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I love the idea, but I'm not so keen on the name. The mission statement gives examples of how this is a great idea for musicians, coffee shop owners, and other

I love the idea, but I'm not so keen on the name. The mission statement gives examples of how this is a great idea for musicians, coffee shop owners, and other generally smart people ("genius grants for the rest of us"). On the other hand: the name, the required GitHub authentication, and the list of suggested tippees all strongly imply that this is solely for programmers. This says to me that the grand plan is to start out by focusing on programers (which makes sense, since it's a group of people who are on the whole really good at recognizing and rewarding people and projects that make their jobs easier), and to eventually expand from there. The problem with this is that 'Gittip' is an incredibly technically-focused name; it makes perfect sense in context of tipping your favorite GitHub contributors, but not so much when your average non-engineer Joe wants to give money to the guy who makes his coffee every morning.

jforrest 14y ago
Does it matter? "Regular" people won't pick up on the reference to git, but it's still a nice short domain name, easy to spell and pronounce, and git is a slang spelling for get. I think the name works well.
- jordanmessina 14y ago
  Git is also British slang for stupid. Like all Torvalds' software, he names it after himself :) I think you're right. It's a good domain name and "regular" people won't pick up on the reference and won't really care regardless.
  - gmac 14y ago
    Git is also British slang for stupid. In my book, not exactly. It's more like the mildest possible term of abuse. You could generally get away with calling someone a git to their face and in front of their grandmother. Assuming they'd done something tricksy or cheeky or grumpy.
- whit537 14y ago
  What he said. :-)
whit537 14y ago
You know, I thought the same thing. The idea started as a tipjar for Github and I bought Gittip.com, but then I realized it was much bigger, so I decided to use Logstown.com, a domain I already own. But then I was talking to my bro-in-law this past weekend, a non-technical musician, and he was like "Logstown makes me think I'm taking a dump. I like Gittip a lot better." So I renamed it back. He has no idea what git and github are, so the name gittip to him is just a nice, symmetrical name that has "tip" in it and evocations of "gift." Go figure. Look at the way that "bit" and "wiki" have evolved beyond BitTorrent and the WikiWikiWeb. I console myself by hoping that with gittip, the same is maybe happening to "git."
- whit537 14y ago
  I mean, it already started happening with github.
- lazerwalker 14y ago
  Fair enough! The main thing I'd worry about is people mis-hearing the name and trying to go to either gettip.com or gifttip.com, but it's very likely that I'm giving people too little credit. That wouldn't be a problem if 'git' enters the non-technical zeitgeist, but that's admittedly a pretty big 'if'.
- jmathai 14y ago
  > [Insert name] makes me think I'm taking a dump. That's about as good of feedback as you can ask for.
  - whit537 14y ago
    :D

jforrest 14y ago

Does it matter? "Regular" people won't pick up on the reference to git, but it's still a nice short domain name, easy to spell and pronounce, and git is a slang spelling for get. I think the name works well.

jordanmessina 14y ago
Git is also British slang for stupid. Like all Torvalds' software, he names it after himself :) I think you're right. It's a good domain name and "regular" people won't pick up on the reference and won't really care regardless.
- gmac 14y ago
  Git is also British slang for stupid. In my book, not exactly. It's more like the mildest possible term of abuse. You could generally get away with calling someone a git to their face and in front of their grandmother. Assuming they'd done something tricksy or cheeky or grumpy.
whit537 14y ago
What he said. :-)

whit537 14y ago

You know, I thought the same thing. The idea started as a tipjar for Github and I bought Gittip.com, but then I realized it was much bigger, so I decided to use Logstown.com, a domain I already own. But then I was talking to my bro-in-law this past weekend, a non-technical musician, and he was like "Logstown makes me think I'm taking a dump. I like Gittip a lot better." So I renamed it back. He has no idea what git and github are, so the name gittip to him is just a nice, symmetrical name that has "tip" in it and evocations of "gift." Go figure. Look at the way that "bit" and "wiki" have evolved beyond BitTorrent and the WikiWikiWeb. I console myself by hoping that with gittip, the same is maybe happening to "git."

whit537 14y ago
I mean, it already started happening with github.
lazerwalker 14y ago
Fair enough! The main thing I'd worry about is people mis-hearing the name and trying to go to either gettip.com or gifttip.com, but it's very likely that I'm giving people too little credit. That wouldn't be a problem if 'git' enters the non-technical zeitgeist, but that's admittedly a pretty big 'if'.
jmathai 14y ago
> [Insert name] makes me think I'm taking a dump. That's about as good of feedback as you can ask for.
- whit537 14y ago
  :D