

--janak

CTSLICK

06-25-2003, 10:22 PM

So, I hereby reclaim the word "Zen" from the gnarled clutches of Palm. :mrgreen:

Oh my!!! Let the games begin :twisted:

Jason Dunn

06-25-2003, 10:24 PM

'Zen' is also what screwed Palm royally.

I watch a lot of Chow Yun Fat movies, so I think I can hold the torch without being burned. :mrgreen:

Jonathon Watkins

06-25-2003, 10:43 PM

:idea: Nice - looking forward to the Logo. :idea:

Reclaime those words! Now to reclaim 'Palm' itself! :wink:

garrans

06-25-2003, 11:17 PM

Sorry mate, I think you've killed your marketability on this one.... how many editors / public relations people will be all over another "Zen Award"

Zen is overdone.

Steve.

l0o5er

06-25-2003, 11:51 PM

Whilst Zen may have more "depth" than Thoughtworthy, it has been so so over-used by every man & his dog in the last 10 years that its "surface" appeal is close to zero - Zen as a brand is dead.

I think you should seriously reconsider Jason. "Thoughtworthy" is fresh & new & puts together 2 words that aren't often adjacently connected so it "stops" the reader & makes them wake up notice it. It also cleverly links with the emerging Thoughts Empire. The brand consultant in me says go with Thoughtworthy - I beat won't regret it. On the contrary I'm sure you ultimately will with Zen.

pro_worm

06-26-2003, 12:04 AM

Wait, here is something original...
Call it the GOLD award!
:mrgreen:

karinatwork

06-26-2003, 12:06 AM

Sorry, I just had to smile. :D

First Jason posts this big survey, everyone is milking their brains, finally one name is picked by the masses, and then Jason picks out a completely different one...

But - and here comes the big but(t):

Jason created this site.
+ He manages the site.
+ He spends hour after hour writing reviews and articles
= He gets to pick a name for the reward.
Makes perfect sense to me!

:mrgreen: Zen it is.

Kaber

06-26-2003, 12:31 AM

nightmare

06-26-2003, 01:43 AM

Alright, so you didn't know if Sunnyone was male or female. But did you really have to throw in the possibility that Sunnyone was a hermaphrodite???

Steven Cedrone

06-26-2003, 01:51 AM

Alright, so you didn't know if Sunnyone was male or female. But did you really have to throw in the possibility that Sunnyone was a hermaphrodite???

Did I miss something here? Where did this accusation come from??? :roll:

Steve

Edit: Oh, I see it now. The he/she/it comment. sheeesh... I think I need a vacation - maybe you need one as well Nightmare...

Unreal32

06-26-2003, 05:04 AM

The Zen thing is so overdone. Thoughtworthy was at least an original thing. Think of google searches "Zen Award PocketPC"... I already got 371 hits (of which only one appears to be this site.)

Now, try "thoughtworthy award pocketpc"... imagine that: It has one result, and it's THIS site.

Thoughtworthy is better. Jason's site or not. Just cuz it's his site doesn't mean he's God or something. He may be omnipotent when it comes to this site, but he's not omniscient.

Ten other reasons why "Zen" sucks -- or maybe why it's apropos -- as a term for this site's awards:

1. The concept of Zen is inherently contrary to the idea of an Award. Zen just IS.
2. What is the sound of one partnership clapping? Oh yeah, it's ActiveSync.
3. Zen was used before by Palm. In my mind, Palm is still more Zen. PocketPC's are more um... Kaizen. (Kaizen's literal translation: to take apart, and make better)
4. Everything Zen, Everything Zen... I don't think so.
5. Then again, now that I'm a Palm user, maybe this Zen thing works... after all, if you look at the "Four Noble Truths" of Buddhism, the first is that "All life is suffering." Which is pretty much my ActiveSync experience in a nutshell.
6. Zen buddhists teach of living life as an "uncarved block." In other words, be impressionable and without preconceptions. Sounds like my old iPaq 3955 after a hard reset.
7. Zen is all about meditation. Ever try synching 8 megs of AvantGo to a PocketPC? You'll have plenty of time to meditate.
8. Zen is all about enlightenment, or literally, "awakening." My PocketPC was notorious for not waking me up by missing alarms. Very unenlightening indeed.
9. Zen masters often are known for their vows of poverty... I suppose if you buy a new PDA every year or two, you'd be in the same state :)
10. "Living in the world yet not forming attachments to the dust of the world is the way of a true Zen student." Do they mean the dust specks behind my PPC screen? :D

Seriously, though, I think the Zen thing is so fake neo-Asian that it's cheesy. And it's been done before, by a competitor. And it's not unique. And it adds no real distinction, IMHO, to a product. I wouldn't buy something because it won a "zen award." But I would certainly look at it closely if a site like PPCT deemed it worthy of their namesake award, i.e., being "thoughtworthy."

My two cents. Meditate on these things, grasshoppa.

karinatwork

06-26-2003, 05:10 AM

kissass

Kaber, why don't you... hmmmmmm

Naaah. I'm a lady. I'm just gonna ignore this. 8)

pro_worm

06-26-2003, 05:48 AM

How ladylike of you.

Wes Salmon

06-26-2003, 08:17 AM

I wouldn't use "zen" for two reasons, it's overused in general and Palm completely devalued the word when it became their catchall excuse for not innovating. It's a valiant effort to try and "reclaim" it but it is damaged goods no matter how appropriately it is used at this point.

I wouldn't use "thoughtworthy" either because it's been done before on a PDA site, I had a "Buzzworthy" award at my old site for a long time, for instance Vindigo 2.0 for Pocket PC (http://www.pdabuzz.com/Reviews/Detailed/Vindigo_2.0.html) was the last "Buzzworthy" product I reviewed. ;)

Pony99CA

06-26-2003, 08:54 AM

Corn Bread

06-26-2003, 09:11 AM

Jason please reconsider, "Zen awards" just sounds so cheap, not to mention that the word Zen has been used one too many times. I agree with the others, "Thoughtworthy award" is a better choice.

I totally respect that the final choice is up to jason, but just thinking about reading a "Zen Award" in Pocket PC thoughts just makes me wanna......................... :pukeface:

I really hope you reconsider. :)

bjornkeizers

06-26-2003, 09:22 AM

I agree with everyone. Please reconsider; Zen is totally overdone, and definitely not cool. Thoughtworty good, zen bad.

denivan

06-26-2003, 10:51 AM

Seems to me that Jason is just not happy with the 'Thoughtwortyh' concept, so actually I think it would be better to default back to the second most votes which would be the 'Think Big !' award....

Oh yeah, the Think Big ! Award was my idea, but that has nothign to do with it :p

snowlion

06-26-2003, 11:43 AM

Zensbikeshop

06-26-2003, 11:52 AM

I quite like the Zen award :wink:

I suggest the "Thought Award" as what we are rewarding is something that somebody has actually thought abought or given thought to rather than following the herd or just sticking out the next obvious iteration.[/i]

Steven Cedrone

06-26-2003, 12:36 PM

The good award: "The Super Noodle"

The bad award: "The Limp Noodle"

:roll: :wink:

It just had to be said...

Steve

Jimmy Dodd

06-26-2003, 01:46 PM

The "Thoughtworthy" award received 33% of the 456 total votes, but upon thinking about it further, I really liked the "Zen Award" idea.

"...it's good to be the King."

Mel Brooks
History of the World, Pt I

Unreal32

06-26-2003, 02:02 PM

I wouldn't use "thoughtworthy" either because it's been done before on a PDA site, I had a "Buzzworthy" award at my old site for a long time, for instance Vindigo 2.0 for Pocket PC (http://www.pdabuzz.com/Reviews/Detailed/Vindigo_2.0.html) was the last "Buzzworthy" product I reviewed. ;)

AH, but thoughtworthy is not necessarily buzzworthy... I don't think it's "been done" at all. Two completely different words. And besides, if you're going on that thought process, buzzworthy had been done before... on Seinfeld... in the Spongeworthy episode :)

By the way, PDA Buzz has never been the same since your departure. Now that I'm back to using a Palm (Tungsten C) as my primary PDA the one thing I miss is a truly vibrant user community like this one or like the FORMER Buzz site. Brighthand and Palminfocenter are okay, but nothing like this place or your place of yore.

Sunnyone

06-26-2003, 02:03 PM

My goodness, a girl takes the afternoon off and look what she misses!!! And yes, I'm not a he or an "it"! :idontthinkso:

Give Jason a break, guys. It's his site, the last I checked. Regardless of our thoughts and opinions, Jason is the final decision-maker. If I'm not upset about it, I don't think anyone else should be. Anyway -- can you think of a logo treatment for "Thoughtworthy" (or Thoughtsworthy - good tweak, showlion)? And I get one of the cool lights anyway!

You know what they say in the US about winning the "popular vote" don't you? Jason has the electoral vote.

Renee

Unreal32

06-26-2003, 02:05 PM

8. Zen is all about enlightenment, or literally, "awakening." My PocketPC was notorious for not waking me up by missing alarms. Very unenlightening indeed.
Ah, Grasshoppa, but the Pocket PC does wake up at midnight, sometimes running its battery down.

Steve

My PPC Zen Koan for the day:

If a tree falls in a forest and there's no one to hear it, does it make a sound?
If an iPaq beeps at midnight, and there is no one awake to hear it, does it run your battery down?

Unreal32

06-26-2003, 02:11 PM

You know what they say in the US about winning the "popular vote" don't you? Jason has the electoral vote.

Renee

It's nothing like popular vote vs. electoral votes... it's more like popular votes vs. dictatorship. [bow and scrape]although before you flame me, there is such a thing as a benevolent dictator. [/bow and scrape] ;)

After all, ever seen an election in a dictatorship? They happen. The leadership says: "What candidate do you want to win?" and then the people vote for their candidate. And then the leadership says "Congratulations, this other person has won. We are victorious!"

i.e., you can have any name you want for the award... as long as it's Zen.

leximaea

06-26-2003, 02:18 PM

Personally, I quite like the idea :idea: :D

Good race Sunnyone... and everyone else, too!

Crystal Eitle

06-26-2003, 02:24 PM

Anyway -- can you think of a logo treatment for "Thoughtworthy" (or Thoughtsworthy - good tweak, showlion)?
How 'bout a thought bubble with the PPC logo in it? Or a thought bubble with a lightbulb? Or something with a thought bubble.

Or Rodin's "The Thinker" with a thought bubble coming out of his head that has a Pocket PC in it!!!!

Jason Dunn

06-26-2003, 03:52 PM

Alright, so you didn't know if Sunnyone was male or female. But did you really have to throw in the possibility that Sunnyone was a hermaphrodite???

It seemed only fair. Men, women, and neutered animals are all welcome readers at Pocket PC Thoughts. :silly:

Pony99CA

06-26-2003, 03:59 PM

Men, women, and neutered animals are all welcome readers at Pocket PC Thoughts. :silly:
What if the animals aren't neutered? :lol:

As for the award name, I agree that Palm sort of owns the mindshare for Zen, but I haven't seen it overused. I think I prefer it to Thoughtworthy, but I voted for the Alpha Geek Award.

Steve

Jason Dunn

06-26-2003, 04:06 PM

disconnected

06-26-2003, 05:14 PM

Well I guess you can't reconsider "The Penny" Award, due to it's unfortunate word associations for you. :D Is it an American/Canadian thing? I don't know anything about Canadian currency (except Loonies I think), but pennies are common enough in America to not have strange connotations.

leximaea

06-26-2003, 05:37 PM

Hmm. I don't often change my mind about things once I've made a decision, but you've all had some excellent points about why Zen might be a bad choice. I will meditate on this and ponder my path. Thanks for being honest with me everyone!

I applaud your first choice, Zen. But maybe I am biased. :wink:

Zen is a very direct and practical way. Balanced. Profound. Simple. Elegant. Stay the path - go with your gut.

Unreal32

06-26-2003, 05:43 PM

Kati Compton

06-26-2003, 05:44 PM

That's it! How about the Loonie Award? LOL
And if a company wins it twice, they get a Twonie/Toonie/2nie Award....

Jimmy Dodd

06-26-2003, 06:46 PM

That's it! How about the Loonie Award? LOL
And if a company wins it twice, they get a Twonie/Toonie/2nie Award....

And since we're rhyming, for really bad products we could give out the "Moonie" award. The logo for that could be... :oops: well, use your imagination.

Hyperluminal

06-26-2003, 08:50 PM

Unreal32, one thing- if you search for "'Zen Award' Pocket PC", you only get two results, both of which are about PPCThoughts. :)

Personally, I think Zen isn't bad in and of itself, but it has too much of a Palm sound to it. Like you'll only give it to products with no color support, no soft input support, and a couple of really big buttons... :D . Seriously, after all the "Zen" stuff Palm did, I do think it has too much of a Palm ring to it.

I think Thoughtsworthy (more than Thoughtworthy, because with the 's' you can see the whole PPCThoughts relation more easily...) is a nicer name, more fitting to the site... :)

Sunnyone

06-26-2003, 08:59 PM

Hey, Jason, could I sway you into choosing Thoughtworthy/Thoughtsworthy if I told you it was my birthday today? And it is, really. What a nice birthday present it would be!

Kati Compton

06-26-2003, 09:09 PM

Golden Synapse Award?
The Neuron

Should we not add suggestions? ;)

Jonathon Watkins

06-26-2003, 11:16 PM

Should we not add suggestions? ;)

Been done. :wink:

I think Thoughtsworthy (more than Thoughtworthy, because with the 's' you can see the whole PPCThoughts relation more easily...) is a nicer name, more fitting to the site... :)

Agreed, if it's not going to be Zen then a Thoughtsworthy award does work better than the alternatives.

Isn't the ideal system of government a benevolent dictatorship anyway? :lol: It's what we have here, the best of all worlds. :wink: 8)

Jonathon Watkins

06-26-2003, 11:30 PM

I wouldn't use "thoughtworthy" either because it's been done before on a PDA site, I had a "Buzzworthy" award at my old site for a long time, for instance Vindigo 2.0 for Pocket PC (http://www.pdabuzz.com/Reviews/Detailed/Vindigo_2.0.html) was the last "Buzzworthy" product I reviewed. ;)
.........
By the way, PDA Buzz has never been the same since your departure. Now that I'm back to using a Palm (Tungsten C) as my primary PDA the one thing I miss is a truly vibrant user community like this one or like the FORMER Buzz site. Brighthand and Palminfocenter are okay, but nothing like this place or your place of yore.

Yes, as a former Buzzer it's sad to see what the site has become. :zzz: Not been back for a long while - what a farce about picking a new logo. :cry:

Well some things are meant to be for a while, till it's time to move on.

Home is where you hang your hat, so I guess I'm home here now. :bday: :x-mas: :pimp: :jester: :silly:

Hyperluminal

06-26-2003, 11:50 PM

Yeah, I saw that discussion at the Buzz too.
I can't wait to see what their redisigned site will look like... :roll:

ctmagnus

06-27-2003, 02:18 AM

Alpha Geek!
Alpha Geek!
Alpha Geek!

Something that represents the readership of the site. :wink:

Abba Zabba

06-27-2003, 06:46 AM

i think "thoughtworthy" was a worthy attempt...but needs a small
tweak...it should be the "Thoughtsworthy" award.

anyway...i too agree zen bad...anything else better.

actually my suggestion above is quite serious...making it plural really makes one think and makes it unique.

I agree :mrgreen: Thoughtsworthy sounds like a plan. Zen is way too overused and doesn't sound like a real award for innovation. Isn't that the purpose for this award :?: