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Key: MDL-16762
Type: Bug Bug
Status: Open Open
Priority: Minor Minor
Assignee: Nobody
Reporter: David Mudrak
Votes: 1
Watchers: 8
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Moodle

Change the terminology from "Moodle Network" to "MNet"

Created: 02/Oct/08 03:51 AM   Updated: 22/Jul/09 04:59 AM
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Component/s: Networking
Affects Version/s: 1.9.2
Fix Version/s: None

Participants: David Mudrak, Eloy Lafuente (stronk7), Helen Foster, Howard Miller, Mary Cooch, Nigel McNie, Nobody and Ray Lawrence
Security Level: None
Affected Branches: MOODLE_19_STABLE


 Description  « Hide
As of Moodle 1.9.2, the English language pack and documentation still talks about "Moodle Network", "Moodle Networking" etc. But the concept of Moodle network services is not limited to connecting Moodle servers only - e.g. Mahara can talk to Moodle pretty well.
This is a proposal to call our networking framework as "MNet" (maybe with some nice logo?) and modify all current strings accordingly (mainly mnet.php).

Discussed at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=128584

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David Mudrak added a comment - 02/Oct/08 03:53 AM
Adding MartinD as watcher - this is something our Benevolent Dictator For Live shall decide

David Mudrak added a comment - 21/Jul/09 02:22 PM
Some votes for this? I know the terminology may not seem to be crucial for the development, but IMHO it really helps both translators and mainly admins and other users to use these networking features.

Helen Foster added a comment - 21/Jul/09 02:42 PM
David, how about posting about your suggested name-change in the Moodle Network forum http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=6976 and ask people to vote or comment on this issue.

David Mudrak added a comment - 21/Jul/09 03:03 PM
(added discussion link to the Description)

Ray Lawrence added a comment - 21/Jul/09 04:03 PM
Moodle network works for me as it describes what it is. Mnet requires a further level of investigation to discover what the term means.

Howard Miller added a comment - 21/Jul/09 04:29 PM
Boringly and inevitably I agree with Ray (again!)

Mary Cooch added a comment - 21/Jul/09 05:35 PM
I take the point that it's "not just about Moodle" these days but I do think the term Mnet means nothing until you know what it means.. At the very least could we include the whole word network?

David Mudrak added a comment - 21/Jul/09 07:41 PM
Yes, Mary, that is point. "Moodle networking" implies that only Moodle sites can be connected. This is not true any more. Mahara is capable to connect into the network and soon, more applications (like Students infomation systems) may join.
The problem is, when setting up the network, there are texts like:

"Publish this service to allow your users to roam to the {XXXX} Moodle site without having to re-login there."

where {XXXX} is replaced with the name of the remote server (see Server Administration > Networking > Peers > Services). Such strings appear also when setting up partnership with a Mahara site. So they become rather confusing.

The problem is easy to reproduce:
===========================
set-up networking between your Moodle server and a Mahara site. You will see that from "Moodle Networking" is not appropriate term any more.

BTW IMHO "MNET" have the same information value as "Moodle networking" - admins have to read what the system is about to understand the concept. Also, Mnet sounds pretty IT-ish for me

Thanks for paying attention to this.


Nigel McNie added a comment - 22/Jul/09 04:22 AM
Hi guys,

While it's called "Moodle Networks", there are definitely other systems that can speak it - and that goes beyond Mahara too. Catalyst wrote an MNET library that allows projects like drupal to speak MNET for example.

To be honest, I don't mind what it's called in Moodle's documentation - and as the other responders seem to think, 'Moodle networks' is unambiguous so it's a good choice. But I definitely think there's a usability issue in the actual UI. Constantly using the word 'Moodle' like it's the only thing that can be connected to is confusing for people, when it's hard enough to set up networks!

And as for the protocol itself - well the developers have long called it the 'mnet protocol' - although it's not really officially specced or anything.

I guess what I'm suggesting is:

  • Call it 'Moodle networks' in documentation
  • Call the protocol the 'MNET protocol' (only for coders)
  • Change 'Moodle' specific wording in the UI. Mahara uses 'remote application' by the way.

ps: I think I already filed a bug about use of 'moodle' in the moodle UI for mnet some time ago, it's probably floating around the tracker somewhere.
pps: I think also the UI says 'moodle' a lot because you could only network between moodles in 1.8, the Mahara ability was added in 1.9. So any patches for this probably make sense from 1.9 up.


Eloy Lafuente (stronk7) added a comment - 22/Jul/09 04:59 AM
+1 to drop MNET (or whatever it's called from Moodle).

"the best way to solve a problem is to attack the cause of it" or, in Spanish, "muerto el perro, se acabó la rabia"

Alternatively I'd vote +0.5 to rename it to "Microsoft Network"

Obviously joking :-D

I think "mnet" is a good name, easy to remember for everybody, the "M" points to Moodle (where the protocol was first implemented), and the "NET" part is pretty meaningful.

So +1 to change any occurrence from "Moodle Network/ed/ing" to, simply, "Mnet" (but the main page in Docs, where the link between both names should remain/be explained.

Ciao