When GU was created it was specifically for guild members. And the natural response to an unfunny or odd comment was "...". So at the time "/gu ..." for the name of the comic made perfect sense. It was me picking at myself. In February of 2003, I dropped the slash because my focus had shifted away from EQ specifically, away from MMOGs in general, and toward gaming in general. The letters GU without the slash was an expression of a larger, global community. And I didn't want the elipses to be seen as a trivialization of what the GU readership had to say.

Ultimately the slash only lasted for two and a half years. But that was was over six and a half years ago. GU has now been without the slash over two and a half times longer than it ever had it. And people wonder why I don't respond sweetly when they use the slash.

Now, I'm not mean about it. There's no point in being mean about it. But I have started ignoring it. Questioning what they mean by "/gu".

I'm making this blog post knowing full well very few people actually read the GU Blog. I just wanted to take a moment and state clearly though...
I appreciate your kind words and thoughts, but please don't use the slash when referring to the comic any more. Thanks!

...It.. says a lot about me and various other online friends' tastes when I looked at the title and thought of an entirely DIFFERENT definition of "slash" and thought you'd somehow started delving into bad fanfic. *cough*

(Seriously. I read a doozy today. Died laaaaughing.)

Whenever someone mentioned /gu on these forums (only seen it once or twice), I thought they were talking about the latest PS2 .hack games XD I wasn't really around back then, but then again I wasn't exactly in any of your guilds or playing any of your games either. At least I was still able to get a good laugh when I read the old comics.

*shrug* Despite your explanation, I never understood the need to remove the slash(although it's your comic so you have every right to do whatever the hell you want with it ..heh.) My opinion at the time was that if you are going to essentially "rebrand" the comic, then rebrand it completely. It seemed like half-assing it just confused people .

While I can understand that it might be frustrating for people to "still get it wrong after 6 years," the people who do are most likely either new readers who are linking from an old everquest website still online somewhere, or readers rediscovering the comic after a long absence. These people seem like exactly the wrong ones to not "respond sweetly" to when they use the slash.

well shoot, i never realized it was a sore spot. but i guess it would be like someone walkin up to me an say "hey benji, how ya doin" knowing full well, i have not been called benji since i was knee high to a grasshopper...=/

Right jtoast, it makes complete sense to give up the url that everyone already knew. You did actually read the first post, correct? Bah what a silly question. Obviously you didn't. If you had you would have noticed that it answers any confusion you might have had about why I changed it. And it doesn't say anything about rebranding. It states specifically what I had in mind by removing the slash.

By the way... I don't appreciate that "half-ass[ed]" comment. There was nothing half assed about my decision.

Actually there would be no reason to give up the URL....a simple redirection and explanation on the front page for awhile would have solved that issue.

Also, I didn't ask a question so I'm not sure what exactly you found to be "silly." It seems that you are the one who may not have read the entire post before replying.

Your say above that "In February of 2003, I dropped the slash because my focus had shifted away from EQ specifically, away from MMOGs in general, and toward gaming in general." If thats the case, fine, I have no problem with that. It makes perfect sense.

What doesn't make sense, at least to me, is why keep such an EQ specific reference as "GU?" Non mmorpg players (and probably most non-eq players) would have no idea that "GU" was short for "Guild" anymore than non-mmorpg players would know that the slash was a EQ/MMORPG reference...and if thats the case, what was gained by the change?

That's what I meant by "half assed"...The name consisted of what can arguably be called 2 EQ/MMORPG references (the slash and the GU) but you only changed half of it.

As to "rebranding," the term refers to, among other things, a shift in a products name or focus. If removing the slash and changing the focus from EQ specific comics to gaming in general wouldn't be considered rebranding I'm not sure what would be.

Look, this is your website and I am not trying to argue with you. It is pretty obvious from the sarcastic phrasing of your reply to me that you consider my input and feedback irrelevant and that's fine.

I am merely a reader who is telling you how the change was perceived by myself and the other gamers I played with back when it happened. If you don't want to hear it then I will be happy to keep my opinions to myself.

I don't consider your input irrelevant. I consider your word choices to be poor. And telling me I half-assed anything related to my site will ALWAYS draw a swift, teeth baring response... if I choose to respond that is.

I feel like every issue you've reiterated has been addressed.