[kfrzcode]

The amount of professional-grade hand-wringing virtue-signaling in this comment section makes me feel ill.

Why get bent out of shape over the name of a software project? It's virtually a meaningless factor in day-to-day life.

What about hearing phrases "Sacrificing a Chicken to Moloch," the "spirit cooking" culture and related symbolism rampant in elite political circles? Shouldn't we be more interested in that?

Lots of low-hanging fruit to pick, I guess. Someday I might unlock the "downvote" ability on this platform. Until then my opinions don't carry weight here. Also, uhh who decides the "threshold" for downvoting? Hint: nobody knows. [0]

This platform has become more of an echo chamber than a host of rational discussion based on merit. I suppose that's a problem with growth.

There's a lot of conversation around "Moloch" as a name and the subsequent emotional responses... but not a lot of discussion about the tech at-hand. And it's a repost.

Where's the value?

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

Edit: while this is high-ranking comment, I'd point out that if I had the ability I would have just downvoted the comments I didn't like. Take that for whatever it's worth.

[gyehuda]

Preach Brother!

Moloch is a serious open source project, run by serious people who care about network security. They published their code under an open source license, showing off just how confident they are that it is solid. You can use this project to inspect packets on your network, you can learn how they built it and become a valuable network security engineer with a job somewhere finding people trying to hack in to your site. You can propose modifications to make this even better (and if your code is good enough, it will get accepted and used by security teams around the world). Or you could focus on the name they chose and the name of the company at the time this was published.

I'd seize the opportunity to talk tech and focus on network security. Infosec jobs pay better than brand marketing jobs.

[kfrzcode]

The fact we have access to tools like this (and many, many others) is so damn motivating. I am working through some structured course material in preparation for net-sec baseline `$vendor-$certification` exams, and there are so many complexities and rabbit holes that it's easy to be overwhelmed. Some nights are harder than others to see forest for the trees when it feels I'm trying to understand how to pick up a single pine cone to study.

Then I see projects like this, or Jaeger/OpenZipkin, or Chaos Monkey, and I'm simply inspired. Much like listening to a killer record.

I don't spend time feeling sorry for myself because an ancient, somewhat esoteric proper noun was used to describe the project.

[burpsnard]

Is also a species of (Australian?) Lizard, just fyi

[kfrzcode]

TIL! Thanks burpsnard =)

[maxerickson]

Unless a bunch of people deleted their comments, at the time you posted, the comments actually criticizing the name had about as many words as the first half of your comment, with replies mostly pushing back instead of agreeing.

None of the critical comments were particularly strident ('bent out of shape').

Your comment might as well be about itself.

[untog]

Not to mention the OP participated in the debate about the name themselves. This being the top rated comment is a self-fulfilling prophecy, it’s getting in the way of a discussion about the tech!

Oh but now I’ve contributed to it as well. Uh oh...

[kfrzcode]

I am satisfied that this reply chain recognizes the irony in my long-winded argument. :)

"Look and despair, yo!"

[burpsnard]

What is the term of art ?

To be anti-grandfathered ?

[ignoramous]

> Why get bent out of shape over the name of a software project? It's virtually a meaningless factor in day-to-day life.

A lot of people do care about what things (living or not) are named and even how, sometimes and attach a lot of emotional value to it for a good reason.

Quoting Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_naming#Principles

- They strategically distinguish the product from its competitors by conveying its unique positioning.

- They hold appeal for the product’s target audience.

- They imply or evoke a salient brand attribute, quality or benefit.

- They allow companies to bond with their customers to create loyalty.

- They have a symbolic association that fortifies the image of a company or a product to the consumers.

- They help motivate customers to buy the product.

I'm sorry but claiming that an uncomfortable discussion on a project's name is not the response one wants to see is exactly what turns this into an echo chamber? To be noted how discussion on a product's technical merits isn't mutually exclusive to discussion on its naming. Both could easily be had, and both have their places, because I don't particularly think either is off-topic. In fact, a previous news.yc thread on this product brought up a similar line of discussion. I guess one could argue the discussion is counter-productive in a technical forum, but I don't think one should avoid it just because... unless the community rules explicitly state so. Technical people aren't robots, at least not yet.

[kfrzcode]

You have good points. Clearly the name of a thing matters.

I'm arguing that the naming of a thing matters less than the efficacy of the thing itself. Doubly so in a hacker-oriented forum.

As for the echo-chamber, that's a classic human fallacy which I think is magnified by the centralization of content aggregation into heavily personalized "newsfeed" style design choices perpetuated by major players.

The epidemic of "outrage culture," or "offense culture" is something comedians and free thinkers have been discussing for awhile, and I think is underpinning of my personal frustrations.

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"This idea of "I'm offended". I've got news for you - I'm offended by a lot of things too. Where do I send my list? Life is offensive. Get in touch with your outer adult, and grow up, and move on."

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Post, comment, discuss as y'all like, right? That's the beauty of the format. I'm simply one of ∞.

The folks in the community here are brilliant, and the reasonable ones are off doing something meaningful, whereas I'm here arguing for practice, basically.

[TimTheTinker]

If you have a strong, negative emotional response to the name of a project, I think letting the project author know can be helpful.

I’m a rational guy to the best of my ability, but FWIW I would avoid using this project solely because of its name (just the thought of that name evokes a sick feeling to me - that’s how strong the negative association is... I won’t explain why as this isn’t an appropriate venue for that).

We are human, and sometimes visceral responses can’t be ignored regardless of their irrationality.

I could invoke Godwin’s law to give a more universal example of words with negative associations, but I’ll refrain.

[jstewartmobile]

If they named it something like “Pinochet” or PIZZAGATE, I’m sure we’d be getting completely different responses from the same people who think naming a project after a child sacrifice idol is “funny” or “cool“.

[simlevesque]

Do you have a list of forbidden words ? Asking for a friend.

[jstewartmobile]

You have the wrong end of the stick. I am not here to forbid some words, but to liberate others.

[simlevesque]

Do you think your reaction is professional ?

[TimTheTinker]

In a professional environment, I’d keep that to myself unless someone asked me for feedback or I had a hand in the decision But I think once the point is brought up in an online forum, that’s an appropriate venue to give feedback like that.

Like it or not, people will have internal reactions to things—and I for one would prefer if others let me know if they found a project name I chose to be difficult in some way.

[pcunite]

Why not name the product "ILikeToKill"? Is that professional? Because that's exactly what the name of this software is implying. It is disgusting, and I would avoid using this project over the name as well. Names mean something, this is an easily understood concept.

[akhilcacharya]

> What about hearing phrases "Sacrificing a Chicken to Moloch," the "spirit cooking" culture and related symbolism rampant in elite political circles? Shouldn't we be more interested in that?

excuse me...w-what?