Skip to content
This repository has been archived by the owner on Feb 8, 2018. It is now read-only.

change the name from gittip to something else #138

Closed
chadwhitacre opened this issue Jul 12, 2012 · 181 comments
Closed

change the name from gittip to something else #138

chadwhitacre opened this issue Jul 12, 2012 · 181 comments

Comments

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor

The word "git" is somewhat problematic because of its association with GitHub and programming. The word "tip" is non-ideal because restaurant tips aren't really gifts. There's a ticket about changing the nomenclature we use from tipper and tippee to donor and donee (#136). This ticket is about rebranding the whole site.


The best alternative in my (not large) stable is:

https://whoever.im/

How does that look to you? I think it's not bad, for a personal funding platform. I think it's pretty strong, actually. "Whoever I am" rolls off the tongue easier than "Gittip," and it evokes personhood and freedom. I checked whoeveriam.com, and unfortunately it is taken but unused. Meh.

A bigger deal for me is that with Heroku we can't use https://whoever.im/, only https://www.whoever.im/. That is, "[n]aked domains (also known as bare or apex domains) are not supported." They used to be called IP SSL and cost $100/mo, but that's now deprecated. Here's the details on why. We would have to choose, and my inclination honestly would be to leave the warmth and comfort of Heroku, in order to look more like https://github.com/ and https://twitter.com/. :-(

@steveklabnik
Copy link

You can do what I do with my book project: have a home page at whoever.im, click signup, it goes to secure.whoever.im

@jezdez
Copy link

jezdez commented Jul 12, 2012

Have a look at the ALIAS record from dnsimple for the "naked domains": http://blog.dnsimple.com/introducing-the-alias-record/

@mitsuhiko
Copy link

There are more problems with naked domains than just dns. It's the www. prefix really that bad?

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

@steveklabnik, @jezdez Cool, thank you for the suggestions.

Is the www. prefix really that bad?

Dunno ... what other problems are there? :)

Also, this is sort of secondary. The main question is whether the Gittip brand is fundamentally flawed.

@mitsuhiko
Copy link

CNAMEs not working on that level, very limited cookie control (can't have cookies just for the www. part), it's harder to recognize urls with the scheme removed, wildcard ssl certificates don't work for the naked domain etc. All things considered it's just a lot more hassle for not showing for bytes to the user.

@whitmo
Copy link

whitmo commented Jul 12, 2012

+1. though I would pick a name that is still tip / gift related.

and... maybe eventually add a way to pay toward an actual gift vs. simply payments (yeah yeah, patches welcome). I make the point because I think it would be interesting to add a complement the BM idea of a currency free "gift" economy. Not exclusively, just as an option.

@mitsuhiko
Copy link

What about “periodic” as a name?

@timothyfcook
Copy link
Contributor

whoever.im is okay. not quite right though.

It seems like .do domains are now available.

give.do is available. "Give me support so I can Do xyz"
or giveto.do

Or, similar to your suggestion. whateveri.do is available

Other Ideas:

letme.do
thank.do
soican.do
goodto.do
letus.do

@joeyespo
Copy link
Contributor

What about hinting at open source somehow? http://opentip.com or http://opengift.com. Might even be able to play more on the word 'open' here, even though tips are largely anonymous. Tie it back into the open company you're aiming for.

Now, is the focus on those who want to tip or those receiving them? The latter is a shift. It would be something you the hacker would want to share. Whereas the current name 'Gittip' sounds more for those seeking to give the tip.

I do like the 'periodic'/'recurring' idea. That would make for a good tool to follow Kickstarter with. Kickstarter to get initial funding and demand. Continued with [new Gittip name here].

@joeyespo
Copy link
Contributor

Another one. It's for sale, though unfortunately not for cheap: http://fund.me

Maybe something along those lines though? http://tip.me is also taken, but not actively used.

@chrismdp
Copy link

Slightly boring but something like http://openfund.com?

http://freeme.to
http://freemeto.be
http://freemetobe.com
(all available) ?

@chrismdp
Copy link

Or something around the word "grant"? Minigrant? Microgrant? Crowdgrant?

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

View from Australia (via HN):

Historically, Australians don't tip. During much of the the 20th century Australia had quite a strong (relative to the US) tradition of socialism and unionism, resulting in a strong set of minimum employment conditions. There was very much a view that a decent living wage was an entitlement and a matter of dignity, not something that a worker should have to stoop to collect. People didn't tip, since the common perception was that the potential tipee was as equally entitled to a minimum wage as the potential tipper. Indeed, I'd say that people actively didn't tip as an act of homage to equality.

Tipping is probably more common today than in the past, and the above is being eroded, but I think the above is still generally true. A tip is rarely expected, or let on to be expected, as that is a sure fire way not to get a tip.

I mention the above, in the supposition that it has connotations for a site like gittip that liberally uses the word "tipping". Some cultures don't do tipping. As an Australian, I'd be more inclined if the idea of compensation was being sold on a "equity" (as in fairness) basis rather than a giving basis. I know it's semantics, but semantics does influence decisions.

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

Another view from Australia (same HN thread):

The American "I am obliged to give you a tip because minimum wage sucks" doesn't seem to be what gittip is about. In fact, it's much closer to the Australian idea "I am giving you more money because of your impressive performance, and I want to say thanks".

In Australia, I tip when service is awesome. In America, I tip when service isn't absolutely terrible.

Full disclosure: I am Australian

@jturnshek
Copy link

Hey Chad, we haven't met yet but I hope to soon...

autograt.com

Servers in restaurants call the automatically included gratuity for large parties an "autograt". I'll leave you to reason through the implications. I actually think it's incredibly well aligned.

I just reserved the domain in case you want it.

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

Thanks @turnshek, for the intro, thoughts, and domain reservation. :-)

Was actually coming over here to say that I just bought:

http://www.gfftd.com/

I also reserved @Gfftd on Twitter and GitHub. Has the advantage of probably still working with @dmdj03's design over on #66.

@timothyfcook
Copy link
Contributor

why two 'f' s if gfftd.com ?

autoGrat.com is kinda nice.

You could still have the (G) logo, since "Grat" is the functional word there.

it almost sounds familiar

makes me think of autocrat / autocracy, which is a very different sort of meaning.
also makes me think of autograph, which is irrelevant.

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

Two effs because the domain wasn't available in other variants.

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

Also, gifted.com is taken but not used. Down the road we could have a shot at it.

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

In the mean time there's also http://gifted.im/.

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

Oh, well. My latest moment of name-changing insanity has passed. Back to Gittip.com for now. :-)

@psineur
Copy link

psineur commented Jul 26, 2012

Few! Saw tweet about gfftd (sounds like pfff), thank god you don't want to rename to it.
Other suggestions:
gifttip
gifthub

@pfrazee
Copy link

pfrazee commented Jul 26, 2012

openwire
freewire
fosswire

@jturnshek
Copy link

Hey no problem, you can never have too many domain names. D:

I like that "autograt" is already in the common lexicon and essentially describes the literal function of the service, but it's really the "gratuity" part that I think is worth mulling over. It's likely the closest a single term can come to the spirit of what you're trying to do here.

Whatever you go with, just make sure it makes sense for street fashion photographers, community organizers, font creators, or business bloggers. The foss / programmery stuff is probably the wrong direction.

@johana-star
Copy link
Contributor

opengrant.com is available.

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

@turnshek Good reminder re: broader appeal. Could you say more about how {Gittip} can work for non-programmery folks? I want to take it in that direction (#80) but obviously I'm programmery so input from a different perspective is welcome.

@strand I think opengrant.com is pretty strong. The "crowd-sourced genius grants for the rest of us" hook has seemed to work for a lot of people. A grant falls clearly in the category of "gift" without the question mark that "tip" introduces. What I really like, though, is that it emphasizes the aggregate and not the individual contribution. The "grant" is the crowd's gift of $1,000 per week to a person, whereas a "gift tip" is just my $1 per week contribution. The power is in the aggregation.

I bought opengrant.com and opengrant.org.

Perspectives on OpenGrant?

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

OpenGrant works for both individuals and groups. An organization or group or project (see #27) can receive a grant as well as an individual.

@ironfroggy
Copy link

At first "opengrant" didn't really sound right, but your explanation @whit537 makes a lot of sense.

@steveklabnik
Copy link

👍 opengrant.org, I like it a lot.

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

65.4% - Proposal Does Not Pass

Phew! Wow. People, what a whirlwind, for me at least. 😳

I want to thank everyone who brainstormed names and bought domains and offered domains and offered to work with Twitter and weighed in and reminded us of various perspectives and in general participated in this thread. In the end maybe it was a bikeshed, but I'm not even sure of that because what I think we can see clearly here is that after two months there's a significant community of people interested in the fundamental idea regardless of what the name is.

As stated, I'm going to close this ticket and stick with the name Gittip.com. Let's take all of the great energy that came out on this thread and transfer it into forward progress on other fronts. Personally my priorities are:

Give yourselves a hand for some unusually fun and community-building bikeshedding. 👏

Now let's get back to building and growing Gittip!

See you on another thread! 🚀

@jezdez
Copy link

jezdez commented Aug 1, 2012

Oh, hm.

@hansent
Copy link

hansent commented Aug 1, 2012

In the end maybe it was a bikeshed, but I'm not even sure of that because what I think we can see clearly here
is that after two months there's a significant community of people interested in the fundamental idea
regardless of what the name is.

I don't think it was just a bikeshed discussion. Yes, they name ultimately, as a string of characters, is not that important, but I think this was more about the identity / fundamental idea behind gittip.com, what it is, it stands for, and what it's vision is. With that perspective, and seeing how many people contributed and are just as excited about this; I think the energy was well spent and shows that we are on to something that can really make the world better :)

@johana-star
Copy link
Contributor

If we revisit this discussion in the future, I hope we can have a data-driven discussion. I asked my friend Lauren how she might go about finding the right name to brand an organization with, and she directed me to the article How to Hack a Dominating Domain Name for Your Website, which documents the process she was a part of for finding the right name for PlaceFull.

UPDATE:

The very relevant portion of that article is:

  1. Clickthrough Rate Test

I took the top 10 contenders from 1-4 and created an Adwords campaign with 10 individual ads. The keywords related to our market. Each ad was identical except for the company name in the title and display URL. The ad led to a generic “coming soon/sign up” page. For $100 we generated over 100,000 impressions and measured the CTR for each ad, trying to keep all other variables equal.

Surprisingly, the CTR test resulted in a clear winner: the original name we paid the agency to develop. This cinched it.

@domenkozar
Copy link

HI guys, I'm wondering who has fundhub account on github? I would be really happy to have it :)

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

Sorry @iElectric, that was me. I just added you as an owner. Feel free to take me off as an owner.

@domenkozar
Copy link

Thanks!

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 5:15 PM, Chad Whitacre notifications@github.comwrote:

Sorry @iElectric https://github.com/iElectric, that was me. I just
added you as an owner. Feel free to take me off as an owner.


Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/138#issuecomment-11535929.

@chadwhitacre
Copy link
Contributor Author

We'll reopen the name discussion when either GitHub or Oprah complains.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4943242

@abnor
Copy link

abnor commented Feb 26, 2013

I propose the name getfund; getfunded; getfunds

@chmullig
Copy link

-1, it sounds like a kickstarter knockoff to me.

@ceboudreaux
Copy link
Contributor

SendTip.com and SendTips.com are taken, but not developed.

These would change the focus from receiving tips to giving tips.

@domenkozar
Copy link

BTW, fundhub.org is free now :)

@patcon
Copy link
Contributor

patcon commented Oct 23, 2013

I know this subject is closed for now, but I'd suggest we consider how gittip could franchise it's infra at some point. For example, HiveWire operates on a similar premise with offering branded Kickstarter clones to organizations, like the Centre for Social Innovation's Catalyst crowdfunding service.

Certain groups are always going to need different messages to appeal to their user base. Perhaps its best to allow that to develop organically by facilitating branded mini-gittips. After all, I get the impression that gittip wants to be results-driven (ie the more people using the platform, the better), so we don't have the normal concerns about brand dilution, right?

Disclaimer: Skimmed this issue :P

@whitmo
Copy link

whitmo commented Oct 24, 2013

+1 to subgittips

-w

On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 3:27 PM, Patrick Connolly
notifications@github.comwrote:

I know this is done for now, but might make sense consider how gittip
might want to franchise it's infra at some point. For example, HiveWirehttp://www.hivewire.ca/operates on a similar premise with offering branded Kickstarter clones to
organizations like the Centre for Social Innovation's Catalyst
crowdfunding service http://www.csicatalyst.org/.

Certain groups are always going to need different messages to appeal to
their user base. Perhaps its best to allow that to develop organically by
facilitating branded mini-gittips. After all, I get the impression that
gittip wants to be results-driven (ie the more people using the platform,
the better), so we don't have the normal concerns about brand dilution,
right?

Disclaimer: Skimmed this issue :P


Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/138#issuecomment-26942498
.

<=>
david "whit" morriss

"If you don't know where you are,
you don't know anything at all"

Dr. Edgar Spencer, Ph.D., 1995

@patcon
Copy link
Contributor

patcon commented Feb 14, 2014

FYI, if anyone else is partial to .do domains: make sure you search here:
http://nic.do/whois-hin.php3

(They have terrible seo, but it's the official. Deceptive third-party whois providers sometimes put client holds on domains you search for.)

Sign up for free to subscribe to this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in.
Labels
None yet
Projects
None yet
Development

No branches or pull requests