Q: Why does the homepage say Drupal | Community plumbing?

By slayerment on 20 Jul 2007 at 08:44 UTC

That doesn't make any sense to me at all. Plumbing is not a good way to describe Drupal and I think it can be a bit confusing for newbies.

I would like to suggest changing the slogan for Drupal to something more clear and enticing like:

drupal.org | Open Source Content Management System

drupal.org | Content Management for Web Sites, Blogs, Communities and Stores

Maybe there could be a vote or something on what to use. But community plumbing just doesn't do it for me.

Does this bother anyone else?

Comments

I second that. I think its

apsivam commented 20 July 2007 at 09:19

I second that.
I think its the right time to think about this. We are in Web 2.0 era we need to change our slogan to read more meaningful & catchy.

--
Cheers,
Sivanandhan, P. (a.k.a. apsivam)

Web 2.0

David Latapie commented 20 July 2007 at 09:38

Changing the slogan may be a good idea. Changing it because we are in two-dot-zero (or whatever is the new fad) is not, at least in my eyes (plus, web 2.0 is already about communities).

I didn't really mean it. I

apsivam commented 20 July 2007 at 11:27

I didn't really mean it. I was just kidding with the web two point Oh thing ;-). But I do have a feeling, if possible Drupal can have a more attractive slogan.

--
Cheers,
Sivanandhan, P. (a.k.a. apsivam)

Apologies for my harsh

David Latapie commented 20 July 2007 at 12:05

Apologies for my harsh reply, then :)

Drop.org

conann commented 20 July 2007 at 10:00

Drupal used to be on drop.org it's a water thing like the logo. The slogan does what it says on the tin.

Community Plumbing,
Community Framework or
Community scaffolding?

I think it works just fine

http://drupal.org/node/72

Conánn

i like community plumbing

megg commented 20 July 2007 at 12:16

i like community plumbing! i thought it was clever and funny when i first saw it. :)

it's perfect as is :)

sepeck commented 20 July 2007 at 16:35

From a blog post I did a while ago

It involves the fact that plumbing, while not glamorous is an absolutely essential function to any city or town (community) infrastructure. It must work. It is often hidden from sight (something that with proper themeing you can do with Drupal) and reliable. You can build a basic irrigation system so your plants don't die or you can build works of art with fountains and ponds but the pipe's are still often behind the scene.

The beauty of Drupal is that you can expose as much of the CMS as you need or hide it completely. No visitor ever need to know you are using Drupal. The phrase should easily be a selling point for consultants, it is unpretentious and pragmatic. It should actually make it easier for a consultant to demonstrate that Drupal will not get in the way of your sites message. It's not about Drupal, it's about the site you are using Drupal to build with. That you are using Drupal is just cool.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
_{Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain}

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
_{Drupal Best Practices Guide}

WOW! I've to admin I didn't

apsivam commented 21 July 2007 at 05:14

WOW! I've to admin I didn't realize "Community Plumbing" is so clever.

--
Cheers,
Sivanandhan, P. (a.k.a. apsivam)

heh heh

sepeck commented 21 July 2007 at 08:10

It predates me. Personally, I was charmed when I first saw it.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
_{Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain}

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
_{Drupal Best Practices Guide}

Steven, can you include some

Christefano-oldaccount commented 26 July 2007 at 19:13

Steven, can you include some of what you've written on the About Drupal page? It's a great explanation and makes tremendous sense. As long as we have "Community plumbing" as a slogan, we should have an explanation of what it means. I'd put it above the licensing information.

Personally I don't think a slogan should need explaining, but the existence of this thread is evidence that the phrase "Community plumming" is not immediately understandable.

I was in a 4 hour meeting yesterday about deploying Drupal across a major university and several people in the room actually rolled their eyes when they heard "community plumbing" and made jokes about the Internet being a "series of tubes" -- these are incredibly smart people at a top technology institution and they do see the power of Drupal, but they said that "community plumbing" sounds... "crappy."

Without sounding harsh it is

leotemp commented 27 July 2007 at 07:43

Without sounding harsh it is your duty as the person presenting your ideas to frame the phrase "community plumbing" in a positive understandable way, thats what selling an idea is. If you didn't think it sounded good that I wouldn't have advised using the slogan which really belongs nowhere in a customers dealings once they have approached the product beyond the logo and slogan introduction anyways.

I did explain it in a

Christefano-oldaccount commented 28 July 2007 at 16:47

I did explain it in a "positive understandable way." I didn't have to use the name or slogan to sell Drupal as an idea because the IA team is already aware of the power Drupal offers. I said that in my original post.

My job is helping them see a way to integrate their existing assets and build new ones sustainably -- not explain what "community plumbing" means. The reason it came up during the meeting was because someone said they agreed before I even got there that Drupal has some strange branding.

What I am saying is that it would have been good for that explanation to be provided already on the About page. drupal.org needs better documentation for clients to see when they come to drupal.org.

You have some good points, but you're also making some false assumptions (I didn't bring up Drupal's branding). Let's try to stay on topic.