NixOS
Change icon
Hi,
Context:
I believe we should update the icon of the OfBorg app on Github and use something branded with the Nix logo.
This issue has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/ofborgs-github-logo-time-to-update-it/50808/1
Either commit fully to the War on Fun and rename the app as well, or (my preference) leave the icon alone—it's doing load-bearing work explaining what the name means.
I want to clarify that I'm not suggesting any drastic changes, like renaming the app or initiating a large-scale overhaul (even though I do believe there's room for improvement in the name). My proposal is simply to update the logo, nothing more at this stage.
To provide some context, this issue arose from a conversation I had with colleagues who are new to Nix and were exploring how our CI works. They specifically asked about "OfBorg" and mentioned that the current logo doesn't seem to reflect anything related to Nix. As it stands, neither the name nor the logo clearly indicates that this is a Nix CI tool.
it's doing load-bearing work explaining what the name means.
What do you think it's explaining? I still have no idea what the name or the icon means. I don't believe that obscure inside jokes are really doing any favours on a public collaborative project.
Just as it is now, we can't really tell this is a Nix CI thing.
Yes, I get it, it's inscrutable. It's not what you'd expect from a unified central-office-approved Branding Experience. A committee of external experts would recommend changing it to something neutral, non-whimsical, not referencing an individual, and obviously Nix-affiliated.
If we're going to do that, we should change the name as well, because OfBorg all by itself is even more inscrutable. Going halfway displeases both the committee of external experts and the people who like a little whimsy around the edges of their projects.
What do you think it's explaining? I still have no idea what the name or the icon means.
Ah, it is a reference to a noteworthy Star Trek: The Next Generation two-parter in which Captain Picard is assimilated by the Borg hive mind and reintroduces himself as ‘Locutus of Borg’. The name in and of itself is something of an incomplete joke, but with the icon, which depicts a rendering of grahamc's avatar with Borg-like implants, it can be deciphered as part of a ‘grahamc of Borg’ designation (which, I think I read somewhere, was the tool's original full name)—in other words, this is an automated entity that does (what used to be) grahamc's job.
I would not have gotten the joke—would have been mildly befuddled about the purpose of OfBorg myself—were it not for the icon. The icon takes it from, ‘What do the Borg have to do with this?’ to, ‘Ah, this started as some guy automating himself out of a job and he had a sense of humor about it.’
I don't think anyone wants to remove the "fun" and not make it about some borg-assimilated thing.
However, I'd wager most of the Nix community barely even knows who Graham is as he barely showed any presence in the Nix community the past half decade or so.
He's of course free to do that but referencing a person who is barely present in the Nix community and thereby unknown by the majority is just simply no longer adequate today. (The German word "zeitgemäß" captures this feeling much better.)
I don't personally like the look of Samuel's logo reference above but something like it would get my vote; some visibly borg-assimilated Nix flake logo thing.
Yesterday, the OfBorg Github Organisation has been handed over to @zimbatm and @mweinelt ! I guess we will have an update on this very soon.
It's unclear if samueldr wants us to use his artwork since he closed the PR. How about making another logo, like a Borg cube, with a NixOS printed on it?
I closed everything I had hanging. I'm fine with it being used for ofborg.
please view https://github.com/NixOS/ofborg/issues/689#issuecomment-2295412796
It is a bit unfortunate, that the green icon makes the list of ci check results harder to parse.
We can still change the icon, but we need another submission. Maybe the @NixOS/marketing-team would be interested in brand&identity?
IMO the icon should either be Borg-related or we should rename ofborg to something else
