Quote from: wegsturm on September 10, 2014, 07:05:50 PM

Quote from: amytheplanarshift on September 09, 2014, 06:15:30 PM

Regarding the discussion about the currency symbol, I'll copy and paste what I wrote on the NEM forums here for everyone to discuss.

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Theoretically a vote should not cause any drama. The majority wins, end of story. This is how a democratic system works. However, with that being said, having a community vote on something like this may be flawed, and I will explain why.

I've seen many other cryptocurrencies voting on things related to design and aesthetics. However, the reality is that most people here and in general have no experience in this field. Art and design is a specialized field, just like anything else. Having a vote on something like a logo or a currency symbol is something that should be left up to a trusted professional. Otherwise, it would be like voting on specific changes to the codebase when the majority of the community does not even know the first thing about coding.

Many people refuse to believe that art/design is something that can only be done by a professional. Everyone thinks they just inherently know what looks good and what does not, but that simply is not true. I feel that any decision for NEM related to design aesthetics be left to a trusted professional in that field, or at least someone who has demonstrated that they have the knowledge required to make those decisions. People are always going to complain about such a decision because it does not fit what they feel looks good in their eyes. But those are untrained eyes, and such an opinion should be completely disregarded (at least, that's how I feel about it).

I only say this as someone who has a faint background in art and design (I am an artist in my spare time and have a bit of formal training), and I know all too well how people without the requisite training can be severely misguided in terms of what makes an effective design and what does not.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. If the community would prefer to have a vote for this sort of thing, then that is not my decision to make. Just wanted to throw my thoughts into the mix.

I agree with you that design is a specialized field and only professionals have the knowledge and training to recognize "good" design.
However, the currency symbol is for the eye of the masses. If a designer makes a great design according to his experience and a great majority of the community thinks it looks like sh*t, it doesn't fit to a product that aims for mass adoption. If you have enough voices of lay persons against/for a design within the community you can assume it's (approximately) the same oppinion as the rest of the world will have (excluding all other professionals Tongue

).

I agree. The best course of action is to have a designer create multiple symbols and have the people vote.

.....so, basically, what NEM did.