INC NEWS - top 10 reasons not to change the spelling of INC and why we can't find something better to do with our time?

Fri Apr 20 11:10:26 EDT 2007

Wow!

I'm ready to put this whole thing to rest once and for all and take 
everyone's energy that's been wasted in arguing about our name by directing 
it at some constructive issues directly related 'to' Durham neighborhoods. 
Issues like traffic control, street scaping,  working with the PAC's, zoning 
& planning orientation/training sessions, Neighborhood Hero Awards,  a 
Neighborhood Summit, improving our schools, solid waste, yard debris, the 
upcoming storm season just to name a few.

Can you (others on the listserve) come up with more?

At this point in time,  I am completely sick of hearing about branding and 
marketing this organization or that.  Let's move on to more important 
problems.

While I'm not so sure that a vote by the delegates at our next INC meeting 
is going to satisfy everyone's tastes regarding how we spell, font or 
hyphenate the organization,  I am all for settling this issue and moving on 
to the tougher issues INC has been known for in worked with the city and 
county along with neighborhood representatives to resolve.

Mike Shiflett

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RW Pickle" <randy at 27beverly.com>
To: <inc-list at durhaminc.org>
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 12:16 AM
Subject: INC NEWS - top 10 reasons not to change the spelling of INC

> Given the opportunity to express any (even just one) reason for changing
> the spelling of INC, we have seen none. So here are my top 10 reasons to
> leave it like it is. This is my top 10, you may have others. If you have a
> reason for it to change, now would be a good time to get it out in the
> open. Our President says this issue will be decided at our next meeting on
> Tuesday. So come on down and cast your vote.
>
> 1) there is no "right" way to spell it; it's our organization and we can
> spell it any way we decide to spell it; but changing it to something other
> than what it is will not make it any more grammatically correct, will not
> make it any more "right", and we have yet to hear any reason for the
> change
>
> 2) if you Google "interneighborhood" and "inter neighborhood" you will
> find that "interneighborhood" is found 941 times across the web; "inter
> neighborhood" is found 43,600 times. This alone should tell you that the
> 42,000 times + that the latter is found must be the right way for these
> words to be presented. One is no better than the next when it comes to a
> search on Google; we hold the number 1 and 2 spots in either search. So
> ranking in search engines can't be a reason. Either way, you find us
> listed at the top.
>
> 3) since I took over the web work for INC when Al Stone retired from Duke,
> I worked on the placement of our website in search engines (we call this
> Search Engine Optimization or SEO). It's relative here because it deals
> with search words people use to find us. We get around 550 unique visitors
> each month and it continues to grow. Oddly enough, the number one phrase
> in March that visitors came to the INC website from was my name (3%). This
> is really strange to me, but... 1.5% came to us by searching the phrase
> "inter neighborhood". Because I look at the statistics of the website
> regularly, it becomes apparent (from search engine key words and phrases
> used to find us) that "interneighborhood" is way down the list (at 0.5%).
> Probably (we see the sheer number of times it is NOT found in #2) because
> 17 letters in a string really never dawns on most people. It's just really
> long in this day of shorter and shorter words and acronyms. Besides, when
> you hear us mentioned by others, it is always as INC.
>
> 4) as a single keyword used to find us through search engines, durham
> (12.5%) and neighborhood (6.2%) were the top two words.
> "Interneighborhood" was way down the list at 1.3%. More people found us by
> searching "a" and "in" than "interneighborhood". Those must have been very
> broad searches! "Interneighborhood" faired better than "inter" only by
> 0.1% with one less person finding us using it. So changing the spelling so
> we're easier too find is no reason. We're already found by many other
> words by much greater percentages.
>
> 5) there are 350 web files (not including any graphics) that DO NOT have
> our name spelled the way it will be changed. This is an enormous amount of
> work to sort through all of this and correct the spelling. Someone
> suggested a script that might do it. But there are 6 different types of
> formats of files on the website and a script just isn't going to do what
> is thought it would do. So, some say we can do it over time. Who has the
> time and why would we even need to do it in the first place? That's the
> question that begs an answer that never comes. I submit that there is no
> good reason to change the spelling.
>
> 6) last year we bought 2 banners to be used in telling folks who we were
> at various events. These banners (that are NOT spelled like the change
> will be) amount to more than 25% of our regular yearly budget. We used
> them last year at Centerfest and in the Christmas Parade. Changing the
> spelling makes them wrongly spelled. So do we use them anyway and just
> keep this confusion of how to spell INC going? It becomes unnecessary if
> we just leave it as it is.
>
> 7) all stationary, business cards, checks, or places where our formal name
> is used become wrong. Sure we can just wait until we need to order new
> checks to change the name on them so additional expense is not incurred.
> But if we don't change the spelling, none of this stuff is wrong in the
> first place. And there is no "right" way to spell it.
>
> 8) "interneighborhood"; 17 letters. Really. Does anything spelled with 17
> consecutive letters make sense? Most medications and diseases aren't
> spelled with that may letters. Hard to fit it all on a t-shirt... It
> begins to look like an eye chart with all those little letters. And who
> knows, with all those letters, it looks like it could be a crossword
> puzzle word; clue: ___ Council; the organizations of neighborhoods in the
> Bull City. Except it's really too long for even that. Most crossword
> puzzles (like the one found in the Herald Sun) only have 15 spaces for
> letters. So it's even too long for that...
>
> 9) and 10) I really didn't have ten reasons I could come up with, but it
> worked for David Letterman so I thought I'd go with it...
>
> Basically, changing the spelling to any way other than the way it is
> currently spelled is a waste. And why is this necessary? It does nothing
> to further anything. In fact, it just makes additional work and expense
> that is totally unnecessary. All unnecessary if we just leave it like it
> is. No one will be confused either way. Neither is any more right than the
> other. But the above reasons are good reasons for leaving like it is.
> Changing it just adds to the burden of it all. Not for everyone, just for
> those who will have to make the needed changes to correct the spelling.
> And our treasury as we replace what we already have.
>
> There may be other reasons to leave the spelling like it is. I am just
> perched to see the web stuff and the money wasted by doing it better than
> most. These are both duties I have been trusted to look after for our
> organization over the past few years. And changing the spelling is an
> issue for me. It's easy to see why; it's about waste of money and about
> the spelling across the web. Good reasons to stay the course.
>
> Even if we don't change the spelling, and end up using the stylized
> "Durham" that DCVB created for the over-arching brand, it's still not a
> logo. And if that is what we're going for, we'd be better off coming up
> with something that will work for INC for many years to come. It's been 23
> years that we haven't had our own branded identity. Maybe it's time we
> started finding one...
>
> RWP
> Treasurer and Webmaster
>
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