Strange Strands

22 Mar 2006

Geophysical Lumina

Recently I moved my Anomalous Luminous Phenomena site from /alp/ to /lights/ since I thought I'd then have a more memorable URI, better search engine placement, and a generally more tidy site. But along with that I've been searching for a new name for the site, and I'm a bit flummoxed. The name has to contain the following data; explaining that it's a site about:

  • An unexplained phenomenon. Terms: "anomalous", "mysterious", "unexplained".
  • A natural phenomenon. Terms: "natural", "geophysical".
  • Lights. Terms: "luminous phenomena", "light phenomena", "lumina", "light forms", "lights".
  • Documenting these things. Terms: "archive of", "site".

So, for example, I came up with "Archive of Unexplained Natural Lights", but that makes it sound like I'm actually encapsulating the lights in documents and putting them online. "Anomalous Natural Luminous Phenomena Site" is starting to get a bit long, and doesn't have that nice ring to it. The first domain that I bought was one for this site, and it still works: mysterylights.com. So I thought about using just "Mystery Lights", but I think that leaves too much information out, and I'm worried about it sounding like a tacky paranormal site.

I also thought of using "Earth Lights and Will-o'-the-Wisps" in the title since those are the two primary subjects, but those titles will be reiterated in subpages anyway, and they don't tell you what's going on out of context. "The Earth's Mysterious Lights" is a nice explanation, but sounds a bit like one of those tacky science sites that are all show and no content.

I also liked "Mystery Lights Collectanea", even though it didn't have much information in it; but I rejected that on the grounds that it starts with an "M"; it just doesn't look as good as phrases that start with, for example, vowels. Which brings me to the conclusion that I'm just being picky about it and I should just pick something for the interim. Let's say, "The Earth's Anomalous Lightforms". Yeah, that'll do. Hooray.

Strange Strands, Geophysical Lumina, by Sean B. Palmer
Archival URI: http://inamidst.com/strands/lumina

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