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Proposal: Networking

When I saw the name, I thought of the social skill networking, and thought: duplicate of etiquette or psychology or cognitive sciences or so. But it's about computer networking. How about renaming it to networks, computer networks, or something more clearly technical from the title?

16 Answers 16

26

True, "networking" has always been an overloaded term. How about Network Engineering? We could even take on a goofier name (similar to Stack Overflow and Server Fault) like Routing Loop or something, if that's allowed.

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  • 5
    Will the "real" engineers then be upset that we called ourselves engineers? ;) I'm fine with Networking, Internetworking, Routing Loop, whatever makes sense as long as we contribute to growing the community in a positive manner. Mar 15, 2013 at 15:41
  • 4
    How about Layer 8?
    – JelmerS
    Mar 15, 2013 at 15:44
  • 3
    Calling it something other than networking like Routing Loop sounds like a good idea, might "scare" off some home networking related stuff.
    – mastrboy
    Mar 15, 2013 at 16:49
  • 3
    RoutingLoop PLEASE
    – ItsGC
    Mar 20, 2013 at 8:47
  • 1
    I'm for Routing Loop, sounds good.
    – evolvd
    Apr 5, 2013 at 21:50
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Routing Loop

(vote up if you agree)

(vote down if you're a jerk with no better ideas to create your own answer for)

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    Renaming the proposal "Routing Loop" would only obfuscate the purpose of the site. Proposals need to be descriptive of the audience you are trying to attract. The idea of renaming it was to disambiguate what "networking" was referring to — discuss.area51.stackexchange.com/a/9665/5 Mar 20, 2013 at 13:18
  • Reading through the list of created sites, about 15% of them have a witty name, including the most popular one, Stack Overflow. I say, go for it!
    – David
    Mar 21, 2013 at 20:56
6

How about Broadcast Storm. I do rather like Routing Loop, though.

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    I could get behind Broadcast Storm too. Or Packet Storm. Admittedly though, both feel more vague than Routing Loop.
    – peelman
    Mar 19, 2013 at 18:30
5

When the proposal nears launch, we will likely re-simplify the name to "Networking", but I agree — for the purpose of THIS proposal, the name needs to be disambiguated for clarity.

I'm not a domain expert, so I'm just throwing out a few terms that would tell me what you are trying to do. Pick one and suggest it as an answer below (or suggest others of your own).

The name needs to be short, simple, yet clear and descriptive enough to be recognized by passsers-by. Don't forget to vote and comment.

Two places naming goes wrong —

(1) Don't pick clever or cute names. That's not going to work… and (2) don't get overly pedantic about absolute, technical correctness at this point. Both will ultimately be self-defeating.

  • Computer Networking
  • Network Engineering
  • Network Systems
  • Network Administration
  • Network Design & Management
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    I've renamed the proposal to Network Engineering for now. If anyone comes up with a better suggestion I'm happy to hear it. Mar 15, 2013 at 16:37
5

Network Engineering is straight to the point and clear

4

1) Network Engineering 2) Computer Networking

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I feel that Network Engineering is the most applicable.

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Network Engineering covers the whole of computer networking including routing, switching, firewalls, IP Addressing, monitoring, etc. I go with Network Engineering.

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How about Network Origin - It All Starts with Engineering

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I like Networking since that's how most IT people see it. Maybe Internetworking?

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How about "Route-map this!"? I like "Routing Loop" also though.

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I do like the creative names like Routing Loop that have been suggested but I think that Network Engineering would be a good fit for the site.

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What do people think about the name "Static route". Network engineering for one seems to be a boring name imho.Just imagine if "stack overflow" had called themselves as "programming forum"? "Routing/router loop" is also a good one.

what do people think of "Static route" ?

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Abstract terms don't do the topic justice. I say call it what it is, Network Engineering :)

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I personally vote for Routing Loop. That sounds rock.

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Network Engineering works as well as anything I've seen. It has the benefit of being reflective of a large number of the job titles people within this industry (e.g.; the target audience) likely have already. If pressed, most people that I know in the industry self-identify as network engineers or network architects. I wouldn't worry too much about the IEEE-approved and titled engineers--that's a Vi vs. Emacs thing and won't ever be solved.

I have no problem with a name that reflects a sense of humor (Stack Overflow, etc.) but one challenge I haven't seen mentioned is that a lot of those types of names are already taken by industry writers for blogs, other sites, etc. Not that it's necessary, strictly speaking, if a name like that is what we all like let's at least do a quick check to make sure someone hasn't registered it out in the wild; just as a point of politeness.

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