Is this the right name for the site?
We try to hammer these things out during the proposal phase; really we do... but in the last day or two we've seen some objections to the name "Speculative Science", and if we're going to change it now is the time, so... do we want a different name for the site?
One objection was that the current name doesn't really make it clear, before clicking, what the site is about, and a concern was raised about this sounding like junk science -- not what we want! Suggestions I've seen include "Future Science", "Imaginative Science", and "Scientific Worldbuilding". Maybe you have other suggestions.
If you think we should rename the site, please post an answer (one suggestion per answer) or upvote it if your suggestion is already there. If you think the name is fine, please post or upvote an answer saying so. Let's sort this out now, before we start advertising widely. Thanks.
3 answers
What about simply reversing the name? Instead of "Speculative Science", potentially implying speculating about science (with all the implications of that), we could have "Scientific Speculation", implying speculation about things but in a scientific manner.
Of the suggestions I've seen, I like 'scientific worldbuilding' the best. However, Mithrandir has raised some concerns that this focuses on the worldbuilding aspect, on a site where we're inviting people to speculate on scientific scenarios without necessarily any worldbuilding in mind.
The key here is to find a replacement for worldbuilding. My suggestion:
Scientific Creativity - OR - Creative Science.
The second option could be taken wrong, but the first is a bit of a mouthful.
The idea here is that we want to convey two things: that we are very centered on science, but also that we are very centered on speculation. It's been determined that 'speculation' invites the wrong assumptions, so we need to come up with an equivalent. Words like 'design' or 'contruct' all suggest building something, which is close to the same problem we have with 'worldbuilding'. 'Creativity' however simply suggests imaginative production.
Thoughts?
I don't think Science has anything to do with 90% of the question asked in World Building, simply because most of them ignore key aspect of science.
That said, I think the name should be "Speculative\Creative World Building" because it allures to the real thing we do, and keeps the speculation part, Science shouldn't be in the name, because it really has got nothing to do with it, and authors mostly tend to just crave a plausible explanation for something completely impossible (FTL, Teleportation, Alien Anatomy, etc.)
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