What's (not) in a name (that irritates someone)

This past week I got an unexpected reaction to my plans for my net-studio, which was to be called Konstelacio.

All over a planned website, no less.

My original plan was to register Konstelacio as a domain name - simple enough, since the name isn't in common use. (And especially since the studio was meant to reach an audience of gesamideanoj.)

So I was deeply surprised - and a bit shocked - to hear my friend tell me that I should instead register a domain name based on my own name. While I do have an English video project, Promenade Digital [Mediaworks], it's meant as a component of Konstelacio, not the other way around.

My thought has been: if you're gonna make movies in Esperanto, shouldn't the name of your imprint reflect that?

To be certain, not every Esperanto publisher goes this route — Mondial in New York is one immediate example. But my friend insisted that the domain name be something people can easily look up, and not something she would consider — I believe she said — "irritating."

I am still in shock. I am proud of my little mashup made under the Konstelacio name and mark last year. It proves I can do something special using la internacia lingvo.

There is more I really can't reveal here, but suffice it to say that I'm rather hurt by her remark. I'll probably launch a PD[M] site first with its own domain name, and then work to fold it into Konstelacio as it should be. I put quite a bit of effort thus far, and to have one friend suggest that the name itself would be a mistake isn't helpful.

To adapt a popular bumper sticker saying: English isn't the official language of Earth - its users just act like it.