5 ms·

why do these guys keep rebranding the same thing over and over and pretending it to be some new launch? Once I can understand, twice it just feels disingenuous

why do these guys keep rebranding the same thing over and over and pretending it to be some new launch? Once I can understand, twice it just feels disingenuous. This is like third time they changed the name. Hyperdev to Gomix to Glitch.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dethos 10y ago
Indeed, 3 names in a relatively short time, all of them announced like a new thing. This strategy is a little bit weird.
- GarethX 10y ago
  We'd love to claim this is some awesome growth strategy where we're renaming to juice the press. In reality, we switched from HyperDev to Gomix because the feedback we got was that the mention of 'dev' made people think it's a tool only for full-time developers, and we're trying to create something more accessible. And we're switching from Gomix to Glitch for the reasons hDeraj mentions, plus we just think it's a better name. Also each time we've introduced something new - with Gomix we had completely rewritten the backend with a writable filesystem. With Glitch we've greatly enhanced the community site.
  - cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
    "Glitch" means "Ugly Bitch" according to http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Glitch&defid=10868133 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Glitch&defid=... Are you ok with this? It's pretty offensive to me.
    - notriddle 10y ago
      Everything has an offensive definition on UD.
hDeraj 10y ago
I don't know the reasoning for the first change, but they explain the need to change it again in the article: "If you’ve been following along, you know Glitch is a new name for our community; our beta launch last year was under the name Gomix. Why did we change the name (again)? Well, we heard from some members of our community that the old name evokes a hurtful slur in some Russian communities, and given our deep commitment to building an inclusive service, that didn’t sit right with us, even though people understand we didn’t mean to be hurtful. But then we realized that in fixing this slight, we had the opportunity to pick a much better name, one that makes it absolutely clear that we’re building a community for everyone."
- cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
  I'm not criticizing rebranding (although anyone would agree that rebranding this many times in less than a year of existence is abnormal). I'm criticizing how they pretend this is a new product launch.
  - anildash 10y ago
    [I'm the CEO of Fog Creek, which made Glitch.] I don't think we intended to indicate it's a new product launch so much as our community features and focus are new. It's a hard balance to strike without confusing people who've never heard of any of it. And yeah, the renamings are embarrassing because they're mistakes that were on me to catch. Won't happen again, but fortunately I have a team that is very understanding and I hope our community is, too.
- christop 10y ago
  That seems reasonable, but the new name is already in wide use in software/hardware. Even outside, its dictionary definition is "a defect or malfunction in a machine or plan". That seems like an odd choice, though the blog seems to suggest it's because everyone will be fixing each other's bugs.
  - tedmiston 10y ago
    Well, Stack Overflow, probably felt like an odd choice at the time too.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

dethos 10y ago

Indeed, 3 names in a relatively short time, all of them announced like a new thing. This strategy is a little bit weird.

GarethX 10y ago
We'd love to claim this is some awesome growth strategy where we're renaming to juice the press. In reality, we switched from HyperDev to Gomix because the feedback we got was that the mention of 'dev' made people think it's a tool only for full-time developers, and we're trying to create something more accessible. And we're switching from Gomix to Glitch for the reasons hDeraj mentions, plus we just think it's a better name. Also each time we've introduced something new - with Gomix we had completely rewritten the backend with a writable filesystem. With Glitch we've greatly enhanced the community site.
- cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
  "Glitch" means "Ugly Bitch" according to http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Glitch&defid=10868133 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Glitch&defid=... Are you ok with this? It's pretty offensive to me.
  - notriddle 10y ago
    Everything has an offensive definition on UD.

hDeraj 10y ago

I don't know the reasoning for the first change, but they explain the need to change it again in the article: "If you’ve been following along, you know Glitch is a new name for our community; our beta launch last year was under the name Gomix. Why did we change the name (again)? Well, we heard from some members of our community that the old name evokes a hurtful slur in some Russian communities, and given our deep commitment to building an inclusive service, that didn’t sit right with us, even though people understand we didn’t mean to be hurtful. But then we realized that in fixing this slight, we had the opportunity to pick a much better name, one that makes it absolutely clear that we’re building a community for everyone."

cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
I'm not criticizing rebranding (although anyone would agree that rebranding this many times in less than a year of existence is abnormal). I'm criticizing how they pretend this is a new product launch.
- anildash 10y ago
  [I'm the CEO of Fog Creek, which made Glitch.] I don't think we intended to indicate it's a new product launch so much as our community features and focus are new. It's a hard balance to strike without confusing people who've never heard of any of it. And yeah, the renamings are embarrassing because they're mistakes that were on me to catch. Won't happen again, but fortunately I have a team that is very understanding and I hope our community is, too.
christop 10y ago
That seems reasonable, but the new name is already in wide use in software/hardware. Even outside, its dictionary definition is "a defect or malfunction in a machine or plan". That seems like an odd choice, though the blog seems to suggest it's because everyone will be fixing each other's bugs.
- tedmiston 10y ago
  Well, Stack Overflow, probably felt like an odd choice at the time too.