why are "projects" now called "spaces"?

[Zack Maxwell]

what kind of nonsense is this? 

[John Funk]

Hi Zack - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Well, there will be nonsense in the world, so why not have the best kind of nonsense - Atlassian nonsense?  :-)

Seriously, I preferred Projects as well. But that was confusing for a lot of people as Jira doesn't really implement this as a Project but more like a Team or a Product as there is no identified Start and End date. Epics serve that function more. 

[Dwight Holman]

We use Jira Projects for two distinct collections of work:

1. Activities on a product.
2. Activities for a conventional project (with a start and an end).

Whether this make sense really depends on how you use Jira.

[Nikola Perisic]

Welcome @Zack Maxwell 

There was an announcement and the general change of the terminology here: https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-articles/Jira-Spaces-have-landed/ba-p/3117620

Why it was done? Personally, I liked projects more rather than spaces. Atlassian is the one making and applying the decisions.