Tip + Stampers. What does it mean? Why did I choose that name?
The story starts after failing to fall asleep one night. With my mind racing, I decided to put it to work and do some brainstorming. I was inches away from launching BitcoinOptimists.com, but every time I told someone that I had to follow it up with, “Oh but that’s my demo platform built for the Bitcoin community.” The more I said it, the more I hated saying it, so while tossing and turning, I put my restless mind to work thinking of alternatives.
After discarding a handful of “meh” options, I did become excited about one: TipCreators.com. I liked that name a lot, for the same reasons I liked and purchased TipGamers.com.
For one, it paints a crystal clear picture of what happens on the platform. You tip creators, and that obviously means people create and post content, so newcomers automatically have an idea of what to expect. There’s little ambiguity there.
Two, by having “Tip” in the name, that behavior becomes expected, and this is important because people — for the most part — are accustomed to viewing content for free. However, if sending tips and micropayments from one another is standard operating procedure on a platform, and they witness this behavior throughout it, that barrier can be breached. The more they see it, the more likely they’ll join in too. That’s human nature after all, and having “Tip” in the name warms them up to the idea from the start. Plus, they can get tipped too.
Three, there isn’t a whiff of Bitcoin or crypto in the name. This may seem odd for a platform that utilizes it, but to me, it’s important that it doesn’t take the limelight. To appeal to a mainstream audience — to your average, everyday person — the platform can’t be about Bitcoin; it has to be about the people on it. If Bitcoin is in the name it wouldn’t be, and you would alienate the very people you seek. With TipCreators.com, the limelight would go where it should, and the name would be ever so fitting for a platform like ours.
But guess what, the name was taken… Someone was already squatting on it at GoDaddy.com, and I wasn’t about to dish out any dough to try and pry it out of their grubby hands. A bummer at the time, but a blessing in disguise.
In my exhausted and now-irritated state, I started punching in alternatives to see if anything else was available. Many were, but none of them stuck with me quite like TipCreators. It just felt like the perfect one. Feeling dejected, I gave up trying and went back to bed.
Sleep was still elusive for me and my mind was stuck on the subject, so I thought about combinations with either Tip or Creator in the name. Eventually, I landed on TipStampers, likely because I wrote the phrase “stamping to the Blockchain” a few days prior.
Now I would be lying if I told you I knew immediately it was the way to go. In reality, it actually took some digesting and mulling over. But the more I mulled it over, the more I fell in love with it. It was even more perfect than TipCreators.com.
To its credit, TipCreators has less ambiguity in its name. Creators paints a clearer picture than Stampers, but that picture really isn’t all that blurry, and that slight amount of ambiguity has more benefits than I could have hoped for.
I mean, just say it. Stampers. And again with authority. STAMPERS.
It has a fun sound to it; it’s not associated with anything at the moment; I can use it to theme the platform; and because of the mail and post office, everyone is familiar with its root word. It means the exact same thing from person to person. Which means, everyone can instantly infer what a “stamper” is without requiring any additional teaching or thinking. There’s no learning curve for it, and that’s good for us. So is the fact that “stamping” really isn’t a thing, either.
Because boy-o-boy is having an action verb associated with your name and brand valuable. Just ask Google when it comes to “Googling” it. Now if we could have that with stamping, that would be incredible; and luckily, since stamping content is what people do on the platform, the possibility at least exists. Couldn’t say the same about “creating” and TipCreators.com, could we?
No we couldn’t, nor could we say that it gives off a better community-building vibe either. And that’s largely because it lacks the fun theme that TipStampers unlocks. It would just be plain and simple “creating” content there. But on TipStampers, they get to STAMP their creations. That extra element makes it more fun and inviting, and that’s something I can see people wanting to be a part of. It’s great for community building, and great for promotion as well.
Also great is that the Stampers part of the name actually fits quite perfectly. It’s a beautiful arrangement. To the average person, the name has nothing to do with Bitcoin. You’re just stamping content to the platform. But to the enthusiast, it means stamping your content and data to the Blockchain. Thus, everyone wins in this scenario as the elements most important to Bitcoiners — web3 and owning your own data — can exist in the background without turning off or bothering the uncaring average Joe. It actually works both ways — a beautiful arrangement indeed.
But the best part of the stamping theme is it unlocks the category of all categories: Stamp YOU. A fun, “edgy,” catch-all category where creators can express themselves however they like, posting whatever they want. It’s their channel, their blog, their canvas, their stamps. It shines the limelight directly on them, exactly where it belongs. With this unique stamp as part of our overall collection, we have appeal to anyone and everyone, opening up the potential for actual mainstream adoption. So thank you, Stamp YOU.
Insomnia is terrible, but this was one night I didn’t quite mind.
