Pssst... Dixie is now Omnitype. Pass it on

Hahah!

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Somewhat reviving this, but after reading a lot of the comments on their site, I can’t but help feel sad that a re-brand has become politicized as a left vs. right argument.

Granted there were several comments that were positive—I just feel a little disheartened that there are still a large number of folks in the community that are very “aggressive” about a positive change forward. What do y’all think?

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Oh no! We wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable.

This is a change that Gurt willingly made out of his own considerations for the name. At this point I don’t think it really matters if people say the name change is based on other people’s opinions, just Gurt’s own.

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“a positive change forward” is an unnecessary and bothersome change to some. It’s not that they’re aggressive, they probably just feel it’s unnecessary and wastes time and energy debating and worrying about such a small thing

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At a surface level that’s the case, and to some degree it is a small thing, but I’d argue the notion of just doing it symbolizes a learned moment—in contemporary times, we now know better than we did before, and this is Gurt’s way of processing and acknowledging it.

The comments remind me of the MassDrop to Drop change all over again, albeit with a twist.

I guess was it was sort of naive of me to think I could “escape” reality by the hobby and not expect some toxicity on the Internet lol. Appreciate your thoughts

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If you truly believe that it is such a small thing, and Gurt is willingly making this change after considering the perspectives of other people who have been reticent to purchase from his store, then I don’t know why it has your hackles up like this.

I was raised in a place where people considered all sorts of things to be small things. I grew up and interacted with people from outside of that bubble, and learned that things everybody around me had conceived of as small things were not small things to other people; not because they were wrong but because we were different people with different perspectives, interests, and needs that were being met differently (or not at all) by the world. The more I accepted that those differences existed and were not a problem, the more friends I made outside of the bubble I had been in, and the more diverse and interesting my group of friends became.

It’s fine if you don’t think it’s a big deal, and it’s fine if you think it’s an amount of effort and work that doesn’t ultimately improve anything for you. If somebody adds a wheelchair ramp to a building and you don’t use a wheelchair, that’s a lot of effort and work that doesn’t ultimately improve anything for you. But that doesn’t mean people who use wheelchairs don’t exist, it doesn’t mean their experience of the world isn’t real, and it doesn’t mean the addition of the wheelchair ramp doesn’t meaningfully improve their lives and expand the potential client base for the business that added it. Gurt added a wheelchair ramp, and for some people that’s bigger than it is for you. And that’s fine.

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Oh no! We wouldn’t want you to be uncomfortable bothered.

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You hit the nail on the head. Thanks for articulating what I couldn’t.

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Heheh

I’m not upset or anything, I just think people give words too much weight. The time spent here could be used for lubing, building, or researching. I just see it as unnecessary

Edit: for the wheelchair example, adding a ramp makes a building physically accessible, so it is worth the work. Changing a name doesn’t make a site accessible to people that have no other way to access it

Words are important. Their meaning is important. The word “dixie” carries a connotation with it, for better or for worse. There are plenty of big names in the mainstream that had “dixie” in their name and have since removed it.

Seeing “dixie” as the branding for a major player in our hobby could turn away some that would otherwise be interested and want to be involved in this community.

I think it’s good that we can discuss this alongside the technical aspects of our hobby. And I hope to see you involved in those topics.

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It may be easy for some of us, myself included, as white males, to dismiss the power of certain terminology, as it is never directed at us, but crafted by our predecessors. there is a reason it is no longer acceptable to say certain words that demean people of racial, sexual, national, or gender identities different from our own.

However if words actually had so little weight, this would not be the case, you would also not be as bothered by Omnitype changing some little words. It seems that you are applying your own argument to the situation selectively, and Implying that the name change diverted their attentions, or all of ours, from “more important tasks.” Although your engagement in the discussion suggests it is important enough.

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Thank you for discussing with me, I hope to see you in those discussions as well! Have a good night!

I’m not upset about it, I just think it’s pointless. Words only have meaning when they are given meaning. The more you choose not to use some words, the more power you give them

Yet if we stop using a word, time will deprive the word of its meaning.

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I received my Dolch Deskmat today and the sleeve it is in still has the old “Dixie” branding, but they included an Omnitype sticker.

Ps. I had a childhood kitten with the former name, so though the country has a negative connotation with the word, it oddly has a warm, furry spot in my heart.

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I think they said stuff that was kicked off before some date would still have the old branding, it will probably take some time to clear out the pipeline of everything pre-rebrand

How did that Dolch deskmat look? I’ve heard of people getting washed-out gray ones.

I personally think it looks great!

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