Why did we change our name to MUBI?

I’ve been thinking about the new name for 2 weeks.. My conclusion: MUBI is an unbelievably bad name.

Yes the name isn’t most users’ cup of tea. I believe the staff could have organized some sort of “you re-name the user end of the site” contest or something. Taking advantage of the site’s users, who knows… a better name than MUBI could have arisen and it would have cost the Auteur staff nothing… maybe 3 free movies or some inexpensive prize along those lines… Or nothing! I’m sure we would have all sent our suggestions for free… Also, the users would have felt included which is the right thing to do when the users themselves have contributed so much to the database and paid for the films they’ve watched.

But MUBI is here to stay and that’s all there is to it. So yes, I agree that if we use the site and if we’re fond of the site, we should all “move forward” (to quote EFE).

The rest, MUBI / The Auteurs being a business is perfectly understandable, the staff needs to generate cash. Everyone needs to eat. A site of this size must be expensive to keep on the net. Who has the deep pockets to do any huge endeavor for free nowadays? Maybe Bono. =)

I really wish this site the best. A platform this large that would aid in bringing films that otherwise would be unavailable to most of us (I live in Chile so imagine) has to be commended.

I hope that in other major decisions, the users will be included. You never know what good may come out of including us.

Or: How I learned to stop worrying and tolerate the Mubi.

I’m not convinced!

Bring back THE AUTEURS!

‘MUBI’ will only flood the site with unwanted low-grade input. Also, I don’t think the “Apple” or “Virgin” comparisons stand for anything within this context. People need to learn what “auteur” means, if they don’t, or if they’re not willing to, then they don’t belong here. Go on, call me an elitist.

This is an excellent site & it deserves a worthy name, changing it to “MUBI” is not going to help establish a more pervasive or “web surfer friendly” profile. People who are genuinely interested in film, great film, will naturally gravitate to a site with the word “auteurs”, not…..er… MUBI.

The Good, the Bad, & the Mubi.

I posted on the name change previously, commenting on how it has lost the essence that drew me to it in the first place. Name change aside, I would like to add that the new name with the old dotted logo is unbalance, those letter in that typeface don’t work particularly well in uppercase. The old name and logo was balance, the new one is unbalanced as the dotted logo worked better on the left.

Personally I would ask the designers to work harder, I wouldn’t accept this.

Now that Efe has provided a detailed and thorough analysis of the Mubi name change – although at a late juncture due to circumstances beyond his control – I thought it a good time to reflect on the whole ordeal.

I see this in a way as a battle in Mubiland between those loyal to the old auteurs kingdom and those supporting the new incarnation of Mubi. On one side – with an over-whelming majority – were the auteurs United Empire Loyalists. On the other side, were the small and beleagured band of Mubi Rebels. We could call this: The epic battle of the auteurs United Empire Loyalists vs. the Mubi Rebels.

The forces of the auteurs Loyalists were damned angry and threatening the gates of the handfull of Mubi supporters. The numbers of angry auteurs Loyalists were swelling by the second. With Lord Efe gone elsewhere, the auteurs Loyalists approached the now leaderless fortress of the Mubi Rebels like an angry mob:

Angry mob of auteurs Loyalists heading for the Mubi fortress

Mubi Rebels defending Mubi fortress from attack

A Loyalist warrior even tattooed MUBI on his chest to taunt the poor Mubi Rebels!

The battle raged for many days, as a handful of Mubi Rebels tried to fend off the Loyalist attacks with scorn, sarcasm and indifference.

Rebel showing his scorn for the auteurs Loyalists

Eventually, with both sides tired and no signs of Lord Efe’s return, the battle finally petered out, but not without the Loyalist forces getting in a few final shots.

Eventually, Lord Efe returned and tried to restore calm to Mubiland with his reasoned defense of Mubi from all attackers. Occasional squirmishes still broke out, but finally the Loyalists forces learned to live within Mubiland, as a tract was given to them under the auteurs banner.

The auteurs Loyalists, flying the auteurs banner on the turf alloted them.

Once again, peace reigned in Mubiland.

Or did it???

^Hilarious!!!

This is the most intriguing thing Efe said:

“We are working on some new elements in Mubi social network that will make it easier for you to manage communities within a global structure.”

I can’t wait to see what this means.

I thought we were already doing this…

Question: are we any closer to getting out of “beta,” or does to conversion to MUBI reset the clock?

I am highly disappointed in the name change to MUBI. Even writing the word out makes me cringe.

While I appreciate all of the efforts and work that goes into creating this site—which is, indeed, an amazing accomplishment— The title The Auteurs was not at all exclusive and in fact carried with it an elegance, wit, and homage to cinema that I found so wonderful and refreshing.

The word Auteur/Auteurist is used all over the world to connote a creative signature— which is what good movies and art embody. To say this is a word the international community cannot relate with is insulting and misinformed. I truly wish your team would reconsider this unfortunate re-branding. I feel betrayed.

Yes to say that the word auteur is too exclusive and can´t be used all over the world is just a bad joke.
I agree with Natasha. I feel betrayed too.

“MUBI”? Come off it!
I’m a fairly new theauteurs.com user, and I actually joined because I found the name intriguing, popping up as it did in a Google search. “MUBI” is a complete non-word. Sounds ridiculous, looks ugly too. As another user wrote: How can I ever recommend a site with such a silly name?
To me “The Auteurs” didn’t just refer to those creative people, the directors, whom we all still revere (without necessarily subscribing to the “auteur theory”), but to you people dreaming up this wonderful site.
The old name connoted that creativity.
Well, as of today I have changed my user name to celebrate the old name and everything it stood for.

I’ve been away for a while and have just learned of the name change. Seems like a pretty stupid decision.

So you’ve changed it to MUBI from the auteurs because there is a film watching demographic that doesn’t know what auteur means? Well, I’m pretty sure there’s a larger demographic that doesn’t know what MUBI means…

I could be wrong though….

[Goes to check OED]

Nope not in there, although auteur is, despite being a French word, because it so widely used it even makes English dictionaries.

[Goes to check urbandictionary]

Nope, not there either. It gives me mubashar. ‘A swearword in Swissgerman. Comes from a Mubasharnamed guy who looks like a harmless terrorist.’ Well, I suppose that definition makes more sense than the name change.

I like RLS in Mubiland’s post

nobody joined theauteurs to “support business” -people don’t buy food to support agribusiness, they need to eat. the auteurs is something we enjoy using and learning from, its a really great site, but most of what I like about it is the other users here and their user generated content: opinions, insights, lists, etc. Users make this site what it is. I’m sure theauteurs staff work hard, but I didn’t join this site because one of them wrote to about how they needed to get paid. Fact is, most of the people who spend time here would have liked some say in this name change, or at least appreciated a name change that doesn’t hearken 1) an offensive cliche 2) gurgling underwater 3) man boobies

The response by Efe was effectively rude and disheartening. To have the sheer ignorance to compare the name ‘Mobi’ to ‘Apple’ or ‘Virgin’ both of which are names derived from the English language (completely disenfranchising any possible legitimacy to the argument which you proposed regarding appealing to a more multi-cultural audience) is truly unfathomable…

You did not effectively consult the members of this user community – which are in fact are the representation ‘life-blood’ on which this corporation has the ability to run – and as a result, we feel poorly valued/represented… furthermore, upon evaluating the staggering large and passionate response made by the community, the response given by Mobi representative ‘Efe’ is not only inappropriate but strongly suggestive of the kind actions that will be taken towards the now MOBI, what was once theAuteurs, community… To me, this is obviously the foreshadowing of a dark future for this community.

It is unfortunate to see such a good thing go to waste… but isn’t that what we should come to expect in the modern day and age … ? … It was only a matter of time before the corporation got greedy and forgot about the values that it initially stood for… OH WELL.

Man, I liked this place better when it was elitist and exclusive. The problem is, there are plenty of “we love all movies!” places on the internet. I liked this site specifically because the general public didn’t know what an “auteur” was, and didn’t care. i could come to this place and people would be raging about Bresson and Tarkovsky and Bergman and Joe, and I guess it can still be like that, even with the dumb new name. But I don’t agree with the spirit of the change. We can still talk about His Girl Friday, but that’s a pretty famous film. I liked this being a heated discussion of world, independent and on the edge stuff.

And Mubi is a shit name, no way around it. It does sound like Bebo and Twitter and Digg and all those hip “connect to every other site account you have” things. Why? I understand you want to grow as a site, but I was just fine coming here and having an isolated discussion on the boards. Mubi sounds like a silly, crass commercial name and it sounds so generic and gross I can’t even say it out loud.

Either way it’s not the end of the world. But I slowly feel like this site is turning from something simple and cool to something broad and overly complicated. I wouldn’t be surprised to log in in a few months and find a complete overhaul of the boards, with widgets and tons of other dumb things clogging up the site.

Good luck with becoming bland and generic!

Call me pathetically shallow, but I have actually stopped visiting the website since the name change.

Elston: I have also limited my time and energy on this Web site since the name change, especially since it appears that no real effort will be made to find a reasonable name. I sense a similar dispirit in the smaller number of interesting posts and discussions available.

My crystal ball is no better than anyone else’s, so I try not to try to predict what will happen in the future. For the present, though, my morale about this site has sunk to a low I couldn’t have imagined a few months ago. Morale and “customer relations” aren’t what they used to be in many businesses but until recently this site managed to hide the fact that it was a business, and that it was one that was not necessarily in the business of serving its constituency.

I wrote a few days ago in a separate thread that I had come to terms with the whole name change, since TheAuteurs.com is still attached with the Web site. MUBI is still a silly name, and I was actually quite upset about the name change for a few days there after it happened. I initially thought it was a joke.

I’m still going to use this site, simply because I know there’s still a large community of users on here who came here to discuss art house, classic and more obscure films than what’s being developed in the mainstream.

TheAuteurs.com means a lot to ALL OF US on here, because it came to define an exceptional Web experience. It’s still here, not completely removed, just unfortunately set aside. I can live with that, as long as the experience isn’t radically altered in a negative, unconscionable manner.

@ Frank – Don’t leave us!

I just wait and watch for now what will happen in the next weeks and months. Honestly I can imagine a life without MUBI, but as a matter of fact there are some people I met here and whom I would miss.

I second that, Rüdiger. Besides, there’s the upcoming Director’s Cup.

I guess that’s the way things MU BI.

To Mu Bi or not to Mu Bi?

Nau aj ken fajnali urait on a sait uer aj dount hev tu wöri abaut z inglish lengwich. Aj lav Muvi, ä mubi, ent houp it uil bikam ewrisin aj lav abaut google, yahoo and apple!

PS: Hjsdlakk lkjsjalkjas jhfd ewr id saidaw asd. :-)

wêri føny

hahahahaha. Great. Just great.

that’s goddamn beautiful. now i’m glad it changed to mubi. ooops.

I find the name change insulting to the intelligence of the users of this website. I think you’ve misjudged your users. It would have been better to float this as an idea with the users instead of going over our heads and making an executive decision.