Is a Z icon a good idea any more?

johnkingeu

I’m sure that many Zotero users and devs will be aware of the use of the letter Z as a fascist symbol demonstrating alignment with Putin.

Might it be time to consider an alternative design for the Zotero icon?

I appreciate that many people will feel that we shouldn’t allow a letter of the alphabet to be colonised by fascism. However, a similar thing happened with the swastika, use of which is now discouraged.

Please do not use this thread for political discussion - just for logo discussion!

moore.709

I get your point, but my vote as one USA user is that I don't think it is a problem right now.
I have heard a little of the use of "Z" that you are referring to, but for me it isn't something that is a big cultural reference yet from here; maybe people closer to the war would answer differently.
More broadly, I think we might say that for any single letter there can always be a controversial connection and it isn't solvable in an absolute sense.

johnkingeu

There is a helpful Twitter thread on the role of the Z-symbol by a leading scholar on Russia:

https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1500495309595725831?s=21

Washington Post article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/09/letter-z-russia-symbol-pro-war/

richlv

After advertising Zotero a bit, got to demonstrating it to some fellow students.
They both mentioned afterwards that the logo makes them feel uneasy.
I had not given it much thought personally, having seen the logo enough - the effect might be stronger for new users.

richardnaar

I completely agree that the logo gives out some creepy vibes. I replaced the icon with the Ukrainian flag. In Windows, you may change the icon by right-clicking on it and then selecting properties > shortcut > change icon. In addition, I modified the files in the ...\Zotero\chrome\icons\default folder. I'm feeling a lot better now.