Here's my final idea for a Kbin mascot, I call it the "Kbird" (K = Kakatuá), since someone shared a Fediverse flag resembling a pirate flag I thought a bird mascot would fit.
I think Kbin does need a mascot, like everything has a mascot. For Tesla you got the T Logo thing, for Facebook you got the F Blue, for Twitter it's a white Bird
But...the letter T isn't a mascot. None of those are mascots. They're logos.
I understand the need to lay claim to a place meant for individualized communication, but I'm personally a little annoyed by the insistence of it. I'm not interested in cute squishy mascots. Having a fun animal as the face of anything reminds me of every lame corporation's attempts to look appealing.
I recognize there's little to no way I'm going to win this fight, but it's in the same vein as the continual server-specific nickname suggestions for functionally the same userbase speaking in the same shared forums.
I think we're doing it because we're used to seeing companies do it, a la every one of them you mentioned. A bunch of us probably liked the Snoo, snoo was cute. It makes sense for newly ex-redditors to immediately remake their own snoo that is theirs and theirs alone and way better than the stinky reddit snoo.
Being used to your company of choice having customer friendly anthro mascots and tribalistic nicknames doesn't make it something we need, and that I intended to leave all of that behind when I left isn't helping my bias in this.
Especially where site-wide symbols like the ones you cited are concerned. I don't think I'm going to end up liking anything that's chosen simply because the kbin logo is already kbin, it was here when I got here, and I genuinely think it's really snazzy. Kudos to the designer who took two things I passionately hate — minimalist artwork and the color purple — and combined them into something enjoyable
Ehhh i can see your point but i still think a Symbol for Kbin, a logo, a mascot or anything is absolutely beneficial for Kbin as a whole. People need a symbol to stand behind, a Simple and Recognizable Symbol for Kbin would benefit Kbin as a whole, not to mention it would give tiny bit of content to Kbin as people will discuss about the Logo, will draw the Logo, stuff like that.
It would drive interaction, admittedly. As a thing apart from the site logo, I think since it would be a lasting symbol that does promote identity, it has to be chosen with care and that's basically impossible to do with kbin. One cannot anthropomorphize a folder, lest we create a horrifying new age version of Clippy. And nobody wants those kind of night terrors.
This probably adds a lot to my dislike of every option I've seen. There really are none that aren't randomly chosen because the artists likes lizards or something, so they never feel like they fit. Like. I don't mind beehaw's hive theme because it's in the name, but I'd mind it here.
Take in mind a lot of magazines still have the Snoo in their icons, if you want migration a simple, oh in Kbin you replace the Snoo with X should be sufficient. This wouldn't be in mind if the Snoo wasn't still so prevalent here.
tesla has a dog nose and it annoys the crap out of me. how does a dog nose connect to the invention of electricity in any way? it's not thematic at all. should have been a tesla coil.