Amassment Message Board

This subject came up earlier today when I was looking at some of my older shrines. A few of them have really terrible names! I came up with them when I was about 14 or so, give or take, and I've seriously considered changing them to something that sounds better.

Why not change them? Well these sites have been online for 10, 15 years or more. People who are familiar with them know them by name and I feel strange changing them after this long. However, I've decided that it's worth changing the name for these super old shrines as long as I include the previous name in the intro paragraph on the index page; at least then people will know it's the same site immediately. If I'm completely redesigning the site anyway, why not?

What are your feelings on this subject? Would you change a name for a shrine that's really old? Or what about a brand new one? What would stop you from doing it?

I've had similar experiences with some of mine. My Shiki shrine was originally named Owarinai Yume when I opened and while I liked it I wanted to get away from using Japanese words in my titles. This one I was okay with renaming because it had been in such a poor state ever since I opened it but I don't feel this way about everything.

I have another shrine I'd like to rename too, which also has a Japanese title, but the shrine is old and it has a lot of amazing donated buttons that I'd really hate to lose because of a name change.

When it comes down to it I think it really has to do with 1) How I feel about the name and 2) do I want to put in the extra work renaming a shrine may require. There could be other reasons too but those are the big ones that come to mind.

(I'm not sure where I'm going with this sorry.)

I renamed my Axel site once I brought it back and I am really glad I did! At first I was nervous, but I realized that my new site title was better fit for his character than my old one!

I would absolutely change the name of an old shrine. Hell I would also change the name of a more recent shrine if I was doing an overhaul because sometimes my titles are really not inspired XD I also am converting my old fanlistings to shrine and changing most of the names for better ones. For exemple, my Vergil fanlisting was named Broken Mirror, but I chose that name in 2002, so my Vergil shrine will be named Stronger.

I've done it a couple of times! I struggle a lot with naming things, so I've opened a site with a name that I was never ever happy with and ended up changing it whenever something better occured to me. I don't think it's a big deal, although it would be best to mention it on the site to avoid confusion.

The only problem with renaming a site is having to make new buttons and retiring the old ones (some of them were pretty, okay).

I definitely think shrine names can be changed; our opinions of series, characters, etc., change over time, and so titles may not fit our perceptions many years down the road.

If you change a site's title, I think it would be cool to include a "site history" page where you can discuss the original site name, how you felt it matched at the time (or didn't), and why you changed it. You could even display the buttons and banners for the old name alongside old layouts as part of a "site history gallery" or something? :D

This is related, so I hope it's not completely off-topic, but I was thinking about this a lot with regard to domains. You create a shrine, and it's been around for a while, and people associate it with a brand - a site title, an URL. When you change that, you risk losing visitors, depending on how frequently they revisit your shrine and through which channel they access it. The longer a name or URL has been around, the more you have to lose, I feel.

But honestly? I think a shrine is, in the first line, for self-satisfaction, so it has to be right for you. If you can't stand looking at a name or domain anymore, change it. I think if people truly love your site and want to find it again at all costs, they will be able to - especially if you facilitate the process, by, for example, redirecting the old URL for a while, not immediately terminating the domain, or, as mentioned, mention the old site name on the index page and/or on the site page.

As far as I'm concerned, I also think it's better to change either of the two as soon as possible when you're dissastified - yes, even if it's a recently released project. That way, you spend less time advertising the site under a URL or name that you don't want to keep anyway, while giving it more time to establish itself under the new one.

(I really love what Robin said, by the way - I love reading on the site page what made people change the site name, and what it might have been called before, including its WIP name.)

Emma wrote: The only problem with renaming a site is having to make new buttons and retiring the old ones (some of them were pretty, okay).

Haha, this is my biggest struggle with renaming a shrine, especially if said old buttons were donations!

My Sabin site used to be named Wanderer, and I changed it to Somewhere Only We Know. That song got really popular after, and I ended up not liking the title, but am not changing it for this very reason. I have so many banner gifts, haha. That, and I can't think of a better name for the site. I guess it's also been around so long with its current name that changing it would feel weird.

Anyway, I love this discussion! I agree with Lethe and Robin in that you should do it if it makes you happy.

I second all the above, and especially regarding what Lethe said. It's better to change early on than to delay the process out of whatever concern may be there at the time - the sooner you do, the better you'll feel.

The way I see it, it's like an outfit. The title is as much a part of the shrine's "costume" as the content and design. Trends change, and sometimes what worked in the past might not be so satisfying anymore. So if a change in the title feels necessary, then by all means, one should go for it.

Having a site history page or explaining the title change on the index page is an extra step that I think would be engaging for visitors. As a whole, history or "making of" sections makes the site stand out more by adding a greater personal touch for me.

Personally, I've revived many old shrines in the past and intend to do so in the near future. You can bet that I'll be changing their names (again)!

Perhaps that's why it was so much easier to change Shiki's name than it is Ike's. I've have Ike for so long it's the name everyone knows it as.