Hey Jeff,

privatevoid is a pretty cool name to be sure, but in the end the irony of linking to (un?)intentionally bad domain names and then putting up fellowhackers as a choice was too funny to pass up.

Cheers, I see your readership in growing by ten thousands every week.

Yeah, "fello whackers". I thought someone might enjoy that. :)

gosub10 is just too BASIC

Looks like someone beat you to it and is squatting stackoverflow.com.

Doesn't seem that hard. How about "codercountry.com"? Less in-jokey, sure, but easy to remember.

privatevoid sounds like a bodily function. :)

hack-together.com

I vote for
developersdevelopersdevelopersdevelopers.com
Steve Ballmer would be proud.

and from this post forward, Jeff's readers will forever be trapped in a naming jihad. For now, I'm in a minority, but my pick is the best one, I don't care what everyone else says. The name I picked is smarter, faster, better, *er than the others. And *I*, and those that picked the same name, are -by extension- smarter, faster, better, *er !

Pffft to all the other names.

F.O.R.

PS: I was expecting to find fizzbuzz.something in the list !

"hack-together.com"

Not bad.

how about segfaulters.com?

Fello Whackers, I laughed.

I like Stack Overflow and Private Void.

I hope you bought all those names before some bastard sits on them.

HUIDUILUI is available

Umm have you registered all of these first? If not, expect none of them to be available once you've decided...

How about "bitwielders"

Okay, a few ideas in case stackoverflow.com is not available as per a previous comment:

stacksmashers.com (Probably too hackish. I also figured out the unique /thing/ to your site: parallel programming...)

Man, everything else is taken.

orangespokenhere.com

Too bad you can't get permission from Ward and Cunningham to use pragmaticprogrammers.{net,com,org}. It seems most of what you do here is the spirit of that book - but maybe that's not what this new site will be about.

How about onerrorresumenext.com? If that's too VB6, there's always emptycatchblock.com

I like private void simply because it sounds rather Zen.

publicstaticvoidmainstringargs.com

I must have that kinda brain, i never have trouble coming up with names! , develogical, devel-lution, Develutionary, codaholics, (and codaholicsanonymous ) savethecoder, (the obvious, d'oh) softwaredeveloperscommunity, softwareslew, all have every op available but not for long! Oh but better jump on softminded! I have MANY more, but keeping em to myself, will let them go for the right "price" Mwahahaha! Most of these I came up with in one or two tries.

It's true, by the time you decide they will be squatted, but i don't hafta care I can come up with tons more, no biggie. decide quick!

Don't you risk having a domain squatter go through and register all those domains you just listed?

How about "NoGoTo.net?

"Give your app a name that's easy to remember...And don't sweat it if you can't get the exact domain name you want." http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch13_Name_Hook.php

Also, if you have a great, memorable service that people want to recommend, they won't mind that you don't have the exact name.com for it - most of the time, addresses are bookmarked, Twittered, e-mailed, etc. so it's OK if the domain name is a little off. The main thing is to pick the name that's right for your service, not by what's available in a .com format. I don't quite remember where I read that, but for some reason I'm thinking it was http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/032145345X

oranguglad?

I'm hoping these are either decoy ideas, or you've got some way of keeping the domain-names squatter free, because otherwise posting these in public is not a smart move.

That said, stackoverflow or privatevoid are both very cool names.

I prefer humbledevelopers to humbleprogrammers. I would imagine that this site would be more than simple "code help".

I thought privatevoid and stackoverflow were best, suprised there wasn't something like nullreference.com

or divisionbyzero.com

Domain squatters should die a thousand painful deaths.

doublepointer.net ?

i prefer a more ambiguous non-meaning sort of names. something catchy.. i think names like flickr, twitter etc, are very gimmicky, web2.0 if you will.

Where's your PGP key so we can encrypt our responses to you so squatters can't take them? :P

I agree! death to squatters! pop-a-squatter.com

Good call Jin! How 'bout devrrs.com? that's dirt easy! But mainly, this proves, you only THINK there are no names left! You just need flexibility, and "personal void" does indeed sound like we are taking a dump, but then again...

Well, if it's about development, and not just GUI lipstick, then you need to talk about data, so:

drcoddwasright.com

is appropriate, and available a couple of minutes ago.

Looks like the most popular choice is already squatted and going for $1,188.

Too late, but www.while1fork.com sounded cool.

Wow! THAT QUICK, DEVVR.COM IS TAKEN! Guess it was a good one, lol. oh! :)

I have to share my favorite dot com era name
proposed for an educational portal website....
EduOrgNet.Com
much better than the one we eventually went with I think.
but I'll leave that to those in-the-know.

bsod.com, irq-not-equal.com

how about fellowshipofthedevs.com?

bit of a laugh, bit catchy.

eh

hexoffenders.com :p
artofprogramming.com
programmersguild.com, codeguild.com, (.+)guild.com
bitfiddler.com
codevault.com
codecrafters.com
bytefoundry.com

Maybe write a little program to mix some words and see if anything cool pops up?

CodingHorrorForum.com
CodingHorror.com/Forum.

what i will prefer is something starts with programer or programming

Sorry, but explodingcoder.com is already taken. No, not your's!

I suggest makeall.com, as in the make utility.

Well, to be honest, none of those are good names except maybe "privatvoid.com" I think you are asking the wrong people... "branding" (that's what this is) is not typically a skill most software developers possess. Do you know any creative directors/brand experts? If so, I would recommend you get their advice! You have a great blog btw, hope the new site is every bit as good!

developersheaven.net

anything4developer
anythingfordeveloper

programmerforprogrammer
programmer4programmer

developer4developer
developerfordeveloper

devhorror
functioners
objectfunct
fjiord
teflite
hexla

Doubting these or any variations will be used - but a little perspective. Brand names are NAMES. Leave the front page for describing your product.

ok I'm back, I just had to go take a personal void...

huge pointer dot com

tarbit
codingtarpit
devtarpit

I really like the word "fellow" in a site like this. Gives the feeling of a group, is simple, and easy to remember. Placing it next to hackers makes it lose it's professional feeling in my opinion, you could try going with fellow and using words like "FellowDevs" and such. Good luck with your site!

I prefer humbledeveloper.com because most developers are 'average' and humility is essential among the programmer community in order to help these average developers to reach their full potential.

Jeff,
I know domains are hard to come by. That is why I created OpenDomain - we GIVE away domains. Some of the top domains that we have let people use for FREE: Drupal.Com, OpenAjax.Org, Xmpp.Org, Xaml.Net, GreyListing.Org, json.Com

Anyone want to use a great domain for FREE?
Contact us at OpenDomain.Org - I would love to help you out!

Please call the new site developercommunitywebsite.com.

Simple, neutral, says what it does.

Alternatively -- developerhorror.com -- un hommage to codinghorror.com.

:) tom

hackmybits

Thanks, I bought all these domains. For a mere 500k will hand over the name that wins the poll :)

I thought you were trying to stay away from "funny" names!?

fellowhackers.com = Fello-Whackers.com

peveloder.com that ends that.

on a serious note, i think it's good to have a short domain name. it will be easier to make a logo for, and good for business card/printing. plus 1 word short names are catchier.

Isn't there a 5-day trial on domains at some places? I can't remember where, but maybe Jeff has already taken all of these domain names and then is going to "return" the bad eggs and keep the good golden egg on the 5th day.

Hmmmmmmmmm...
I am going with any of the guild ones.

@Gustavo

programmersguild.com, codeguild.com, (.+)guild.com

I'm voting for "they all suck".

You're much better off, IMHO, thinking of a distinctive, catchy name that doesn't mean anything, and then _giving_ it meaning by putting useful content on it. How many Google users do you think have any idea what the name means? Do Yahoo! or monster.com users even care?

Of course, now that you've posted your ideas, they'll all be registered by the end of the day...

I'm surprised no one has called you on this yet.

Imagine: you've been brainstorming a site idea for a while. You are collaborating, getting your ideas together. You're thinking, oh yeah! and we could do this too! At some point in this process a great name comes to you, and you think, perfect! that puts it all together; lets crank this out.

Really? You left your day job to start a developer site whose name you have yet to imagine. Jeff? WTF?!

I really like "Humble Developer". I've really been thinking a lot about how important it is to be humble as a software developer (and about the large percentage of good coders who have egos so large as to render themselves a crappy software developers because no one can work with them and nothing gets done).

Anyway, best wishes with the new site!

I also like "orangespokenhere". I think the "orange" theme has a little bit of branding behind it. Or donate "codhinghorror" to the cause.

Looks like someone had to spend around $100 bucks on domains before making this post. Stack Overflow is really the only good choice there. I picked other, though. And your parking pages are really annoying.

guessing at what you are doing... i would like to propose:

hit any key to continue .domain
dev honey pot .domain
devfacia .domain

hack re direct .domain
hack a stack .domain
hackenstack .domain
needleina hackstack .domain
hack fellows .domain
no port unturned .domain
wild wild hack .domain

and out of the blue:
dev fido .domain
cult dev .domain

all d.o.t.com open as of this posting...
just take out the spaces :)
thats all i can think of right now...
good luck!

i like the last one :) sounds trendy :)

All of the suggested domain names will be gone within hours.

I hear you Moritz...
thats why i already reserved the one i like for Jeff.

Some of these suggestions are pretty good. Keep 'em coming. Remember: naming is *hard*. We all suck at it.

> You're much better off, IMHO, thinking of a distinctive, catchy name that doesn't mean anything

Such as... what? I'd appreciate it if those of you who voted (other) would offer some kind of alternat name suggestions.

> Really? You left your day job to start a developer site whose name you have yet to imagine. Jeff? WTF?!

I often don't know what the title of a particular blog post will be until I'm 90% done writing it. This is a normal workflow, at least for me: things do not reveal themselves until you near the end.

> Looks like someone had to spend around $100 bucks on domains before making this post.

Of course I registered them all beforehand, just in case. Cost of doing business.

it's amazing how one thinks a name, searches it and it's there already...and hardly related.

codebomb.net
devhut.net
devconnect.net
i liked the alldot.com, onlydot.net, dotnetdotnet.net, digidea
all gone.

i hope u got a unique angle on this, i can't imagine we need another codeproject...suppose u gotta harvest some of that ad rev. somehow tho.

chrs.

codeapprentice.com was free last time I checked.

Although I wonder how long until someone buys up everything listed here...

we should have a vote-off type event, where the top half go on to the next round of voting. Then repeat until there is a WINNER!

Ah, you bought them already :)

offdutyninjas.com (software development is just a day-job)

I really like F.O.R.'s suggestion of

fizzbuzz.com

as well.

I'd say that names like ubuntu uses for it's releases are much easier to remember than the ones you have found.

Like... developer-dating (I wouldn't vote for that one!)

Georg

consideredharmless dot com would be fun.

A few suggestons:
nullpointer
garbagecollectors
JITSpotting
pragmawarning

www.null-reference.com?

You are programmers, aren't you? Create a simple script to produce a list of weird names - 6 char names are a very good choice -

CyclomaticComplexity.com

Here a script generated name: www.code4all.com

another one:

TryCatchFinally.com

Any chance you might divulge what you'll be using for a CMS, if at all?

Cheers.

DeveloperHelper.Net

Cheerio.

when 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.

How about funkydev.com

codehere.com
codeishere.com

how about it??

> "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.

Ok so other already found fello whackers.. but what about core cursion?

> Usman Shaheen's idea of codinghorror.com/forum may well be the best though.

To be clear, this is not intended as a forum. It's a new web property with a different (but related) focus.

> fizzbuzz.com

It looks like fizzbuzz.com is expiring (technically it expired March 18th). If one of the "good guys" -- not the domain squatters, but an actual developer -- ends up with that domain, that'd be awesome. Hint hint hint. :)

nochere a plea as well as a name :)

getWhnd is free, returncero as well.

I've spent some time suggesting names on http://www.pickydomains.com/ so I know how hard it is. You might want to check them out for some suggestions. Here's what I could come up with. You'll have to sift through the chaff.

h4ckr
hackitgood
hackinghorror
hackmake
hackityhack
hackfunk

modulofunk (modulo funk)
modmake
zipmod
rapmod

patternmod
singletoncode
singletonshare

code25 (seriously all previous ones were taken. Think WD40)
codedecorator
codecorator
codelope
codingcomedy
codingdrama
nonfictioncoding
codinghack
codehackmod
codecornucopia
coducopia
cuppacode
codecorn
codecompost
codewrapper
codingparty

allnightdev
devindev (short for dev in development)
devmodulo
devmodshop
devfunk
devod
10000devs
zippydev

ligercode
enterorange
makacker (Make Hacker shoved together)

I voted for cargocultdevs.com, I think it's quite unique, sounds cool and really stands out from the rest of the names. Unfortunately not many people seem to think like me, it has only got 1% of all votes. Either people don't like it or they haven't heard of cargo cult programming (shame on you! :P).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult_programming

I really like Krishnan's idea of "programmer4programmer" or even "programmer2programmer"...

if the website will be about asp .net, that name it "ObjectReferenceNotSetToAnInstanceOfAnObject.net" :P

I reckon this is one of the top Visual Studio debugger error search phrases in google by n00bs :)

CodingPleasure.com ?

If I were to be bad, I'd register them all.

coders.com

I'm sure this isn't what you were going for but I've always thought it'd be funny to name a WTF type website:

code-tarded.com

Codetarded is the term I made up for smart people who code very badly (code + retarded). It's certainly not P.C. and could be offensive but I still laugh when I think of it.

=D

dunno Jeff, perhaps if we knew a teensy weensy bit more about what the site was about we might be better placed to pick a more appropriate name ...

"Hack", "hacker" and "hacking" have too many negative connotations attached to them for the average person - also those words attract script-kiddies like rotting meat attracts flies.

I reckon you should go for something catchy and meaningless. Something that sticks in peoples heads. Something that won't sound dreadfully outdated in 5 years time. (Could Markov chains help? lol)

Oh, and "programmer2programmer" sounds like a geek dating site. Eww.

My favourite is stackoverflow. It just sounds quite good. privatevoid is also pretty good, but my fear is that it's too language oriented, unless of course the website is language oriented.

HelloWorld must be gone, surely.

What do you know, I voted for the correct answer, along with 24% majority! Stackoverflow.com. It's the only one that really sticks out as a catchy name, the others are forgettable, or downright bad.

Unfortunate domain names?

I read fellowhackers.com as "fellatio whackers".

OneGoToRuleThemAll ;)

(andinthedarnkessbindthem.com)

heheh yea, I agree with "M", only you can put a name, cuz you know what this is all about.

We can only scream geeky names.

Jeff,
how about code-comfort.com

Dave Crozier

horrorcoders.com :>

But stackoverflow sounds good too.

@Flaky - "What do you know, I voted for the correct answer, along with 24% majority! Stackoverflow.com."...

What do you mean by "correct"? When it comes to something that is a matter of taste, there are no "right" or "wrong" opinions.

Also, the following from the list have been registered already:

humbledeveloper.com
metaprogramming.com
stackoverflow.com

Let's hope Jeff has them!

ologn.<TLD>

Yeah, they pretty much all suck, sorry.

> You're much better off, IMHO, thinking of a distinctive, catchy name that doesn't mean anything

This sounds like great advice until you try to actually do it.

I've spend 50-100 hours trying to find domain names, and it really is hell. This list has some pretty good options. And I think this is one case where a public opinion poll can actually be useful.

Stack Overflow, Private Void and Off Duty Ninjas sound awesome to me. =)

bytecurious.com anyone? [groan]

My suggestion

ui me ui u .com?

in short: uimeuiu.com

ah, haha, though the site was for UI but missed that the "problem" was about UI. Plz disregard my comment above :)

I don't know why ninjas keep popping up when i read stuff like this.
is there a relationship between ninjas and developers??

How about codecrypters.com ? (CoDeCrypters.com)

I loved stackoverflow.com, but it looks like you'll be paying to use that one.

Maybe to need to tap pop culture for ideas not taken.... howabout 2cores1thread.com?

How about some l33t? (WHOIS claims the following are available)
- vo1dma1n.com

- v01dma1n.com

- idmain.net||.org (the .com is taken. Then add your host name, for vo.idmain.net)

Since I'm on a roll, how about IBM's famous magic debug value, DEADBEEF?
- deadb33f.com is available

For that matter, the OpenSolaris magic debug value is hillarious, but will probably draw the wrong people to your site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEADBEEF

I think the best bet are the ones you can easily read. Therefore I chose privatevoid.com. Personally, I had to spend too much effort in trying to read most of the others.

It's also easy to type.

what about:
* what-the-hack
* hackitecture
* soft-spot
* soft-where
* code-me-in
* code-uncovered

coderville.com

coding honor .com

I like stackoverflow and privatevoid, but I came up with devhackers.com as another alternative.

Of those listed in the poll, stackoverflow.com is my favorite.

Along the lines of fizzbuzz.com, is there another "classic" developer interview question or problem with a succinct name along the lines of "fizzbuzz" that might be available? (I'm afraid I don't have a specific suggestion.)

@Jeff:

> Of course I registered them all beforehand, just in case. Cost of doing business.

You might have noted that in the main post, to save us from wondering!

why not jeffatwood.com?

Having voted for stackoverflow.com, I'd like to add returnfalse.net (or .com or .org, of course).

How about:

completecoder or thecompletecoder
codeforall
codesmiths
happy-coders
alldaycoders
procoders or pro-coders
thecoders or the-coders

And my personal favorite:

codewhores

hehe fun, here is my 10 min, havent had time to test.

bitminds.com
byteminded.com
code.rage.us (courageous.. :) )
code.foc.us (code focus .. ( or code f#ck us, hehe ) )

But why not invent a name? Seem to me that alot of company names take 2 words and combine. Maybe Micro-soft started that trend. I once did a "company name" generator by combining two words, very funny. But dosent add any charm. You could just as well play Frodo112 or L3g0las in wow or some other sick world. Or maybe some other culture, Ubuntu is doing alright with their name.

But good luck! :)

Don't worry about cost associated with a domain squatted name - just but it, that's what I did.

You'll get the name you want, and domains are real estate - location, location, location.

codercorner.net

A developer community website is a great idea. I like IT Toolbox for professional networking but it is too broad in scope. Maybe you should name it "MyCode" if you want it to be the MySpace for developers.

ASP.NET Weblogs has been accepting everyone to blog there but I don't see a strong community being created. I still think you need video communication to create a real sense of community. I've found several developer podcasts but they are scattered and hard to keep track of.

The name should be funny so when people leave your website they remember it, but it should be easy to see that it's funny. privatevoid requires some thinking for instance

Manrico Corazzi: "what-the-hack", ha!

I like that the best, but "deferenced.com" tops everything else on your list by a mile.

Remember there are other top level domains besides .com, too.

what about devshag
or is it to 80'ies

How about bittwiddlers.net or manualoverride.com?

I would recommend this article; http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/biz/how-to-name-your-company

>> You're much better off, IMHO, thinking of a distinctive, catchy name that doesn't mean anything

>This sounds like great advice until you try to actually do it.

doublefudge... you have no imagination!!! The following .com names are all available at the time of writing:

fangledoo.com
pippipo.com
limapop.com
quengol.com
xenaaz.com

And so the list goes on...

These took me a matter of seconds to think up.

> I often don't know what the title of a particular blog post will be until I'm 90% done writing it. This is a normal workflow, at least for me: things do not reveal themselves until you near the end.

So true. I appreciate you asking everyone to make suggestions, as I too have a hard time naming things. With this in mind, I hope you'll come back when things are a bit more fleshed out (and not so private ;) and ask for more suggestions if you still need them. I'm sure people will be more able to come up with appropriate suggestions.

Best of luck!

First of all, I wish you the best of luck, I really enjoy reading your blog.

I was wondering why you have not applied the rule 'double clikcing sucks' to the voting button. :-)

nullreferenceexception.com

thatsmeoverthere (reference to OO object pointers)
inthefoot (where C++ allows you to shoot yourself)
seerecursion (in joke)

I'm annoyed that twiddlebits/bittwiddlers were already taken. Astonishingly, hackerscum.* is not taken :-)

CodeExploder.com
ExceptionalCode.com
CodeRandomizer.com
StructuredCode.com

Does anyone remember a company named Stack Overflow a few years ago? They had a great pre-Ajax product that helped you combine JavaScript and DHTML on your web pages. It did not catch on at the time, but it should have. I think the name was Mosquito, but I am not sure.

deferenced.com?...oops, I meant dereferenced.com, obviously.

Anyways, I think you want to keep it as meaningful as you can with the fewest syllables. Some of these names are just way too esoteric (understandrecursion? shiftleft1? Really...?) I mean, what is your site ABOUT?

humblehacker.com or humblehackers.com
I like humbledeveloper and programmer too. Stackoverflow sounds too much like a security site that might get trafficked heavily by "k00l d00dz". gosubten is actually not that bad, but if you are going that route, you might try to get a little more esoteric

I also like the idea of using 'this' instead of 'www' in the domain name for a bit of an OOP inside joke (at least for languages that use this)

I wonder if Jeff is jumping on the bandwagon of gated communities? I have some ideas of what I hope this site is going to be, now the wait to see if it is.

I really like StackOverflow.com it gives you a sense of just so much going on and that its the place to be that draws you there.

SegFaulters was a good one too (forget who said that above)

Adding an S to humbledeveloper would make it nicer, to show it is a community and not a single person.

I haven't checked these but figured I should throw them in:
rm-rf.com
codebook.com (facebook play?)
cookingwithcode.com
stdout.com (hmm idk about STD tho...)

and oh no, please not 2cores1thread...

devfellows
thedevcommunity
devexception
exceptionaldevelopers

You're welcome to have ardentcoder.com if it's appropriate - I don't use it anymore. It doesn't have the same insider joke appeal as dereferenced.com or stackoverflow.com.

How about checksumcode.com or the like?

codecafe is taken, as is codebistro

codercave and codercavern are open. These are probably more realistic places for developers to meet each other than cafes and bistros anyway.

I hope all of those haven't already been squatted. It's a shame that a poll like this can actually be dangerous to you. I like the abstract names. privatevoid, stackoverflow, etc...

do-while.com

do-while.com

Posting domain names on a public forum is a bad idea. I sent my suggestion via email.

program-this.com

How about developThis.com ? The Instant Domain Search site you linked lists it as not taken

How about ChildrenOfKnuth.com ? FollowersOfKnuth? DisciplesOfKnuth?

I like stack overflow because, aside from having a little pizazz, it's also general to programming and isn't specific to one language (like VB or C) or one group of developers ("hackers").

Since I get the feeling you'll be writing about a lot of higher-level, only-slightly-technical stuff, I don't like the recursion ones because they give the impression of a computer-sciency site.

And while the "humble" names aptly describe many of the things you write about, they just don't have any zing to them. The name of a business or web site doesn't have to be incredibly clever, but contrary to what some of the nerds are saying in their replies, the name is your image and image is everything in for-profit ventures. Humility is a noble virtue but it isn't good for marketing.

I can kind of see cargocultdevs as well. The only thing bothering me about that is the abbreviation; if you want this to be read by higher-level managers and startup CEOs (which I assume you do), then it makes the name harder to "speak". What's a "dev"?

Just my opinion of course. Maybe you shouldn't be asking us, though - remember, never listen to your users. :-)

Few more:
codeHandle.com
handleYourCode.com
oneInTwoHundred.com (if you like fizzbuzz)

I think dereferenced.com sounds like a programming oriented comic strip, with StackOverflow.com being more like a WTF type site.

I cannot vote from office (the poll site is filtered), but the first name that popped to my mind is byters.org

You'll want to select a name with a winning stress pattern:

http://www.mikepope.com/blog/DisplayBlog.aspx?permalink=1931

Clearly stackoverflow.com

I would have picked voidpointer.com if it was there tho...

Shame its already taken: http://voidpointer.com/Startpage.aspx

Now to register that awesome domain name.... j/k

LOLcoderz.com

>> You're much better off, IMHO, thinking of a distinctive, catchy name that doesn't mean anything

> Such as... what? I'd appreciate it if those of you who voted (other) would offer some kind of alternat name suggestions.

I agree w/ this approach. Like what the developer of "adapdev.com" uses for his products, synthetic names that suggest something.

Or you could use Latin (like the popular tech site "arstechnica") or Greek. techsophos or peritusapiens (skilled wise man or something?).

Voted for humbleprogrammer, btw.

Jeff, your poll is worthless. You need to shuffle the results. The names in the middle of the pack won't garner their fare share of votes.

You should begin shuffling the order of the domains and throwout any votes from before that point in time.

Maybe:? softwaredevelopercommunity.com or softwaredeveloper.com(munity)

stackoverflow.com seems so cliche anyways.. It almost could be a nickname of one of the characters in the movie Hackers, like their dog or cat.

i would try a few different random name gens to get you at least moving. even if it doesn't give you what you want, it may lead you down some alternative directions.

Whether screen name or website name, I've also agonized, however in the end, the right one pops into my head. I still am amazed about naming myself "Bob the Fish" in some places. It's perhaps one of the least reactive, most unassuming name I've come across, which means less fights, yet, apparently s original enough that I'm always remembered. The Postindustrialist was a reference to a few books regarding a post manufacturing, or Post-Industrial age, where information and data were the main "goods" from which an economy's wealth were gained. Kind of appropriate, for someone today, no?

I just recently had issues taking a website and naming it myself, For the longest time, I used "Ex Machina Press" on the books I've bound, the websites of my own that I've developed, or built as a "template" for others, (all long since gone), and was considering registering the site for another project. Turns out someone aready owns it.

After agonizing for a long long while, I simple looked over at my router, realized my network has a rather morbid naming theme (Computer 1 (retired): Cerberus, Computer 2(work): Sisyphus, Computer 3(personal): Orpheus... I think I decide to buy a desktop for downloading multimedia and testing new software, I'll just name it Charon and wish it luck on its journey to the underworld.)

Looking at the router, whose wireless network is Elysian Fields, I decided on naming the (yet untouched, however purchased) site elysianpress.com

I wish i could help more, but it sounds rather vague, "a software developer community site".

What languages?

All?

How are you going to deal with that?

What level of experience are you aiming for?
Your name will subtly state what sort of experience is expected. "humbledevelopers" is going to feel more open to beginners, much like "Coding horror" does, but mentioning subroutines or of particular techniques is going to drive them away.

-Also, think of how else a name might be taken. Yeah, the fello whackers. But also "privatevoid" makes you sound like an angsty teenage emo-infatuated girl. Either that or an incredibly angsty goth with too much make-up. Anything with "Hacker" in it is going to be somewhat avoided by a particular group, because the word itself, in the gerenal public, is both demonized (Those damned hackers!!! they somehow hacked my brain and made me forget my myspace password!!!) or regarded as pertaining to a bunch of teenage kids that think they really know computers.

What kind of software are you planning on focusing on? Part of that is going to determine the languages that are going to be primarily used.

More to come.

Went through the same thing before finally settling on DevelopmentGeek.com (since it didn't pidgeon-hole the content like betterdatabase.com and a couple others would have).

Anyhow, if you get stuck, you could always just buy one of mine, Jeff.

absolutegeek.com
adhockery.com
craftagility.com
hackitude.com
kludging.com
softwarejourney.com
tardegy.com

I've got more, but don't want to blatantly spam. ;) lol.

--Kevin

sweatervest.com

(hint: see http://www.stevemcconnell.com/ )

I also like the dailywtf's constant references to "Codethulu", so try and work that in somehow.

You may find the Igor Naming Guide a helpful resource when selecting a product or company (or website) name:

http://www.igorinternational.com/process/naming-guide-product-company-names.php

When our company had to abandon our previous name, Soldier Vision, we found the Igor Naming Guide a helpful resource. If nothing else, it helped us approach the problem of renaming our company in a more systematic manner. The Igor Naming Guide advocates selecting strong, evocative company names over weak, functional names.

In the end, we selected Primordial as our new company name. Igor included us in their case study on defense industry companies on pages 33 and 87.

Hope that helps!

What about www.returnzero.whatever

Chose humbleprogrammers, since this would be inviting if I saw this in my search results. My second would have been stackoverflow, because this is the exact problem I have with my pet project atm :)

I suppose now is a good time to mention that my license plate is "VOID PTR." It took much soul-searching to find it. :)

codeproject.com

:-)

On July 9th, you can have http://www.cootysratsemen.com, which I had to rename after my beta testers of my anonymous secrets site failed to tell me that while they loved the name, they wouldn't want it in their employers' log files. So, I had to buy http://www.too-many-secrets.com.

It's easy to remember, at least, and it'll work for a lot of ventures: computer security, astronomy, and so forth. Plus, nerds should get the reference.

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.

thisisfalse.com

(it's a recursive contradiction, douglas hofstaedter has a fancy name for these kinds of contradictions in "Goedle, Escher, Bach")

how about "programmatical.com"

how about crazy-coders

maybe "deeevelop.com"?

what about "devilopers.com"?

Choose a name that better fits the content of the website.

How about microsoft.com? Or ifyoucomehereyouregoingtoreadadvertisingintheformofblogposts.com

DeveloperCommode.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

My 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.

I voted other with my actual vote going to dllhellsangels.com

Had to go with dereferenced.com myself. I really don't like multi-word domain names.

I 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

jeffsreferrals.amazon.com

Suggestion:
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

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)

Can'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)

HelterSkelter.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.

The answer is right there in your question:
developerCommunity.com

How about... HumbleHackers.com?

My 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

getVarHeroes.com

I 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"

Why not just use your already succesful branding? My vote for codinghorror.com/forum.

Where is justicegrayisourhero.com?

THIS POLL IS GARBAGE

In 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

I liked the name codeappeal.com and codeappeal.net so much that I bought them! Thanks for the muse. and if you're interested they are for sale.

Kyle_Woodbury@hotmail.com - Soon to be Kyle_Woodbury@codeappeal.com

I vote against any elitist "inside-joke" style url names. "CodingHorror" is understandable to even someone with nominal IT background. "nullvoid" or whatever just sounds lame. My 2 cents.

Speaking of downsides to awkward blog names: When I mumble, I apparently say your current blog name as "codingwhore.com".

You should probably find another cool in book image and name the site after that.

ADirtyHack.com

I don't have anything in particular in mind, but it fits your theme.

devcodeo.com

Haha Rich, I like codingwhore.com that would be a very accurate name for a site that has free code/coding info and forums for developer....if it is a pay/member site then it would have to be codinghooker.com

not Rich...I meant Michael G

I think gosub10 would be the best. It's a classic.

HackerCombinator seams to be a new one (Google can´t find anything).

I voted for privatevoid, but stackoverflow is winning. :(

Everyone who's read a newspaper in the last 10 years knows what a stack overflow is.

codingdelight.com

I like Michael G's idea, or some variant, like codingwho.es

Two suggestions for picking domains:

1. http://www.bustaname.com/
2. Write your shortlist of ~5 on paper. Show to friend. Take paper away. Ask friend to recall the names and see what they can remember. Repeat.

cultofdevelopment.com is such a great name, I'm gonna go register it.

The criteria that important to me when considering a domain name are:

1) Say it out loud. Does it roll off the tongue? Is it catchy and distinctive, or cumbersome and tricky? Short and evocative words and phrases with few syllables are best.

2) Write it by hand. Does it have any confusing words that might be hard to spell? Would you mind seeing it printed in stationary or on business cards? A good URL should look visually pleasing and fit in well with other textual elements in a design.

3) Type it out. Does it contain any tricky characters or sequences of characters? Do you have to glance at your keyboard to type it out? A good URL should be *ergonomically* easy to type. Typing the URL shouldn't cost users any kind of effort.

I can see that you are going for an approach that intentionally avoids the Web 2.0 style: short, too-clever, misspelled, enigmatic, whimsical, etc. Do, however, try to avoid the opposite extreme: long, bland, too-literal, and lacking in humor or spark.

With regards to this specific naming task, I would be careful about choosing computer jargon in the domain name. If you choose jargon that requires, say, undergraduate-level CS knowledge, you might alienate younger and less experienced programmers. If you choose jargon that requires an appreciation of low-level hardware or programming, you might alienate those that have always worked at higher levels of abstraction.

Good luck ;]

Woo hoo! privatevoid.com is doing well in the ratings! I'm disappointed you left my last suggestion off, though: ohdamnitisaftertwointhemorning.com.

How about:
turingslegacy.com
mythicalmanmonth.com
mythicalmanminute.com
branchandburnoperator.com

>>I hope you bought all those names before some bastard sits on them.
Fat bastard squated on my domain.

How about NobodyKnowsWhatThisSiteIsAboutAndAsAResultNobodyKnowsWhatItShouldBeCalled.com?

I'll emphasise again that I think you should keep references to hacking out of the equation - it's guaranteed script-kiddie bait.

Hm, how about veloder.com?

I also liked fizzbuzz. :-) I think the whole "two innocuous words" thing might generally be good, particularly if it's going to be a social site.

Hahaha, aintbroken.com would be amusing, though probably not ideal. :-) Sigh, I'm probably just giving these all away to squatters.

-Max

Oh, and friendeveloper.com isn't taken. At least, not as I'm writing this... :-)

-Max

pointers4u.com

yadcs.org [yet another developer community site]
ognadcs.org [oh god not another developer community site]
stopthemadness.org

wysiwyg.com?

Skinner: Only one question remains, gentlemen...what do we call
ourselves?
Nigel: How about, "Handsome Homer Simpson Plus Three?"
Barney: I like it!
Apu: Wait, I do not.
Skinner: Er, um, we need a name that's witty at first, but that seems
less funny each time you hear it.
Apu: How about, "The Be Sharps?"
[Everyone laughs loud at first, then less, then the laughter
tapers off]
Skinner: Perfect!
-- Important group naming criteria, "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"

I've no idea when it comes to purchasing domains that are "squatted" by those search pages (Maybe somebody can enlighten me?!), but personally, I'd love to own bit,com. Simple, short(!), fundamentally related and definately memorable! Along the same lines, what about codr,com? (As in the web 2.0 equivilant of "coder")
Wish you the best whatever you pick!

ooh, how about bitbybyte.com/

I own codehuddle.com and would be willing to donate it to the right community site effort. Ping me if you're interested.

segfaulters haha i lold at that..
when i think of names i try to cat them like this: <bad adjective>or<good adjective><word with anything computer-y with it>
like
retroprogrammers
metalogic
and stuff..

btw i like segfaulters.. xD

> but my vote goes for metaprogramming.com.

This was my vote as well, but anything less popular than (other) can't be a wise choice..

Thanks again for all the domain name suggestions. There are some good ones, although I wish you'd do a better job of checking if the domain name is taken *before* posting it (and yes, some of these suggestions were registered way back in 2000). :)

dowhile.com

My 2 cents:
developing4living
developing4food
devfellowship
devsfellowship
codingispainful

But to be honest Jeff codinghorror.com should do it!!, it has the traffic, is well known, and it is already YOUR brand. let us know why you are not considering it.

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.^_^

Too 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.

..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.

"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!

stackoverflow sounds good...

here's one more
coding4dummies.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!)

Privatevoid > Private Gold ? X_X

repscasb.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?

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

I would suggest, Jeff, that once you've given enough time for voting on this round, take the top 3 and do another vote.

SiliconTransplants (what a compiler does).

ok, 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 ?

butwhatisitgoodfor.com

"But what ... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

hunt_the_wumpus.com!

Be your power animal :)

I nominate codinghappy.com, to bring balance to codinghorror.com :)

lol @ orangecaptcha.com

how about trycatch.com (another vb programmers saving grace)

monadsoul
deadstore
immutable

I finally noticed the "fello whackers"

How about "CodethisBuddy.com"

I just bought them all. Feel free to choose which one you like. It will cost you ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS!

developersconcern.com

defseg.com appears to be free

What about developerinnovations.com ?

(I own it, but failed to use it)

how about: plzgivemetehcodez.com

Haven't really checked, but I doubt HumbleDevelopers.com is taken ;-)

all available:

editorInheritance.com
introduceParameter.com
developerInjection.com

... that's all i got.

if you like hax.net email HAX.NET@domainsbyproxy.com

codingconsideredharmful.com

> 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.

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.

unhandledException.com

www.whatdeveloperswant.com

Hi.

Actually, I imeediately thought of willcodeforfood.com, but since it's sort of "taken", "willcodeforfun" could do it too.

Derek: "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. :-)

privatevoid sounds great

I 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..

> I 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.

Many 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

I like codershappyplace.com/ and it's free and clear.

Er 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'.

thedeprecated.net

> As 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.

controlspace.com

programmersview.com

You know, its pretty dumb to post potential websites up on a popular blog like this, unless you have already registered them all. Since it opens up a wide door for squatters to get all the names they could potentially sell in one place (it costs very little to register 10-20 names)

Haven't checked if registered or not.

dynamicprogrammers
or
dynamicprogramming (similar to your favorite, metaprogramming)

greedyprogrammers

goprogrammers

Haven't checked if registered or not.

dynamicprogrammers
or
dynamicprogramming (similar to your favorite, metaprogramming)

greedyprogrammers

goprogrammers

How about MajicPurpleHamsterSoftwareProgramming

I vote for fellowhackers.com , stackoveflow looks cool too.

coderhabitat.com
coderoony.com

nerdroundup.com1010101010101.com (shorter variations are already taken)

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)

personallyoown.com

In ancient Japan, the men who fulfilled roles similar to those of modern pharamacists were highly respected. The place of pharmacists in society was expressly defined in the Taih&#333; Code (701) and re-stated in the Y&#333;r&#333; Code (718). http://BestMedsWorld.com Ranked positions in the pre-Heian Imperial court were established; and this organizational structure remained largely intact until the Meiji Restoration (1868). In this highly stable hierarchy, the pharmacists -- and even pharmacist assistants -- were assigned status superior to all others in health-related fields such as physicians and acupuncturists. In the Imperial household, the pharmacist was even ranked above the two personal physicians of the Emperor.[5]