Contrary method subjects for identical method names

Question

I've got method naming paralysis! Say I've got one class - "System", and another class "User".

Now, if I want to notify user(s), I can call:

// this method can notify individuals and collections of users
System.notify(User,message)

but if I want to simply notify the specific user

// this notifies the user
User.notify(message)

My dilemma is that in the case of "System" - the subject of the notify method is the User(s) argument. In the case of the "User" implementation, the User itself is the subject. So, the classes have the same method, arguably performing very similar jobs - but the "direction" of the methods are contrary.

Do you suffer from naming paralysis? How do you deal with it? What naming pattern would you use here?

Answer 1

You just need to use intention revealing names. For instance, System.send_notification, User.receive_notification.