Why did we change our name to MUBI?
without a voice is not change
gggggguuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh……….. Mubi???
jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuussssssssssss……………..
Wow, when I first read on one of the threads that the name was chosen, in part, because it sounded like some people’s mispronunication of the word “movie”, I thought they were just reading too much into it. I can’t believe that was actually the case.
I agree with Jose. Maybe the point was to make the site more universal and welcoming to non-native English-speakers. To me, it just seems unbelievably condescending. Did they really think that they would attract more people by, essentially, making fun of the way they speak English?
I have to weigh in on this. I really am not going to spend the time right now, because I’m going to sleep soon, reading all of the posts. However, I did read the first page. Just to let everybody know that I want to keep the name theauteurs as well. I am total agreement with people supporting that. When I typed in www.theauteurs.com today, I came across the same introductory page but with that MUBI letters written on it and I had to click on to discuss instead of where I usually click on to which is the bottom right corner of the screen. I don’t know if those letters MUBI stand for something, but like other people have been saying on this thread, I think it is easier to find this website under www.theauteurs.com, then a name like MUBI. For instance, you can google Auteurs and you will find this website. Maybe you can with MUBI too, but frankly, I think it makes it more confusing.
People in other cultures are far smarter than the official explanation for MUBI implies. I hope a dumbed down name is not a foreshadowing of things to come. Why not name it cinephile.com if nothing else. Alas, we live in a world dominated by Michael Bay and Blockbuster Summer sequels. Maybe it’s too good to be true to believe that a site might be able to promote and cultivate greatness as opposed to popular drivel. But as cable television once had Bravo and the Arts Network (A&E) showing commercial free art house fare, they eventually had to succumb to showing reruns of mindless, popular fare. But mediocrity sells and world-wide web domination is the name of the game these days.
You’d think that since over half the users are from U.S. or U.K. and most international users know English they would want to pick a name that makes sense to the majority. Instead they went with something that doesn’t make sense at all to anyone.
Auteurs cat isn’t happy.
tank u so bary much to mak naam difurunt cud not spel theauteurs.com now i can com heer all da tim cuz i cud spell MUBI
do other countries not have internet browsers with bookmarking and history capabilities? haha
I’m Ron Burgundy?
OK, I am on the site now. Where are the Mubians?
The artists formerly known as the auteurs come to Mubi.
Has The Auteurs officially jumped the shark?
Well, I’ll miss the old name but if the content and mission stays the same then I’m totally in and if the new name helps attract cinephiles from non-english speaking lands all the better. The art of film knows no boundaries so why should we. Viva le Revolution!
_
Would an international audience really be thrown off by a big word like “auteur” ? I would certainly not be thrown off by a french word if it was a decent site.. I mean really? Like on SNL “Really? You’re changing your site to a nonsense word to attract a wider audience? Really?” Why don’t you just market it the way it was.. Oh well. Maybe I’ll start my own site.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2010/05/13/the_auteurs_is_now_mubi/
“Cakarel kept realizing that many people had no idea what the word “auteur”—a French word for author that has come to mean a film director with a signature style—actually means. It was not accessible. "
“Cakarel wants to grow members into the millions.”
Isn’t one of the definitions of art films that they are actually inaccessible to a lot of people? If the name can be changed from something specialized to something generic in order to get more customers, can we expect the kinds of films shown and discussed to mirror this shift?
“Would an international audience really be thrown off by a big word like “auteur”?”
I’m international audience and I’m thrown off by the word “Mubi”.
The name “The Auteurs” was actually one of the reasons I got interested in this site in the first place, along with the minimalistic, classy design. English is not my first language and I don’t speak french, but I know what an auteur is because I love film. No one knows what the hell a mubi is, no matter what country they’re from or what their interests are. I mean c’mon, is “The Auteurs” really THAT hard to spell or difficult to understand?
“The Auteurs” was a strong name that meant something. “Mubi” is a generic nothing.
Mubi is a stroke of genius- of all the words or names in the whole universe how did they know this was the one to unify the 62 year old bespectacled Borges-loving intellectual in Montevideo who already knows the films of Lav Diaz inside out, the 23 year old ballerina in Bratislava with a poodle who’s seen all Audrey Hepburn’s films, the 15 year old lad in Iceland who’s seen Avatar 167 1/2 times already, the yak herder in Mongolia who’s just got a computer, the 48 year old supermarket checkout woman in Manilla who’s got an obsessive crush on George Clooney, the arthouse film programmer in Minsk with a habit of twiddling his droopy moustache, the 31 year old long-haired marine biologist in Guatemala who likes documentaries and the animated films of Miyazaki Hayao, the tribe of pygmies in the Congo who were once shown a screening of Superman by an intrepid explorer (who ended up as breakfast), have built a monument to it and have finally got hold of a dvd player, the Taliban general in his cave who secretly loves Catherine Deneuve… i see it now, as one, their faces all lit up in rapture as they savoured the word, oooh, Mubi!
I was mumbling the word in bed last night and the effect on my wife was electric….“ooooh, daarling” she was immediately writhing in ecstasy. “Oooooh how did you know such a G-spot?” she just asked with a faraway blissful expression as i brought her coffee. “After all these years and it turned out you were a superstud!”
so a word of advice to any timid nerdy lonelyheart guy out there – just zap em with “Mubi”
hahahaha @ Kenji
Kenji—I didn’t know you had it in you.
Kenji, Amazing.
@Kai White: LOOOL…Nice..haven’t laughed in awhile..
They think people whose not using English as their main language cannot spell&read&pronounce theauteurs (&know the meaning) & their internet cannot do bookmarks& they are just dumb&stupid&fat. That’s just offending and sad. I just hope they would change it back to auteurs. Not all of them are dumb&doesn’t know how to spell&pronounce auteurs???! As someone whose probably you’d consider cannot read&write English because he/she is somewhere in not significant country that’s not selling dictionary, I felt offended. If you still using that excuse to rename the site, at least use some name that has meanings, and change your reasons.
Kenji, you’re my hero. ;)
Savvy
If nothing else, at least the best in Kenji is being brought out.
Mubi Dick
Kenji, I hope that’s you scripting a MUBI promo over there.
If the word auteur was to difficult to understand than good night.
I rather swallow my tongue than calling this side Mubi. I will never get to used to it. Never.
I guess they are much more important things to do to improve this side than changing its name.
It just sounds like a very very bad joke.
I wish I could wake up to this Mubi nightmare.
tibber
has it been explained just exactly what a MUBI is? ’cause it sounds way too close to Moobie. i mean, are you planning to market the site toward obese men now?