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Comment by DoreenMichele

5 years ago

"Don’t people have any sense of humour these days?” asked one OOeN reader.

Another noted: “They’re getting free publicity – they ought to have been happy to have a funny name."

Free publicity that leads to sign posts being stolen. For a tiny village of 100 people, this is likely a serious hardship. If it isn't bringing in more money than it's costing them, it's an attractive nuisance, not free publicity.

65 comments

DoreenMichele

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teekert  5 years ago

Moreover, is it really so difficult to imagine that there are still people that don't like publicity these days?

  • DoreenMichele  5 years ago

    Yeah, I just cannot comprehend what is going on in this discussion. Is this the same HN that hates Facebook for all of its privacy issues? But the people in some small village somehow forfeited their right to privacy because a few hundred years ago it was named something that now sounds funny to people in a different language?

    It's bizarre.

    • read_if_gay_  5 years ago

      That’s nonsensical. Because the town’s name is mildly meme worthy, these people are forfeiting their right to privacy? Sorry, what? And how is Facebook even remotely related to this discussion?

      2 replies →

  • SideburnsOfDoom  5 years ago

    > there are still people that don't like publicity these days

    Yes, but they don't post about it online, so no-one hears from them. They might even choose to live in a village with a 3-digit population count.

ithkuil  5 years ago

> In 2012, there were reports that the village of Fucking in Upper Austria attempted to change its name to Fugging through a referendum after receiving large amounts of prank phone calls from English speakers about the village's name.[3] According to these reports, they were unable to do so because Fugging in Lower Austria was already so named;

Prank phone calls are definitely more annoying than some tourists taking a picture at the town sign.

  • riffraff  5 years ago

    GP didn't say taking pictures, but that the sign was being stolen.

    I do not know if this is true in the specific case but I have met idiots who stole street signs, so this seems at least plausible.

    • ephaeton  5 years ago

      I live about 5km away from Fucking. Their signs are _regularly_ stolen, even despite their countermeasures. They even stopped replacing way signs ( | Fucking > ) that were stolen.

      4 replies →

bjohnson225  5 years ago

Probably fair to assume that they weren’t raking in money from the “haha, the road sign has a rude word” tourism.

wraptile  5 years ago

I guess if monetized properly big part of those 100 people could live off the name alone. It's also sad to see this tiny cultural artifact go just because few people are inconvenienced. The stone roads and tiny alleys in the old town are inconvenient yet we don't go bulldozing it all down.

  • DoreenMichele  5 years ago

    How do you think they can monetize it? How do you monetize random strangers coming to your town, taking photos of themselves in sometimes "lascivious poses" with your sign and sometimes stealing it? What's the business angle there?

    It's a tiny village. Such places often have a real sense of community that you don't have elsewhere. Injecting a lot of sexual nonsense into their little town because of the name likely feels rather rapey to them.

    That's sort of like the old fashioned advice that if a woman is going to be raped and can't avoid it, she should try to enjoy the ride -- which is all kinds of deeply offensive and morally depraved.

    These people find this behavior offense, offensive enough that they changed the name. They don't seem to find the name offensive. They seem to only find the behavior of random people coming to their village offensive and they don't know another way to stop it.

    • setr  5 years ago

      Like piracy, the easiest solution is probably to just sell a copy of the sign in a fashion (obviously) easier than theft.

      I doubt the thrill of theft is a significant driver of it.

      18 replies →

    • _underfl0w_  5 years ago

      "Merchandizing, where the real money from the movie is made."

        I recently passed through the town of Weed, California and bought a tie-dye hoodie from a gas station with the town name on it. Didn't need the hoodie, but they sold them so I bought one for the novelty. Voilà! Business angle.

      1 reply →

  • teekert  5 years ago

    Spoken like a true entrepreneur. But you know, there are people out there, in small villages that have quiet lives that nobody ever hears about and they are perfectly happy. I'm really amazed at all the "We can monetize this" and "It's free publicity" statements here. How about admiring these people for their wish to maintain tranquility in the village the know and love?

    Edit: quite - quiet

    • slx26  5 years ago

      Join now the club where "opportunity" is more valuable than "freedom"! (hey, it might be an evolutionary trait, but I suck at surviving and I'm ok with it)

    • wraptile  5 years ago

      The second part of my comment was in the same spirit as well - how about we admire this peculiar linguistic artifact, embrace and enjoy it rather than optimize everything like robots. Europe especially is completely bent over preserving old cultural architecture and artifacts - what's wrong with wanting to preserve _new_ architecture and artifacts?

      1 reply →