change the name from gittip to something else

[chadwhitacre]

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.

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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]

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]

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

[mitsuhiko]

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

[chadwhitacre]

@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]

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]

+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]

What about “periodic” as a name?

[timothyfcook]

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]

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]

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]

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

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

[chrismdp]

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

[chadwhitacre]

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]

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