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When Lemmy got named did no one think that the "lemming" association might alienate people?
(self.nostupidquestions)
Being called "twits" never put people off Twitter.
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
2 points (54.2% liked)
No Stupid Questions
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Lemmings don't jump off cliffs and they are not stupid. A sociopath employed by Disney threw a few dozen off a cliff for documentary in the 50s, for.. reasons..? The story stuck. They're just normal little rodents, tougher than most, as they can survive brutal winters on bleak landscapes.
https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=56
Lemmings are real ? I thought it was video-game characters
TIL, thank you.
I like it.
I use mbin or kbin because that ugly rat and the name, lemmy are stupid. That's just my opinion.
There are two truely hard problems in computer science; P=NP, naming things, and off by one safety
I try to get people to join and inevitably they say…”Why, so I can follow all the other stupid lemmings?”
Someone deterred by this was never going to even consider joining in the first place. They are just messing with you.
From wikipedia:
In a 2020 post, Lemmy's co-creator Dessalines wrote about the origin of the name Lemmy. "It was nameless for a long time, but I wanted to keep with the fediverse tradition of naming projects after animals. I was playing that old-school game Lemmings, and Lemmy (from Motorhead) had passed away that week, and we held a few polls for names, and I went with that."
So I would say no, they seemingly weren't worried that Lemmy users would be referred to as Lemmings and be turned away due to it, or they just weren't that bothered by the idea if it did occur to them.
Not only were they not bothered by it, they were inspired by a classic computer game, featuring lemmings falingl off cliffs.
Hmph… I chose to see it as: LET ME, and I shall persist in this.
Thanks everyone for the comments. I have been educated.
That has never crossed my mind, I'm thinking heavy metal when I think about Lemmy Kilmister / Lemmy.
But I do think lemmings are cute, and that old video game was awesome, so it all sort of works for me :D
No. We all thought about the association to Lemmy, the guy from Motorhead.
This was the original name inspiration
Welcome to Lemmy dating where everyone can find their someone to love them like a reptile!
I'll show myself out.
Well, I'm sold!
Well, I mean...
It's considerably better than "Redditor".
I always liked redditor because it sounded like editor. And reddit sounded like "read it" but looked like "re-edit". For all it became, it was a great name.
Will never understand why "Redditor" became the name for users when "Reders" (readers) follows the message of the site name so much better
When Lemmy got named did no one think
I think that's true so far.
:)
The name Lemmy grew on me lol. I thought Reddit sounded dumb af once upon a time too. In fact I still cringe at the thought of being called a "redditor."
How many Gen Zers even know what a Lemmy is?
Anyways, I call people Lemmies
I (18yo) don't! I have no idea what ppl here are talking about and I sure didn't figure out.
Scare us away? Some of us are on instances that make the connection more obvious.
Not all of us are using Lemmy, for one.