Rename request - suggestion: "PGPal"

[43k]

PGPal

A name that suggests what it is about, and sounds a little more friendly.

[xornand]

The interwebs (IANAL) says that PGP is no longer a trademark, but in my experience its better not to mess around with anything that is even arguably infringement. Zimmerman seems like a good bloke who wouldn't litigate but who knows who else has vested interests... better to keep away from the 'PGP' brand IMO.

The name is real unfortunate and not marketable to grandma (who will have a hard time being convinced that her Googles needs any fixing to begin with).

[43k]

Good point. According to this site, "PGP" seems to be an active trademark with SYMANTEC CORPORATION as the current owner.

[43k]

Ok, other suggestions?

I'll start:

• "StrongTube" ?
• "PunkJammer" ?

[xornand]

Two directions conventionally: the whole corporate enterprise naming scheme is built around traditional security. "Vault" "Iron" "Lock" "Forte" will usually be included in there (n.b., even cheapo tungsten carbide (c1, c14, etc) could tear apart even the toughest M or D series steel, but no one seems to name their enterprise product "Tungsten" ahaha, I digress)

The other direction conventionally was to just name it whatever clever appropriate *nix name that was appropriate at whichever academic (or DARPA funded, or both) institution invented it. So out comes "Pretty Good Privacy" and "LaTeX" and "troff". Since the demand amongst grad students was there, branding didn't come into play much. Kids needed to typeset mathematics symbols, they'd use a program named "booboobalooga". As it stands, we're in uncharted waters since ideally this is targeted for vast consumer consumption.

I'm not good at branding but it should be 'familiar' (iOS apps like "Sketch" or "Writer" tell you out of the box what its going to do" but still 'serious'.(even if this isn't being sold to businesses, pretend it was-- if the name is too silly to take to your boss :cough: Felony :cough: cross it off the list.)

[primis]

Side note: what's wrong with felony? It's a decently in your face name. Giving an app a flashy name doesn't really affect the overall nature of the app. If you were to give it a "Business Friendly" name, it should probably be linked to gpg, not pgp, simply because of Symantec copyright. GPGal doesn't quite have a ring to it, and GPG has been used ad nausem, so that's probably not a good idea either.

[CameronBanga]

@primis

Ultimately, the author can name it whatever they want. But I know that personally, the name Felony would be a hinderance in me working it into a recommendation for a client, friend, etc. There's a couple issues here about this, and was a bit of banter on HN about this, so I can't be the only one.

The author has the right to do whatever he wants. But this project looks relatively valuable, and looks to have potential to be very popular. It'd be a shame if a bunch of people didn't improve their personal privacy and security, simply because of a name they deem inappropriate.

[josephdviviano]

Some ideas (not all mine):

• edward
• snowden
• snowglobe
• freedom
• cloak
• safety
• smokebomb
• Trystero

[primis]

@josephdviviano smokebomb probably isn't the best name... you know, because of "bomb" globe is interesting, since it starts with a letter inside pgp/gpg already. What about GPGlobe / PGlobe?

[xornand]

While Edward Snowden would likely appreciate the homage, without his consent it's pretty poor form to use someones name in something they haven't explicitly endorsed.

I was looking at http://mactips.guide/best-osx-apps just to see what the naming methodologies were (acting on the sociological presumption that these apps managed to matriculate up into the 'must have' list by other factors than just being quality software -- i.e. a good name, memorable logo, etc) -- Cloak works real well in that theme, but it doesn't entirely convey how Bob and Alice's chat is mathematically secure even over insecure comms. In my mind that word has more of a "security through obscurity" feel to it, rather than the nice warm feel you get from a green icon w/ a signed SSL cert.

[CameronBanga]

Cloak is already the name of a couple popular privacy apps, so may be a bad choice there.

[josephdviviano]

If I was going to vote, it would be for 'Trystero' :)

[Error-418]

How about Noise?

The goal of Crypto like this is to hide your signal in what appears to be noise.

Or Pseudo, as in Pseudo random.

[brettneese]

OK, but be honest - what are the chances that this project would've blown up so quickly or that you'd be here discussing this if it wasn't for the name?

Author picked a good name, in my opinion - definitely catches the eye and piques interest, which for a new project is major 🔑.

[primis]

What about renaming it Pied Piper? :p

[nopesled]

Here's a couple of names I've whipped up:

Overcoat SpyVeil NoSnoop BonaFide (means 'proof of a person's claimed identity', has a nice ring to it considering the project)

[brettneese]

But seriously, if you used a common noun for your project and you were the #2 hit under Google on the second day after launching your project... would you change it?

[43k]

@brettneese: Holy Felony, that is one good point. Google knows its sh*t.

But I still think the name sucks, though. Recognition is not the same as Adaptation.

[henryboldi]

I will meditate on these options. Thanks for the feedback everyone!

[xornand]

@brettneese Google searches are heaaaaaavily biased towards your search and visit pattern history. I automagically get PDF research papers often on my first page result because a bunch of my search history (even with "Don't log my searches", Doubleclick opt-outs, Ghostery, uBlock Origin, a dnsmasq killer, and uMatrix....) has a lot of algebraic topology searches, numerical computational methods and PL theory searches appended with filetype:pdf [so they (correctly) deduced that I'm looking for journal articles of a certain flavour]. I too get Felony as a second search result, but in incognito mode it's 4th. (I'm assuming they're doing some crude binning based on IPs, since when I go home for Christmas, I end up skewing my parents ads, even with all of my privacy components enabled, s.t. my completely-nontechnical mother's laptop will get ads targeted towards me).

To get an accurate PageRank idea, grab an iPhone from someone not in tech 2 weeks from now (as a sudden surge in backlinks will have a presumably have a 'potential breaking news' co-efficient attached to it, as the technorati blogosphere reblogs it amongst themselves) and see what result it is on their mobile device.

Edit: Furthermore, it blew up because of the Slashdot-effect (or HN effect, for this generation). That demographic isn't grandma, who grew up in the 50s who is incapable of believing that the government would ever commit any nefarious actions and thought Watergate was "just a few bad people doing a bad thing". These are the people who need to use this app/keybase/PGP/WoT's/etc.

@CameronBanga demonstrated perfectly what happens when you try to get even the average end-user who uses Instagram and doesn't realize privacy is an issue. The name has certain connotations which will make broad appeal (let's just call it "Instagram appeal" so I don't have to keep on re-establishing the demographic I'm speaking about) difficult to attain.

Watch this Jon Oliver clip to see the state of affairs re: the common populace, post-Snowden. When asked who Snowden was some people thought he was Jullian Assange while others thought he sold some information or revealed information that shouldn't have been revealed. (While the last point is factually correct under military law (UCMJ, subject to Supreme Court review provided sufficient locus standi), I'm 99% sure that's not what she meant.)

Sorry for the wall of text, I'm just a little fed up with complacent citizens who don't even attempt to educate themselves on things that directly impact them, as demonstrated by that Jon Oliver 3 minute Times Square non-cherry picked set of interviews.

[bd0]

What about something like "Confidante"?

[vdh]

@xornand "TungstenCarbide" / "Tungsten" / "Carbide" doesn't sound half bad as a name suggestion.

[thisconnect]

Seeing felony succeed despite its name is way more impressive over a catchy hiped naming

[vdh]

@thisconnect A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, but to quote Marge Simpson, I'd sure hate to get a dozen crapweeds for Valentine's Day.

[drac0300]

There already exists a software called tungstène (French for tungsten), used by governments to detect photo modification, if I recall... but why not choose a name that reminds of carbon nanotubes or graphene ? These are the strongest materials in existence, aren't they ? Plus, they remind of the purpose of felony with the tube, which transports information, and the graphene which reminds of graphite, used in pencils for writing messages...

[daveloyall]

@henryboldi don't let the bastards grind you down!

(Not referring to the commenters in this thread.)