Gee, it seems like everyone is rebranding these days. Companies big and small are getting new names, new looks, new logos and new mascots. We at CiviCRM have thought long and hard about this phenomenon, in fact, for the past few months we've put all of our nonessential tasks on hold (unimportant things like software development, security, stability, release management and the like) to focus exclusively on these very important questions:
- Is the name "CiviCRM" out-of-date?
- Could we think of a more "hip" name to "jive" with the new generation?
- Can anyone even pronounce "CiviCRM"?
- Would changing our name distract from the fact that our product is still the same free and open-source CRM?
- Would changing our logo create an even bigger distraction?
- Would going along with changing our name because everyone else is doing it make us trend-setters?
All these questions may seem very "meta," in fact, in the midst of our deliberations we even considered changing our name to "Meta" but then thought better of it. Let's face it, that would be a very dumb name for a company.
No, we thought of something much better. Something to reflect the ever-evolving, constantly-improving, never-quite-completed nature of CiviCRM. Today, April 1 2023, the CiviCRM Core Team is proud to unveil our brand-new name and logo!
Yes, from this moment henceforth, CiviCRM will be known as "Beta." Today we're also releasing the newest stable version: Beta v0.6.beta1, you can get it now by logging into the Betaverse. Please download and try it out. We'd love to hear your feedback, but only about how much you love the name and logo.
See you in the Betaverse!
Comments
I love it. It's concise but yet comprehensive. A real paradigm shift.
I can't wait for the rumoured new virtual reality extension. Searchkitting in the betaverse!
It has economy, simplicity, low production cost and the potential for mass appeal,
Did you consider Alpha? It would come before Beta in all printed phone books.
Beta performed better in the A/B testing.
pls don't do something derived from meta
The best part is, you can do this without flushing billions of dollars in shareholder value down the crapper. Because, of course, there are no shareholders, so there is nothing to lose. Take that, Zuck!
Love it. If we want it earlier in the phone book maybe we could try Abeta CRM - (then some folk might read it like 'A Better CRM' in case my joke falls as flat as most of mine do)
Ah, yes, good call. Also, there's a trend towards updating privacy terms, and ours are waaaay out of date. Like we say things like "your data is your own" and "no personal data is sent to CiviCRM[/Beta]" - all sounded good and honourable a few years ago when people thought privacy was a important, but all sound quite quaint now, and also a terrible hindrance to US law enforcement - obviously we, an international community, should do all we can to help them with their subpoenas for human rights - how else are they going to track down women exercising their human rights for birth control, for example? All the big companies, Google, Meta, Microsoft etc. are already helping in this way, we should pull our weight, too. A simple "We will sell your data for cash and provide free access to Florida's law enforcement." buried somewhere in pages of legalease would do it, along with an even simpler "update to privacy statement" email that promises that we're making it simpler for overburdened customers (can we call people who don't pay us customers? Well, I suppose they're joining the pay-with-their-data-and-souls crowd now, so yes). Hey, it could even fund the rebranding.
Nice. made my day...and was initially faked out (and a little concerned) that we had a "new name" for it i.e. Meta or Zero Coke or some sh-t. Cheers guys, keep on
Had me worried for the first few seconds before I looked at the date. Excellent. My suggestion is AlphaBetaCiviCRM - has to be a simple as ABC right...?
Betacha it's the best version yet! ;-p
Keep up the good lagging off and productively not getting any work done so that we can all regress without doing anything, easily sliding off into the deepness of our pandemic worn couches, still unvacuumed carpets, piles of clothes to be washed despite the washer making that funny noise again and now a nasty growl, the fridge also grinding and not staying cold making the liter of ice cream melt within the hour of buying it, developing a pot belly due to the fridge not freezing the ice cream so must eat it within the hour of having bought it...the list goes on but thanks to the useless, worthless and ineffective now devolving from core team to the crux of a clique, we can all bask in the sloth life of returning to our roots to AdvoKit with just Lobo, Dave and Michal.
Congrats on yet another great year of development and making this Swiss-Army knife of a tool the best solution for fledgling projects to fully-employed and experienced coders and developers...
...still FREE!...as in free beer. So, crack one open, clink your bottles and donate today!!!! Cheers!
Dear CiviCRM (aka Beta),
I think this is a terrible idea. When I was looking for a CRM, the name CiviCRM was catchy and gave me a slight hint that this may be a CRM for Civil Society organizations, and not just for for-profit organizations or simply a contact manager for donations.
If the non-descript "Beta" was the name at the time, I would never have bothered clicking on the link to find out more about it. I would have continued searching among the 1,582,672 (give or take million or two) CRMs that are out there.
When I mentioned the name to my colleague at work, it caught his ear as well and hence it is likely that we will adopt it in our organization.
Please don't change the name.
Cheers,
Joe
I agree with Joe. If the name Beta had turned up in the list of CRM's I was looking to select from, I would have passed it by. Instead I am beginning to get used to the almost necessity to update once a month.
Please do not change the name from CiviCRM.
A good April Fools announcement. But in all seriousness, wouldn't Civi be better as a livestock management software, for instance...goats?