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What to Expect in CockroachDB 1.0

cockroachlabs.com

21–30 of 47 posts

Re: What to Expect in CockroachDB 1.0

#22
post #10

What a perfect time to rename it to something reasonable

Normally I scorn suggestions like this. But I have had times in my life where I had to live with cockroaches and I really do have a visceral response to this worthy product's name. Seriously it's the only reason I haven't tried it myself. Dumb, I know, but there it is.

You're not alone. There are certain words that will evoke an emotional reaction in people, and projects would be wise to avoid them.

Even if an author thinks a name like AIDS.app, murder.js, syphilis.io, represents the nature of the project well, I'd advise him to change it.

Same thing happened with the "Nimrod" programming language. "But it means a great hunter!" No, people hated the name every time it came up and its author eventually renamed it to Nim.

Re: What to Expect in CockroachDB 1.0

#24

What a perfect time to rename it to something reasonable

Just about every news item on HN related to cockroachdb has had this comment up at the top. We get it. (I do NOT work for the company.) Some people don't like the name. I'm sure the company has heard it over and over. Yet they haven't changed it. At some point, these people who constantly protest the name should realize they've been heard and let the discussion focus on something other than their pet peeve that has n…

It gives a major insight on how the developers don't take community feedback seriously, or at all.

This is an issue of basic hygiene of marketing. The name is obnoxious.

It is like being a great developer and showing up in a interview looking/ dressed like a homeless person. Yes, we get it, you can be all talented and such, but people will have a visceral response to the lack of basic hygiene and not want to associate with that person.

In this case it is yet another database.

Re: What to Expect in CockroachDB 1.0

#25

What a perfect time to rename it to something reasonable

I imagine the name's advantages of being memorable and being a conversation starter must outweigh the negative effects. I think every time there's a story about them here someone complains about the name, yet their company has persisted for two years. Of course, it's hard to test that hypothesis, and the name could very well be hurting them.

Re: What to Expect in CockroachDB 1.0

#26
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just about every news item on HN related to cockroachdb has had this comment up at the top. We get it. (I do NOT work for the company.) Some people don't like the name. I'm sure the company has heard it over and over. Yet they haven't changed it. At some point, these people who constantly protest the name should realize they've been heard and let the discussion focus on something other than their pet peeve that has n…

It gives a major insight on how the developers don't take community feedback seriously, or at all. This is an issue of basic hygiene of marketing. The name is obnoxious. It is like being a great developer and showing up in a interview looking/ dressed like a homeless person. Yes, we get it, you can be all talented and such, but people will have a visceral response to the lack of basic hygiene and not want to associat…

It would be a sad day if creative people were forced to consider every person who may find their work or title objectionable. The Pixar film "Ratatouille" was a wonderful script but some people could not get over the fact that a rat was a chef preparing food. The screenwriters had the option of changing a fairly significant feature of their film to appease these critics or just say that some people won't watch it. I'm glad they chose the latter. If you really need a distributed database that supports transactions and don't evaluate CockroachDB because of the name, I think that's more on you than on them.

Re: What to Expect in CockroachDB 1.0

#30
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Atrocious name. Same with Mozilla's "Rust". Great language, terrible name.

What's wrong with it?

Are you asking about rust? Not the parent but: Because the term has universally negative connotations:

I don't like equipment that's rusted. I don't like when joints have rusted into position.

I don't like getting rusty at skills.

I don't like rusty pipes or rust getting into drinking water. I don't like turning on a faucet and seeing the color of rust come out.

I know it's not 100% rational, but the feeling of revulsion nudged me away from learning about it until much later.

It also invites easy puns about a system that runs "like it has a lot of rust in it" (already seen it happen).

"Oh, but it's actually this ubergeeky reference to--" I don't care. The lay audience cares even less. The insidious metal oxide is what I think of, double so for the average person.

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