Name Change?

[Don Wassall]

Here's something else I'm throwing out for your feedback. I own the domain whiteathlete.com. What do you think about changing the name of the site to White Athlete? I like the name Caste Football, but we're about a lot more than just football, and the word "caste" leaves a lot of people with a blank look on their face. We can still explain the Caste System, but White Athlete might be a better "brand name," and would be easier to find for people doing searches on the topics we write about. It might also make the site more inviting to people interested in this subject who live outside the U.S., where interest in American football is pretty much non-existent.

Cast your vote!

 

[backrow]

voted yes. like you said, we've moved beyond caste football, and marketing wise, it would make sense as well.

however it could turn off a few lurkers if they are ashamed of being seen by family/friends/coworkers browsing a website with such a "racist" (in their eyes) name.

 

[seattlefan]

Would you need to move everything over to a new site? I like the name whiteathlete a lot more myself.

 

[Don Wassall]

Would you need to move everything over to a new site? I like the name whiteathlete a lot more myself.

No, the url would change and wherever it says "Caste Football" (like at the top of the page) it would be replaced with "White Athlete."

 

[jaxvid]

At the start I was more interested in having the site named something like "White Guys Kick Ass at Sports" instead of Caste Football. But it's grown on me. Some pro's and con's of changing the name in my mind.

Pro's: everything on the web is determined by ease of search. Someone with an interest in our subject matter is going to look at words that are easier to identify the concept of the site such as "White". "caste" has no association with the concept (changed a bit with the success of the site) and is not easily associated with our ideas. So from a quick identification point of view it's a good idea.

Cons: as mentioned above the fact that the site name is not immediately clear does have some benefits. Someone looking over your shoulder at the library or airport thinks nothing of a site with the title of "Caste Football". Also the IT gestapo at workplaces is much more likely when scanning a list of visited sites on the company webserver to glance at "caste football" and think "sports" and go on their merry way. Changing to "White Athlete" might get an auto-ban at work and some public places.

Also I know from searching for various "white" things, the fact that "white" is a common word and has many meanings and uses which causes a lot of garbage to come up. Perhaps Euro-American Athletes or some-such gets the meaning across in a different way.

And what of our special adjectives like caste-whore, caste-horrific, casteon, caste-aside, etc?

 

[DixieDestroyer]

I voted to leave it as is. It's a classic & unique name & has grown on me over the years.

 

[Quiet Speed]

It’s a tough call. If I understand the procedure of your change, and with my limited knowledge that is not a guarantee, in the short run, search engine traffic may be lost. All the pages ranked in the engines under the castefootball.us url would be pointing to nowhere. And all pages under the new domain may take weeks or months to rank reasonably high. Maybe I’m wrong and there is a way to roll traffic through. Your tech people are way smarter than I. In the very long run whiteathlete.com is probably the way to go, though. I’m voting for the new domain name.


Hope did not confuse anyone. Here’s a video explaining a change over of a domain name with the search engines picking the transformation up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wATxftE8ooE

 

[Highlander]

When listening to an interview with Johnny Rodgers a few years ago by some White sports reporter from Nebraska about a book Johnny had just written, he asked Johnny, "Where can people buy your book?" Johnny said, "They can find it at blackathlete.com".

Of course the White reporter didn't blink an eye or utter the slightest gasp, behaving as if it was perfectly normal for Johnny to say this.

Fine. So, I say, let there be no double-standards here. If there can be a blackathlete.com then there can be a whiteathlete.com.

Actually, I could go either way on it, keeping it as Caste Football or changing it to White Athlete but I understand the rationale for changing it and agree with that rationale.

Although the "Caste" in "Caste Football" may be somewhat esoteric, it does, in it's title, infer that there is an actual institutionalized bias, whereas "White Athlete" does not infer this, but instead, could be perceived as being "Supremacist". Of course, this same connotation does not apply to "blackathlete.com" due to the (racist, anti-White) double-standard.

Also, the word "Football" is different for the rest of the world. The "Soccer" category is one of the most popular categories on CF but people outside of the U.S. probably found CF by referencing "Football" as well.

 

[Don Wassall]

Some excellent feedback and keep it coming. I think having a more innocuous name does have advantages, so my inclination right now is not to change it, especially if the radio program becomes a reality.

But whiteathlete.com is a cool domain name and I'd like to make use of it sooner or later. I waited a number of years just for it to open up to be bought. One possibility is to launch it as a separate, brother site to CF and have both cross-promote each other. But I wouldn't do that unless White Athlete would have its own original material and style and not just be a virtual duplication of CF.