A wee bit o' whimsy.

Hey DevCentralites, in May we had the best of intentions.

We wanted to release our new site alongside a new logo and some other fun stuff and we were gonna be like

'We love you man!'

and you were gonna be like

'Yeah!'

but then, well...Site Happens.

So, we focused our energies on feature stabilization, user issues, and set about cataloguing the flotsam as 'learning lessons'.

Solid plans, for deliberate updates, and mature release patterns are developing**.

BUT...that's not why I'm here.

The DevCentral team was talking a few weeks ago and collectively we sighed,

"We never got that 'love you man' phase and we still haven't properly introduced our new look."

In late 2018 we requested a fresh treatment and the F5 Creative Team delivered a solid color scheme, a new logo, some 'social marks' and all the normal stuff associated with a proper 'brand'.

The name itself is styled 'code-like and technical' while the mark is a loose-linked 'D' and 'C' in that 8-bit nostalgic style.

Loved it.

Then they showed how we could use elements in repeating patterns like those you might see on some of our static pages and on our Twitter feed.

Sweet!

But then, exceeding expectations, they discovered a wee li'l DevCentral mascot who hangs out with us whenever we need some whimsy, some comic relief, or whenever we need someone to just listen. At our last Beer Friday, out of nowhere and with it's usual dry humor, it came right out and said

I'm into cosplay.

In surprised unison we all said "awww?!" and followed up that big-reveal with "You need a name!" - It agreed

So that is why I am really here; we want you to think of names for the mascot.

We'll do it in two phases:

Step 1. Click on our swanky Mascot Name Suggestion Box - and enter a name or two or...?

Step 2. About a week from now we'll whittle suggestions down to the top 3-5 candidates and then we will put those back to you all, to vote on the top choice.

That's it. Have fun. See you next week.

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** If you haven't seen this super-short-survey on pending features, we want your feedback on the nuts and bolts too; this survey closes Oct 18th.