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New TR T-Shirt and New Motto


No, this isn’t the contest prize, but I finally updated the Topless Robot Cafepress store with a T-shirt. More will come.

TR_eat_sleep_repeat.jpg

Cafepress makes these to order, so I have none to hand – but they are selling AT COST, with no markup on my end. So they ought to be the cheapest shirts of their kind on that site.

Now, on to the new site motto. As crazy as it was to go through all those entries, it made for a record-setting traffic day, so I can’t complain.

Let’s look at all the finalists:

montewilliams
Where Pop Culture is a Religion… and a Personal Affront

DrAbraxas
TR – we saw what you did

andre_morelo
Nerd News, Humour and That Part of the Internet

James.k.Polk
Topless Robot: united against the new hyperspace bypass.

berkowitzofthejews
Topless Robot: Nerd News from Androids to Zoidberg

berkowitzofthejews
Topless Robot: Nerding Out since 2047.

shawnpcooke
Topless Robot: Nerdery, Comradery, Chicanery

oliacym
“Nerd news, humour and self-loving.”

ZephyrSP
“Topless Robot: Geek news, humour, and impressive acts of nerdery”

suppaimon
Topless Robot: Feeding the nerds in less than 12 parsecs

franciebrady27
Topless Robot: Nerd news, humor, and sanctuary since 2008

TheLastStarFighter
Topless Robot: The place for all of your full frontal Nerdity news, reviewsand pictures.

SKite
Topless Robot: “All Your Fanbase Are Belong to Us.”

NOT.DrAbraxas
TR: blogging under the enemy scrotum

latigid
Topless Robot: “Say ‘friend’ and enter.”

y2jbrak
Topless Robot: Official Sponsor of Your Inner Child

jason-langston
Topless Robot: Our Nerd is Our Bond

zyglack
Topless Robot: Keep on Geeking on.

Okay. So here is how I made my decision:

The tagline has to sum up the content of the site to even a casual reader, so in-jokes are out. I don’t want something that anyone else can lay claim to, so as much as I loved “full frontal nerdity” and “our nerd is our bond,” they are both already in use by other entities. I also feel like the pop-culture sphere is making the words “nerd” and “geek” so all-purpose that they barely mean anything any more.

In the end, I took one of your entries and put my own twist on it.

“Unofficial Sponsor of Your Inner Childishness”

I think it sums up our content and tone – we can be petty like little brats, and we can be unabashedly loving like kids. And the parts of the nerd-sphere the site has always liked most – comics, toys, gadgets, sci-fi movies, video games, etc. – are in large part holdovers from childhood that have grown up with us. Even the way we look at porn parodies and slash fiction is from an amused/bemused perspective rather than discussing them as actual marital aids.

There’s a touch of self-deprecation to it, but not too much – I think it acknowledges and embraces that. And even though my spin is on it, y2jbrak gets…something. I haven’t figured out what yet.

If old readers wish to come back and argue, they are more than welcome. I love the pageviews.