Sunday 19 October 2008

A sporter - what it is and what it isn't - (naming of e-sporters, esporters)

After more than half a year of www.e-sporters.com being live, I am still getting this question ... what is a sporter? Which is concerning of course, because if people don't even know what this is, the hurdle to get people to register on the site is even higher than usual for community sites which is already sky high.

I did not make the word "sporter" up, it is a Dutch and Portuguese word and I hope it will eventually also make its way into the English language, as a non gender specific word for a sportsman or sportswoman. Sporter encompasses someone who does sport, including athletes (people who do active sports) and also less active sports like darts, snooker, GO etc. In Dutch you can say "I am a sporter", when you do sports regularly and sport helps define you. Like on a CV you would put I am a "manager" or a "marketer". People should be proud to define themselves as sporters, like a stamp on your CV.

If you look up sporter in Google without selecting Netherlands or Brasilian, the word sporter is associated with cars, cameras, guns (worryingly), binoculars, bikes or motorbikes. Especially in the US a sporter seems to be a brand of gun, hmmmm, it may take a while before e-sporters.com takes off there, as I certainly don't want my site associated with guns - might need a new name there.

The reason I chose the word sporter for my website was because it is international, it includes all sports, not just athletes and is gender neutral. As the URL sporters.com or sporter.com where already taken, I decided for www.e-sporters.com as it is short and as I thought easily understood, but I guess I still have some educating to do!.

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