Tripod: Messages from the Staff

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<option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00024.htm">Home & Living <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00025.htm">Health, Fitness <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00025.htm">-& Sports <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00029.htm">Completely <option value="http://tr2.freeshop.com/pg00029.htm">-FREE Offers </select></td> </tr> </table> </form> </center> </td> <td valign="TOP" width="100%"> <basefont size="3">   <p> <p> <img src="../../../tripod/letters/img/www_subdomain/letter.top.gif" alt="from tripod..with love.." width="401" height="124" border="0"> <br> <center> </center> <br> <br> <p> <blockquote> <b>From Bob Galloway, Software Engineer:</b> <p> As you may have noticed, a while ago Tripod came up with the concept of "<a href="../../../screenlife_subdomain/podlife.html">Pods</a>," in which people with similar interests can get together, share homepage URL's, and chat. Recently, I was drafted to run one of these things, and along with that responsibility came one of the most time-consuming and silly tasks of my October existence: I had to come up with a name for the science fiction Pod.<p> <p> This was not as easy as it looked. First of all, "The Science Fiction Pod" was right out: far too unimaginative, especially next to "The Mod Pod" and "Carburetor Junction." "The Sci-Fi Pod" was probably worse, if only for the countless letters I would undoubtedly receive from those who believe "Sci-Fi" is another name for "<b>Bad</b> Science Fiction."<p> So what instead? "Event Horizon?" Lawsuit from Paramount. "Satellite (of Love)?" Lawsuit from the Sci-Fi Channel. "Low Earth Orbit?" "Escape Velocity?" "Tranquility Base?" Yuck.<p> "What's that one mean?" friends would ask, pointing to ".9c" on my list of name suggestions. Well, it means 90% of the speed of light (duh!), but if people had to ask, it wasn't a good name. I got the same blank stares for "Triple Helix," "Ansible," and (God help us all) "Pod Sputnik."<p> To top it all off, the Pod powers-that-be at Tripod informed me that the Pod name should scream SCIENCE FICTION at the top of its lungs to anybody who happened to glance its way. "Nuclear Literature" didn't cut it. "Critical Mass" certainly wouldn't. "Subspace Distortion" came close, because it's such a classic Star Trek technobabble cliché phrase that it couldn't be mistaken for the title of the "hard science" Pod, but if there was anything I wanted to avoid more than "Sci-Fi," it was Star Trek technobabble.<p> "Escape Pod" bounced around for about fifteen seconds, until somebody realized that it would show up as "Escape" on the front page menu of pods. For a few seconds more, I contemplated a Pod logo with a couple of Narn in swimsuits wandering along a sandy tropical beach as twin suns set in the background. No go; not even with cheezy pastel tourism-board copy around the edges: "Homeworld bombed beyond repair? Escape! to [insert alien-sounding planet name here]  show you care enough to flee to the very best."<p> Almost everybody liked "the Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know! Pod," but the name was too long.<p> Of course, in the end the deadline decided for me; of course, it decided that nothing screams SCIENCE FICTION like "Science Fiction." And, of course, the deadline is absolutely right. So I'm now the proud poderator of the <a href="../../../screenlife_subdomain/podlife/pods/sciencefiction.html">Science Fiction Pod</a>. And it's everything the name implies.<p> <ul> <a href="../../../www_subdomain/tripod/staff/tech-html/anchor_bob.html">Bob Galloway</a>, Software Engineer and Science Fiction Poderator (11/14/97) </ul> <p> <center> <hr width="330"> <p> Read more "Letters from Tripod" in the <a href="../../../www_subdomain/tripod/letters/archive.html">archive</a>. <p> <hr width="330"> </center> <br> </blockquote> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>