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Really? You think it's astroturfing that makes people dislike a name with "Cockroach" in it? Do you think there are many people think "cockroach" has positive c

Really? You think it's astroturfing that makes people dislike a name with "Cockroach" in it? Do you think there are many people think "cockroach" has positive connotations? The name is one thing that anyone can have an opinion about, the average person can't really speak to the internals of the database, but anyone can look at the name and say "I don't like it and wouldn't want to say I have 'cockroachdb' in my stack". The very fact that it comes up every time there's a story about the database should be a pretty strong sign that the name is overshadowing the product. If it was named after an animal that doesn't have nearly universal disdain like "Koala-db" or "dragonfly-db", or even "ant-db", then I doubt people would be bringing up the name every time it's mentioned

bshimmin 10y ago
git is also a really bad name, and I've had awkward conversations with hiring managers about it in the past ("You want someone with experience in... what?!"). ("git" is a mild oath in British English, for those who don't know. I think Linus did know.) But the reason that people don't complain about the name every time git is brought up is because git comes up in conversation a lot. CockroachDB is also a really bad name - I do agree - but the reason almost every thread about it on here is partially derailed by chatter about its name is, I think, simply because it doesn't come up all that often.
- cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
  > git is also a really bad name, That's stretching it a bit too far. Just because it's a "mild oath" in British english, doesn't mean it's bad name for rest of the world. I for one have never heard about it and don't think git is a bad name at all. Cockroach, on the other hand, I don't know of anyone who would get a good image in their mind hearing it. So you think if people keep saying cockroach a lot, suddenly cockroach will magically become some nice clean creature in people's mind? That's like saying if you keep saying "ShitDB", someday people will think it's a good name.
  - bshimmin 10y ago
    I'm saying that if CockroachDB came up in discussion frequently, people would lose interest in complaining about its name, because after a period of time, the number of people who'd been exposed to it and previous conversations about its name would have eclipsed the number of people thinking, "Gosh, what an awful name! I wonder if anyone else has had this revelation, I better post about it right now!"
    - cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
      You're missing my point, because you're talking about AFTER this reaches that status. I'm saying these people are doing their own technology disservice by making the brand difficult to talk about and take seriously. It's their choice, but there's a difference between "stupid names don't matter, look at Google!" and "stupid names don't matter, look at FuckDB! RapeDB! CockroachDB!" (I know i'm going extreme with this but just trying to get the point across, that "stupid" names and "offensive" names are completely different things) If you still disagree with me, I don't really have much intention of trying to persuade you nor care much about this company succeeding. I'm just saying it's a bad business decision to make it hard for your customers to advocate for your product. If there was a company with the same technology and they had a normal name, they would probably get much better traction (assuming that their tech is unique and useful).
  - cuu508 10y ago
    > So you think if people keep saying cockroach a lot, suddenly cockroach will magically become some nice clean creature in people's mind? Something like that. People will associate the name with the database, not the insect. This does happen, over time you almost forget the the original meaning. Some examples: when somebody says Oracle or Delphi, I'm thinking databases and Pascal successor, not ancient Greek stuff. When somebody says Pascal, I'm thinking programming language not the French mathematician. Fedora is a Linux distribution (and also a type of hat), Twitter is a social network (and also a type of bird vocalization) and so on.
    - cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
sanderjd 10y ago
I think it's weird that anybody would have any strong feelings about the name of a database project at all.

bshimmin 10y ago

git is also a really bad name, and I've had awkward conversations with hiring managers about it in the past ("You want someone with experience in... what?!"). ("git" is a mild oath in British English, for those who don't know. I think Linus did know.) But the reason that people don't complain about the name every time git is brought up is because git comes up in conversation a lot. CockroachDB is also a really bad name - I do agree - but the reason almost every thread about it on here is partially derailed by chatter about its name is, I think, simply because it doesn't come up all that often.

cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
> git is also a really bad name, That's stretching it a bit too far. Just because it's a "mild oath" in British english, doesn't mean it's bad name for rest of the world. I for one have never heard about it and don't think git is a bad name at all. Cockroach, on the other hand, I don't know of anyone who would get a good image in their mind hearing it. So you think if people keep saying cockroach a lot, suddenly cockroach will magically become some nice clean creature in people's mind? That's like saying if you keep saying "ShitDB", someday people will think it's a good name.
- bshimmin 10y ago
  I'm saying that if CockroachDB came up in discussion frequently, people would lose interest in complaining about its name, because after a period of time, the number of people who'd been exposed to it and previous conversations about its name would have eclipsed the number of people thinking, "Gosh, what an awful name! I wonder if anyone else has had this revelation, I better post about it right now!"
  - cocktailpeanuts 10y ago
    You're missing my point, because you're talking about AFTER this reaches that status. I'm saying these people are doing their own technology disservice by making the brand difficult to talk about and take seriously. It's their choice, but there's a difference between "stupid names don't matter, look at Google!" and "stupid names don't matter, look at FuckDB! RapeDB! CockroachDB!" (I know i'm going extreme with this but just trying to get the point across, that "stupid" names and "offensive" names are completely different things) If you still disagree with me, I don't really have much intention of trying to persuade you nor care much about this company succeeding. I'm just saying it's a bad business decision to make it hard for your customers to advocate for your product. If there was a company with the same technology and they had a normal name, they would probably get much better traction (assuming that their tech is unique and useful).
- cuu508 10y ago
  > So you think if people keep saying cockroach a lot, suddenly cockroach will magically become some nice clean creature in people's mind? Something like that. People will associate the name with the database, not the insect. This does happen, over time you almost forget the the original meaning. Some examples: when somebody says Oracle or Delphi, I'm thinking databases and Pascal successor, not ancient Greek stuff. When somebody says Pascal, I'm thinking programming language not the French mathematician. Fedora is a Linux distribution (and also a type of hat), Twitter is a social network (and also a type of bird vocalization) and so on.
  - cocktailpeanuts 10y ago

sanderjd 10y ago

I think it's weird that anybody would have any strong feelings about the name of a database project at all.