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Why Mastodon? (reddthat.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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After joining lemmy I decided to check out what else the "fediverse" has to offer which naturally led me to Mastodon which is actually pretty neat. However.....I can't help but wonder why in the world the name Mastodon was chosen? I guess I can buy some kind of meaning behind it and if so, fair enough. But... I still can't ignore that it feels like the naming equivalent of soggy cold toast and generates about as much excitement. I just feel like a name bit less....lame? would help a lot to generate buzz and hasten culture adoption of it. No idea what that name would be, just throwing it out there. Happy to be enlightened if this is an unpopular opinion.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago

If you don't think a house sized behemoth with shaggy fur and car length tusks is fucking awesome, that's a you problem ;)

Twitter? That's a fucking bird hiding in a bush so the real animals don't eat it.

A mastodon was the nigh inviolate tank of the tundra, only taken down by numbers, and only when very young, sick, or otherwise weakened until man came along and got a few by sheer stubbornness.

Go find an elephant irl. Or a life sized statue of one. Stand next to that motherfucker and feel how tiny you really are. Then realize that mastodons were bigger. And, like elephants, were most likely not some kind of passive herdbeast just waiting to be eaten. No, those things were machines of destruction if they wanted to btw. Ever seen footage of an elephant just knocking trees down? Yeah. Even females of the species would have been fierce defenders of their young

Lame, my hairy ass! Wait! Forget I said that! I am not a were-mastodon, I am a normal human just like you!