programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
As I work on UI prototypes for the new web venture, I've been brainstorming names for the web site we're building. I've surveyed some of the finest minds in the software developer community (for very small values of "fine"), and we've come to a collective realization: naming a website is hard. Really, really hard.
You begin to have a new respect for all the crazily-named Web 2.0 startups. And then there are the domain names which must not be named. Some of them are actually serious. What were the people who named experts-exchange.com thinking? I'm not so sure they were.
We've racked our collective brains, and this is the best we could do. We'd like your input to see if we're on the right track. Vote for the name that best embodies what you'd like to see on a software developer community website.
(voting is now over; the winner was stackoverflow.com)
| humbledeveloper.com | 563 | 8% | |
| fellowhackers.com | 302 | 4% | |
| gosub10.com or gosubten.com | 334 | 5% | |
| writeoncereadmany.com | 157 | 2% | |
| humbleprogrammers.com | 179 | 3% | |
| privatevoid.com | 934 | 14% | |
| cargocultdevs.com | 109 | 2% | |
| dereferenced.com | 755 | 11% | |
| bitoriented.com | 492 | 7% | |
| algorithmical.com | 301 | 4% | |
| corecursion.com | 96 | 1% | |
| metaprogramming.com | 373 | 5% | |
| stackoverflow.com | 1,721 | 25% | |
| understandrecursion.com | 35 | 1% | |
| shiftleft1.com | 102 | 1% | |
| (other) | 442 | 6% | |
| 6,895 |
I can't quite talk about what this developer community website will do yet, but we think it's going to be somewhat unique. It sure helps to put a name on it first.
We appreciate all feedback, even if it's of the "they all suck" variety. In that case, vote for the (other) option and leave your ideas in the comments or email me directly. You can use the clever as-you-type search at Instant Domain Search to figure out what's available. I'm warning you: it's a wasteland out there. You'll have to be pretty clever indeed to come up with an interesting, simple name that isn't taken -- or, worse, domain-squatted.
Update: If you're curious what the website will do, in broad terms, this recent audio interview I did with Thirsty Developer explains.
Commenters also pointed out some excellent articles on naming:
I prefer humbleprogrammers to humbledevelopers simply because, even on the internet, developers don't necessarily devlop software. writeoncereadmany is hard to read. I had to really look at that before I figured out how the words broke down. privatevoid could easily be misconstrued...
To be honest, if you can get around the obvious ego-trip, you might be better off naming it something more personal, like jeffatwood.com. Those of us who read your blog would at least know wha that was about (I think), and google would find your site ffor people looking for what's on your site, even if the name doesn't mean anything to them.
I seriously took several minutes deciding between privatevoid.com, and dereferenced.com. They both have the flair of jokes like calculus's tangent to your curve, but also have an air of professionalism. dereferenced has more professionalism, but privatevoid is so endearing, I can hardly describe it.^_^
Michael on April 7, 2008 10:35 AMthisisfalse.com
(it's a recursive contradiction, douglas hofstaedter has a fancy name for these kinds of contradictions in "Goedle, Escher, Bach")
Manu on April 7, 2008 10:42 AMhow about "programmatical.com"
Manu on April 7, 2008 10:43 AMToo bad there isn't much support for cargocultdevs.com. I found cargo cults an enthralling phenomonon years before finding byself in an IT department mired in this antipattern. Sadly, the term itself is too perfect to ever get 2nd place in my book.
JB on April 7, 2008 10:43 AMhow about crazy-coders
yaip on April 7, 2008 10:44 AMmaybe "deeevelop.com"?
Manu on April 7, 2008 10:46 AMwhat about "devilopers.com"?
Manu on April 7, 2008 10:47 AM..umm, you did stake some sort of claim to these first right? Since you mentioned squaters in the article, I couldn't help but worry that you might just be revealing your hand to these sycophants.
JB on April 7, 2008 10:47 AMChoose a name that better fits the content of the website.
How about microsoft.com? Or ifyoucomehereyouregoingtoreadadvertisingintheformofblogposts.com
CynicalTyler on April 7, 2008 10:59 AMDeveloperCommode.com
CodeToDeath.com (can't believe this one is available, but it is)
CultOfDevelopment.com (ditto)
FortDeveloper.com
CoderCompound.com
DeveloperRetreat.com
CircleOfCoders.com
Devector.com
Devenda.com
CodyDay.com
pleaseDontFeedTheEngineer.com
Yorch on April 7, 2008 11:13 AMMy firewall at work is blocking the polling site (weirdness) but my vote goes for metaprogramming.com. Simply to remember and type, really covers a lot of what you do here too.
Or if you wanted something crazy, go with biquinaryidempotency.com I always thought that would be a cool band name, but alas, I'm not that good. 8^D
Just for reference:
Biquinary - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biquinary
Idempotent - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idempotent
How about binaryrules.com?
I made sure it's available.
Dan on April 7, 2008 11:31 AMI voted other with my actual vote going to dllhellsangels.com
DoubleJ92 on April 7, 2008 11:40 AMHad to go with dereferenced.com myself. I really don't like multi-word domain names.
Evan M. on April 7, 2008 11:42 AM"stack-overflow" is good. What about "zero-division"? I like names that remind me to problems in programming. It's humbling. That's what attracted me to Coding Horror in the first place!
I was about to suggest "floating-point", but it's already taken. As a matter of fact, many of the computer-names that I'm thinking of have already been taken. However, surprisingly, "binary" is still free!
What about these?
sleepless-coder
keyboard4pillow
Good luck!
Paulus on April 7, 2008 11:45 AMI think you have to know what something is about before you can name it. Take stackoverflow.com for example, sounds like a site about security. Or privatevoid.com, which sounds like a sex site.
Tell us roughly what it is and we'll help. Then again, be careful, some people might just snap up all of those domains.
Good luck,
Chris
Chris Lively on April 7, 2008 11:49 AMjeffsreferrals.amazon.com
. on April 7, 2008 11:56 AMSuggestion:
Get Gary Larson's gigantic book of life work, open to random pages, and brainstorm from there.
Don't bother with any constraints during the brainstorming.(Even taken domain names! ... Just use them as starting points to generate more names.)
Figure out a rational for why some name fits after the fact.
Here's one to get you started: TofuJungle.com
stackoverflow sounds good...
here's one more
coding4dummies.com
I own the following domain, but think it deserves a more proactive caretaker:
nerdtonic.com
codinghorror.com = "developer community site"
The name is right under your nose.
If you want to be fancy, use a subdomain. void.codinghorror.com
horriblecoders.com
horrendouscoders.com
horrorsofcoding.com
DeveloperTorrents.com
(wink, wink)
Matias on April 7, 2008 12:17 PMCan't decide on site content until it has a name. Can't give it a name until decide on content so name will reflect it. I'm reminded of that episode of Star Trek with Harry Mud. Maybe you need a name that reflects recursion or a Catch-22.
privatevoid.com is not bad, but privatevirtual.com Impossibly better :-
)
Your current list is good, but the only stand out is stackoverflow.com.
If your goal is to have the best site to visit for software developers, I would recommend primaryfunction.com. (It is currently taken and redirects to a blog)
Brice on April 7, 2008 12:28 PMHelterSkelter.com
("when I get to the top of the bottom of the stack!!!!")
I know, the Manson family ruined it...
bigcode.com
voidpointer.com
raviolicode.com
lasagnacode.com
(so much for food references...)
OnesAndZeros.com
ZerosAndOnes.com
ItTakesBinary.com
itttakes10.com
itakes01.com
algorythms.com
polymorphic.com (for you object oriented types...)
someassemblyrequired.com (for you assembler hackers...)
If I can think of anything else!
I would go with a crazily-named, Web 2.0 site. The question to my mind is, how does a user find your site via the google search bar? What will they see if they type in "private void" or "stack overflow"? Just call it oinkyboinky and be assured of the #1 result in a search :)
What about something like codingrocks.com? I just checked and it's still available and most developers experience the "coding rocks" phenomenon frequently.
Guy Ellis on April 7, 2008 12:30 PMThe answer is right there in your question:
developerCommunity.com
How about... HumbleHackers.com?
James on April 7, 2008 12:40 PMMy primary rules for domain names are:
1) Try to make it two syllables. This makes it easier to spread word of mouth.
2) You must be able to advertise it on the radio without spelling it. This also makes it easier to spread word of mouth.
3) No freakin' dashes.
Rule #2 automatically disqualifies itttakes10.com, itakes01.com, and
algorythms.com
dowhilenotprogramming.com
Brad on April 7, 2008 12:49 PMgetVarHeroes.com
sammy on April 7, 2008 12:57 PMI was so frustrated by the lack of good names I chose this one for my domain.
notagood.name
"there's not a good name left"
brian on April 7, 2008 1:03 PMDeveloperHelper.Net
Cheerio.
Ar Jonker on April 7, 2008 1:07 PMWhy not just use your already succesful branding? My vote for codinghorror.com/forum.
alexk7 on April 7, 2008 1:07 PMWhere is justicegrayisourhero.com?
THIS POLL IS GARBAGE
Justice on April 7, 2008 1:08 PMHow about funkydev.com
Mamba64 on April 7, 2008 1:22 PMcodehere.com
codeishere.com
how about it??
arif n on April 7, 2008 1:25 PMIn the spirit of silly names, wow about one based on my favorite return value ever: error_success.com
Or go old school with haltandcatchfire.com
None of the listed names are very good. If it was my site I would go for something more catchy and less obvious. simple example. "codeappeal.com" --copyright of noone, inc. 2004ever
while all the names listed above are not horrible they are just lack-luster in my personal opinion. (Constructive Criticism?)
Kyle_Woodbury@hotmail.com
Kyle Woodbury on April 7, 2008 1:42 PM"We've racked our collective brains, and this is the best we could do. We'd like your input to see if we're on the right track."
Jeff, I'm normally a fan of Coding Horror for its straight talking but there's something fishy about this post. I can't believe this is the best you could do. After all, you came up with codinghorror.com (and I wouldn't be surprised to see it used for the new venture).
This post is all part of the launch of codeorange.com or whatever other name you really have in mind.
Thanks for the "10 Worst Domain Names" link though, which really did have me laughing out loud ... I don't believe them for a minute either.
Thomas Guest on April 7, 2008 1:52 PMif you like hax.net email HAX.NET@domainsbyproxy.com
How about: devcomm1.com ?
It doesn't seem to be taken or squatted and is clearly an abbreviation of developer community while also playing with the alert status DEFCON1, which (according to Wikipedia) refers to maximum readiness (and that nuclear weapons would be authorised, but hopefully in a dev role it wouldn't come to that!)
codingconsideredharmful.com
Lance Fisher on April 8, 2008 2:35 AMPrivatevoid Private Gold ? X_X
elfab on April 8, 2008 2:41 AMrepscasb.com
orangecaptcha.com
Jeff Atwood said:
?? said:
but my vote goes for metaprogramming.com.
This was my vote as well, [...]
Interesting: in my eyes "metaprogramming" and "stackoverflow" are the two names that stand out most. I immediately preferred (and voted for) "metaprogramming", and decided that "stackoverflow" was not for me. At all. Now I see why: these two names are connoted in such a way they are almost contradictory.
I like the ideas implied by "metaprogramming", such as DSLs. It makes me thinks of languages like Lisp or Haskell. "stackoverflow", on the other hand, makes me thinks of C and C++, which I hate when used for anything but highest performance, lowest level, or embedded code.
About jkndrkn's criteria, "stackoverflow" is easier to peak an hear, slightly more difficult to type (for me), and is jargon. I think being (connoted) jargon can account for many votes. The question is who is your target?
You're much better off, IMHO, thinking of a distinctive, catchy name that doesn't mean anything.
I agree. At-least don't pick a name that "tries to hard" to be meaningful. I emailed you a few names which I think might be catchy and don't seem be "trying too hard" to make sense.
damn I made a typo in my previous comment! :)
You're much better off, IMHO, thinking of a distinctive, catchy name that doesn't mean anything.
I agree. At-least don't pick a name that "tries too hard" to be meaningful. I emailed you a few names which I think might be catchy and don't seem be "trying too hard" to make sense.
stackoverflow.co.uk - registered on 07-Apr-2008.
I guess Mr Greg Tudor liked the name too.
http://webwhois.nic.uk/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=stackoverflow.co.uk
and the winner is...
codesville.com
with a whole city theme...
"your destination for coding bliss..."
"population: 32,768"
"Come spend some time in sunny Codesville, USA!"
ah... I have lots of ideas for that theme...
(or leave off the s: codeville... but I like the way the first one rolls off the tongue better... you could get both just in case, though ;) )
Now that you have your name AND a great creative theme... let me in on the deal :P
Wow. GOSUB 10!!!
I learned programming using that back in the 80's.
That would be cool, but I don't think many people today would get the meaning.
I would suggest, Jeff, that once you've given enough time for voting on this round, take the top 3 and do another vote.
Marc Reside on April 8, 2008 6:36 AMok, I'll reveal my original pick (humbledeveloper.com), and I'll also go on record to say that fizzbuzz would be even better.
Now, Jeff, because this website would be associated to this new project you're working on, clearly we could be more helpful if we knew more about the project itself, no ?
You say it will be a 'developer community' but you know as well as any of us that the developer community is quite an heterogeneous Blob (with a capital 'B', like in the movie), so that might be a bit too vague..
N'est pas ?
unhandledException.com
tim on April 8, 2008 7:29 AMbutwhatisitgoodfor.com
"But what ... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
www.whatdeveloperswant.com
krishna on April 8, 2008 8:10 AMhunt_the_wumpus.com!
Be your power animal :)
Jeff Davis on April 8, 2008 8:46 AMI nominate codinghappy.com, to bring balance to codinghorror.com :)
Patrick Geiller on April 8, 2008 8:52 AMlol @ orangecaptcha.com
David on April 8, 2008 8:54 AMhow about trycatch.com (another vb programmers saving grace)
Shane on April 8, 2008 9:01 AMmonadsoul
deadstore
immutable
I finally noticed the "fello whackers"
David on April 8, 2008 9:15 AMI just bought them all. Feel free to choose which one you like. It will cost you ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS!
Karthik on April 8, 2008 9:31 AMdevelopersconcern.com
Kaman on April 8, 2008 10:31 AMdefseg.com appears to be free
David on April 8, 2008 10:52 AMWhat about developerinnovations.com ?
(I own it, but failed to use it)
Matt on April 8, 2008 11:02 AMhow about: plzgivemetehcodez.com
Akuji on April 8, 2008 12:46 PMHaven't really checked, but I doubt HumbleDevelopers.com is taken ;-)
CptBongue on April 8, 2008 1:24 PMall available:
editorInheritance.com
introduceParameter.com
developerInjection.com
... that's all i got.
Kevin on April 8, 2008 1:32 PMEr no 'T.E.D.'..
As you said, there are many that don't use those keywords.. and oh my, strangely enough - a whole load that do..
Saying that private void isn't 'programming' topical, is just being pedantic, and sorry- but, very 'sad'.
Stephen on April 9, 2008 2:47 AMHi.
Actually, I imeediately thought of willcodeforfood.com, but since it's sort of "taken", "willcodeforfun" could do it too.
Paulo Tavares on April 9, 2008 4:38 AMDerek: "I prefer humbledevelopers to ..."
Sridhar Ratnakumar: "I prefer humbledeveloper.com ..."
Rob Lambert: "I really like "Humble Developer". "
Paul (slightly OOC): "I like humbledeveloper ..."
Antonio: "Voted for humbleprogrammer"
F.O.R.: "I'll reveal my original pick (humbledeveloper.com), "
I'm with all these folks. I don't really like any of the rest. Too many of them look like aliases for Cult of the Dead Cow. I'd say all of the following look like names of cracker/script kiddie sites:
fellowhackers.com
privatevoid.com
cargocultdevs.com
dereferenced.com
bitoriented.com
corecursion.com
stackoverflow.com
shiftleft1.com
"stackoverflow" is particularly bad this way.
Then again, perhaps that's what you are going for? If so, perhaps we are all on the wrong track. :-)
T.E.D. on April 9, 2008 7:41 AMI can't believe so many people voted private void, other than its link to programming, I don't think it gives the right idea, private void is kinda the least social member, its hidden away and doesn't really give you a decent reply, just a grumble..
Not to mention that it sounds like a porno site after about 2 seconds of a second of hearing it.
Stack overflow, meh - sounds cooler than private void, but again doesn't really sound positive..
Stephen on April 9, 2008 8:10 AMI can't believe so many people voted private void, other than its link to programming,
C, not programming. There's a whole universe of languages out there that do no use either of those as a keyword.
If you are going for a site that's limited in scope to C-like languages, I suppose this could be appropriate.
T.E.D. on April 9, 2008 10:33 AMMany many many years ago people named a newborn after he/she was born. The name was chosen according to circumstances surrounding the birth or the looks of the baby.
Native Americans believed names did not need to be fixed. Sitting Bull renamed himself Jumping Bull; Dances with Wolves became Busy Bee.
My 0.02$ is pick any name and change it later on; we'll follow.
Fork Off.
Only if you're a UNIX geek.
kashif
Kashif Shaikh on April 9, 2008 12:44 PMI like codershappyplace.com/ and it's free and clear.
Tracy on April 9, 2008 1:23 PMprogrammersview.com
Bill Parks on April 10, 2008 2:19 AMthedeprecated.net
M Tortorice on April 10, 2008 8:14 AMAs you said, there are many that don't use those keywords.. and oh my, strangely enough - a whole load that do..
I'd sit here and name those that *don't* use one of those two as keywords, but the list would be interminable. In fact, C would be on that list (it doesn't use "private").
The only ones I know of that do use them are C++, C#, and Java and Javascript.
Admittedly they are important languages. But still, its just a small selection. Hardly a "whole load".
This isn't a matter of being "pedantic". The fact is that looking at a name like that, I expect a website about programming in one of those languages. I would *not* expect to find stuff there of any relevence to programming in general, because "void" is not a general programming concept. Its a syntactic hack C used to avoid requiring separate keywords around suprogram definitions, as most other procedural languages do.
Perhaps your universe is contrained to those four languages and the name just sounds OO-ey to you. That's fine. However, I think that how the name strikes *everyone*, not just you, is a relevant issue.
T.E.D. on April 10, 2008 9:20 AMcontrolspace.com
J_Y_C on April 10, 2008 12:02 PMHow about MajicPurpleHamsterSoftwareProgramming
hyatt on April 11, 2008 12:48 PMHaven't checked if registered or not.
dynamicprogrammers
or
dynamicprogramming (similar to your favorite, metaprogramming)
greedyprogrammers
goprogrammers
Tony on April 11, 2008 1:08 PMHaven't checked if registered or not.
dynamicprogrammers
or
dynamicprogramming (similar to your favorite, metaprogramming)
greedyprogrammers
goprogrammers
Tony on April 11, 2008 1:10 PMI vote for fellowhackers.com , stackoveflow looks cool too.
Syahid A. on April 14, 2008 10:18 AMcoderhabitat.com
coderoony.com
1010101010101.com (shorter variations are already taken)
nerdroundup.com
My personal favorite all-time name for a coder website is a school called bignerdranch.com :)
From your list, I like stackoverflow.com
(...and in what I consider a cool-domain coup, I personally am the proud owner of nerdaphernalia.com)
Stephen R on April 23, 2008 10:55 AMcode:true
Duane on September 26, 2008 9:44 AMI would love privatevoid.com !!!
I also twittered you - derekslenk
Derek S on April 1, 2009 7:41 AMIf you are interested in finding a domain name in the coding/programming niche that also matches a generic keyword phrase that gets searched in Google then you may want to give the type in traffic finder tool at http://www.DomainSuperstar.com a try.
Domain Superstar on April 1, 2009 11:19 AMgosub10 is just too BASIC
Jason on February 6, 2010 10:25 PMHow about onerrorresumenext.com? If that's too VB6, there's always emptycatchblock.com
Burton on February 6, 2010 10:25 PMoffdutyninjas.com (software development is just a day-job)
I really like F.O.R.'s suggestion of
fizzbuzz.com
as well.
Cameron on February 6, 2010 10:25 PMwhen I used Perl more often I visited www.perlmonks.org everyday. Great community.
codingmonks
programmingmonks
softwaremonks
dotnetmonks
softengmonks
Have a word with Tim Vroom before using any of those, but you could replace monks with monastery or asylum. sanitorium may be too long to type.
Usman Shaheen's idea of codinghorror.com/forum may well be the best though.
John Ferguson on February 6, 2010 10:25 PMThe comments to this entry are closed.
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