[hDeraj]

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."

[christop]

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]

Well, Stack Overflow, probably felt like an odd choice at the time too.

[ProblemFactory]

StackOverflow was named by a public vote: https://blog.codinghorror.com/help-name-our-website/

[cocktailpeanuts]

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]

[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.

[legostormtroopr]

You can't leave us hanging, whats the slur that sounds like GoMix?

[xkxx]

"GoMix" would be read as "gomik-s" in Russian.

"Gomik" means literally "faggot", the plural is "gomiki".

The suffix "-s" was being used in pre-revolutionary Russia as a way to make your speech sound more polite. Etymologically, "-s" is short for "sir". Nowadays, "-s" is used (very rarely) to imitate speech of somebody from those times, mostly for its humorous effect.

Given the above, "GoMix" sounds very ridiculous in Russian, something like "faggot, sir".

[Jimmie_Rustle]

'homos' is the pretty much the direct translation.