What should our url be? - *nix - TopAnswers

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What should our url be?

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5 years ago Jack Douglas

Each community has a url like this:

Ours has been set up as https://topanswers.xyz/nix for the private beta, but I’m not even sure whether https://topanswers.xyz/*nix would be allowed or not. If you know the answer or have any other suggestions, please post an answer here.

Top Answer

5 years ago holmanb

nix is exactly what I would choose.

It is easy to remember and it has been widely used to group the Linux and Unix communities together. It’s short and simple, and frankly I think that it sets a good scope for what the community should be.

Answer #2

5 years ago hackerb9

unix.topanswers.xyz. It’s what I actually guessed and typed into my browser to try to find the topanswer’s Unix site.
At the moment, topanswers.xyz seems to want different sites to exist as subdirectories of the main site. If domain names are not implemented, then I would propose:
topanswers.xyz/unixWhile “*nix” is cute, and I wouldn’t mind it being an alias, it’s not commonly enough used that it should be the default name. *nix and UN*X are what we used to say long ago when we were afraid AT&T’s lawyers would sue everyone for infringing on their trademark. Nowadays, Unix may technically be a trademark of somebody, but widespread usage has given it a liberty it always deserved: the freedom to be called by its right name.

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5 years

Jack Douglas — Friday, 24th Jan 2020 21:29

for now it’s probably best for your answer to say topanswers.xyz/unix if you prefer that to topanswers.xyz/nix I think?

Jack Douglas replying to hackerb9 — Friday, 24th Jan 2020 21:28

oh I see — though we haven’t got any urls in the format abc.topanswers.xyz. There isn’t a specific plan for that, though perhaps there should be — we should probably discuss that on the main meta site at some point

hackerb9 — Friday, 24th Jan 2020 21:26

Yeah, the big 404 was a sign to me that the Unix area was still in closed-beta. That’s why I applied to join. 😃

an hour

Jack Douglas — Friday, 24th Jan 2020 20:31

@hackerb9 do you mean topanswers.xyz/unix? unix.topanswers.xyz doesn’t currently work…

7 days

PeterVandivier — Friday, 17th Jan 2020 11:52

not often though

PeterVandivier replying to Skillmon — Friday, 17th Jan 2020 11:51

i use the “Put an end to; cancel.” meaning occasionally

an hour

Skillmon replying to David — Friday, 17th Jan 2020 11:07

I like that overtone as well 😃 Hadn’t read the first comment before writing mine. Really amusing that English has the same word as well. Is that in common usage?

27 minutes

David replying to Skillmon — Friday, 17th Jan 2020 10:40

English nix comes from German “nichts”, of course (see link in the first comment in this chat, above)! 😉 My sense is that this semantic connection continues to be non-fatal if nix is the URL slug of choice. I find the ironic overtone mildly amusing in any case. 😃

11 hours

Skillmon replying to Jack Douglas — Thursday, 16th Jan 2020 23:31

I still think that if /*nix isn’t possible we should go for /nix, it’s the best alternative I can think of, and Germans might be confused, but not for too long.

10 minutes

Jack Douglas replying to Skillmon — Thursday, 16th Jan 2020 23:21

useful, thanks!

Skillmon — Thursday, 16th Jan 2020 23:18

@Jack this shouldn’t be an answer, as I’m personally fine with /nix, I just wanted to point out that this is German common speech for “nothing”, so while *nix is correctly understood, someone who isn’t familiar with that term (and the scope of the community) might jump to wrong conclusions.

a day

Jack Douglas — Wednesday, 15th Jan 2020 14:40

https://unix.stackexchange.com/

Jack Douglas — Wednesday, 15th Jan 2020 14:40

I don’t think the clash is bad either but it’s perhaps worth noting that U&L use ‘unix’:

15 minutes

PeterVandivier — Wednesday, 15th Jan 2020 14:25

i vote nix

PeterVandivier replying to David — Wednesday, 15th Jan 2020 14:25

as a native english speaker, the “common (non-techie) usage” of nix doesn’t clash enough IMO to count against that slug for the URL name - especially to those who will want to see it

5 hours

David — Wednesday, 15th Jan 2020 09:39

@Jack plain nix has its own appeal, imo. But, otoh, it also has its own meaning as an English lexeme. That’s probably not fatal, though, if it proved to be the best option.