Should we change our name?

Question

This site may have been built primarily on code-golf challenges and puzzles that have no winning criteria, but we have evolved away from that. Our name is outdated, and we should rebrand ourselves.

Because the folks in the chat cannot seem to agree on a name, I'm going to post multiple answers and let you guys vote.

The chat discussion begins around here.

Note: According to an SE dev, it is possible for beta sites to change their name and subdomain without graduation. If the subdomain changes, all redirection from codegolf.se links would be taken care of seamlessly.

• Alex A.: Algorithm Puzzles and Complexity Golf
• Fatalize: CJam & Pyth Exchange

Answer 1

No change

The current name is still accurate, or at least it is close enough. It also has historical significance. Changing our name may make it harder for people to find us.

Also, nochange.stackexchange.com has a nice ring to it.

• Calvin's Hobbies: +1 Despite "Code Golf" being a subset of what this site is about, the acronym "PPCG" (or even "PCG") is far more indicative than "PC".
• Geobits: @Calvin'sHobbies To regular users of the site, I guess. I usually spell out the entire name if mentioning it anywhere else (even the broader SE network) because it sounds like gibberish otherwise. It's one of those things that where neither confuse you if you know what they mean, but either wouldn't make much sense if you don't without an explanation.
• Calvin's Hobbies: @Geobits Point granted. Still "PC" to me means personal computer and saying "PC" instead of "PPCG" could cause ambiguity in many contexts.
• Geobits: @Calvin'sHobbies Agreed on the (sometimes) ambiguity. Not that I think PPCG is a great acronym ;)
• Doorknob: @Calvin'sHobbies PCSE could be a reasonable acronym if we go with Programming Challenges or similar.
• Beta Decay: @Doorknob For me PCSE sounds too much like GCSE :P
• Alex A.: @Doorknob For me, PCSE sounds too much like my local electrical provider, Puget Sound Energy.
• Rainbolt: Who's to say that code golf isn't the most popular tag because of the site name? If we were named Programming Puzzles and Kolmogorov Complexity, we might observe an entirely different trend.
• Peter Taylor: I think the last comment was tongue-in-cheek, but since I can't tell whether the upvoters think it was serious: the site was originally a way to move code-golf questions off StackOverflow, where they were once tolerated but were not in keeping with the tightening on-topic restrictions. In Area 51 it was originally called "Code Golf", but "Programming Puzzles" was added in the hope that it would broaden the site. The site wouldn't have existed in the first place if it hadn't been for the popularity of code-golf.
• Rainbolt: @PeterTaylor The comment was half serious. I believe that site title contributes to the popularity of the code golf tag, if only a little.
• agtoever: Personally, I like the non-codegolf puzzles more than the codegolf puzzles. After giving it a bit of thought, I think we should stick to the current name. Not only for historical reasons, but foremost because the current title covers it quite well. New shoes always fit worse than your old ones. And as long as the old ones don't wear out... Long story short: +1
• Kametrixom: I think Programming Puzzles has to stay because there's no other place for them :)

Answer 2

Code Sport

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this site almost perfectly embodies definition 1a of sport in Merriam Webster:

a source of diversion

Not only that, but sport is good in other ways, too. It encapsulates golf, which many are reluctant to abandon, but is more inclusive. Many of our rules are geared toward sportsmanship, or playing fair.

Sport can be serious (billion dollar industry) or relaxed (backyard football), and so can we. We have posts to extend integer sequences beyond current publication, right alongside the simplest sorting challenges. The premise and wording of them is often ridiculous, but sometimes scholarly.

It's short and to the point, which also makes for a good subdomain name, even if the overall name is something else.

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_{I'm Geobits, and I approve this message.}

• Alex A.: It's a fun name but it isn't immediately descriptive. (Not necessarily a bad thing, just sayin'.)
• Geobits: Hmm, I thought of it as both fun and descriptive. Adding "sport" to something is commonly used to mean something is a competition in that area, fun or otherwise. Water sports, blood sports, etc. In its adjective form it means "done for enjoyment rather than as a job or for food for survival".
• Alex A.: If I was a Stack Exchange user who knew nothing about the site, seeing a link to CodeSport.SE wouldn't necessarily give me an idea about what the site is ultimately about.
• Geobits: I think it hints at it, but agree that it isn't 100% descriptive. Stack Overflow, Server Fault, and Super User aren't terribly descriptive either when you think about it (knowing nothing about them going in). More broadly, neither are Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc.
• Alex A.: Point well taken.
• Peter Taylor: @Geobits, going by the definition of "a rude, noisy, or violent person", Yahoo!'s not so far off...
• trichoplax is on Codidact now: Maybe in time we can make Code Sport a recognised term (among the small community our site is part of).
• Beta Decay: +1 I like this name because 1. it's a change, 2. it doesn't focus on code golf and 3. it doesn't create ambiguity about the site
• Alex A.: How about Code Sports?

Answer 3

Code Golf

Branding is everything. It's the name the URL uses, the name outsiders use to refer to this site and the vast majority of challenges on this site are code golf challenges. It also eliminates the need for an abbreviation.

It describes the site much better than the current name, since we are still closing pure programming puzzles as off topic and they only happen once in a blue moon anyway.

Sure, it doesn't cover all topics on this site, but I don't think that is required. It's not like Stack Overflow only deals with questions about stack overflows or Ubuntu? is the only question permitted on Ask Ubuntu.

• Geobits: I've seen too many comments along the likes of "this isn't code golf, can you make your code more readable?" on other challenges to like this idea. It conveys the idea that all we do here is golf, even more strongly than the current name, and I don't see the need to reinforce that view.
• Dennis: @Geobits Going through the results of "this isn't code golf" site:codegolf.stackexchange.com, accidental code golfing seems to be a force of habit, not a misinterpretation of the scope of this site.
• Geobits: I'm not sure an exact phrase search is the best way to get good statistics, but I'll accept that there are other reasons people golf on non-golf challenges (I've done it once or twice myself). However, I do think dropping everything except code golf from the title will only increase it.
• Beta Decay: Actually I'm fairly sure anything not related to Ubuntu is off topic, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt :)
• Dennis: @BetaDecay It was a (failed) attempt at humor. The site isn't called Ubuntu, which is what I'd expect from an SE site about that topic, but Ask Ubuntu as an (also failed, IMHO) attempt to parody the name of Ask Different. However, asking Ubuntu? is not on topic on the site.
• Chris Beck: FWIW I think that "Code Golf" although used on this site to always mean "shortest code", could also quite reasonably mean "fastest code" at least that's what an uninitiated person would guess. The term "Code Golf" to me most clearly evokes "optimizing what is otherwise an idle task (for fun), and code is involved in this somehow" So I think this term can encompass a lot of what happens on this site.
• jimmy23013: But posting a KoTH question on a code-golf site sounds a bit foolish.
• Alex A.: @ChrisBeck Code golf does in fact always imply shortest code, not just on this site, but by definition.
• lynn: I wrote my thoughts on this in chat: "Code Golf (but it's a little more broad than that, and some other things are on-topic, if you read the rules)" is much better than "PPCG (but it's a little more narrow than that, and the thing you're thinking of is probably off-topic, and you won't read the rules)".

Answer 4

Code Games

• It's catchy.

• It gives a hint about what we do, without going into details.

• It's unique. I'm not aware of any other site/event that refers to itself as Code Games.

• It combines perfectly with our proposed logo:

logo

• Geobits: +1 I like this, but as a runner-up to my suggestion of Code Sport[s].
• mbomb007: I like it more than Code Sport(s). If we use this, I think we need to find/create more game types to have.
• Alex A.: I must be the only person who doesn't like that logo. :/
• Peter Taylor: It seems confusible with gamedev.
• Martin Ender: @AlexA. You're not. I think it's a decent name regardless of that (if we really want to stick to something fairly obviously related to coding, which the votes on my answer seem to indicate so far).
• Luis Mendo: Can we turn that yellow of the logo into something else? Yellow on white is hard on the eye and has poor contrast
• Dennis: @LuisMendo It wouldn't be on a white background. This is the current, complete mockup.
• Luis Mendo: Of course! Much better :-)

Answer 5

Recreational Programming

That's what we do, right? We program for fun. People were opposed to the idea of "Competitive Programming" because we're not as competitive and strict as some "real" programming competitions (like Google Code Jam or stuff). This would also not tie our scope down as much as a name like "Code Golf", and neither would it imply that certain types of challenges are or aren't a good fit for the site (like "Programming Puzzles & Code Golf"). It would also still be appropriate should we ever expand our scope of non-challenge posts - in general I think it captures both the things we currently do on main as well as the things the community cares about in chat.

(The only objection I could think of is that it's not exactly catchy. But I think it's spot on.)

Answer 6

Programming Challenges

For the folks who feel that Puzzles are really just a subset of Challenges, and prefer the simplicity of just the one term that encompasses both.

• Peter Taylor: I fear this would greatly increase the number of questions which really belong on Stack Overflow.
• Optimizer: @PeterTaylor not if we have proper off-topic rules (which we already have). Moreover, Stack Overflow is more of Programming Support/Queries equivalent. If someone could not decide where to post his question b/w "Programming Challenges" and "Stack Overflow", "Programming Puzzles and Code Golf" name would not make much difference to them anyways.
• Peter Taylor: @Optimizer, the people who post debugging questions here don't read the list of on- and off-topic areas first. They will just think "This is a hard bug, so it must on on-topic on a programming challenges site."
• Optimizer: and what I am trying to say is that "must be on-topic on a programming puzzles site" is equally possible in such cases.
• Peter Taylor: Sure, it happens. But I think it would get worse.

Answer 7

Competitive Programming

That should hopefully cover all sorts of challenge types.

• Alex A.: Descriptive and clear, but not at all snappy and fun.
• feersum: To me this would be somewhat misleading, bringing to mind ACM/ICPC-type contests specifally.
• mbomb007: I agree with feersum. Competitive makes me think of the ACM Programming Competition and other more time-based and language-restricted challenges.

Answer 8

Code Challenges

In my opinion, better than Programming Challenges. ̄\_(ツ)_/ ̄

• Fatalize: I like it but a minor issue is that the acronym CG clashes with Computer Graphics, which is another SE site.
• Martin Ender: @Fatalize Plot twist: the acronym would be CC. (As opposed to if we reduced our name to "Code Golf".)
• Fatalize: @MartinBüttner Well nevermind. It's monday morning after all...
• Alex A.: @Fatalize Code Gallenges is even better.
• bb216b3acfd8f72cbc8f899d4d6963: @AlexA., Code Golfallenges are the best.

Answer 9

Code Contests

Sorry for waking up a somewhat old thread, but I forgot to post this back when I first thought of it. Code Sport seems good, but like Alex A., I think it isn't immediately descriptive. This variant covers practically everything we do here, and it's more concise than Programming Contests.

Answer 10

Recreationally Concise Code

It sounds professional. Put it on your résumé.

This is similar to Martin's "Recreational Programming" suggestion, but this has a "code-golf" implication.

Source

Answer 11

Programming Contests

Borrowed from https://codegolf.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1149/18487. (Apparently we had a similar discussion last year.)

Answer 12

We don't need any of "Programming", "Golf" or "Contest" in the name...

This isn't a concrete suggestion because I don't have one (yet). This answer is to suggest that maybe we don't need such a literal name that explicitly describes the content of the site at all. My favourite example of this is "Gaming Stack Exchange", better known as Arqade (well that name isn't perfect - you'd have to explain the spelling in an elevator pitch; bit it's certainly catchy and not as blunt as "Gaming"). Other examples are Ask Different, Cross Validated and of course the big three, Stack Overflow, Super User and Server Fault.

All of the suggestions so far don't really fall into the same category (except Code Sport[s] maybe), because they all try to find a word that describes our scope instead of being interesting, catchy names for the community.

The main benefits of such a name would be that

• they would give the community more character.
• they could be more memorable.
• most importantly, they wouldn't be tied that closely to the scope so that we wouldn't have to repeat this discussion every three years when the focus of the community may or may not have shifted to different types of challenges again.

I suppose the votes on this answer can act as the general opinion of the community about such a name for the site, but it's mostly intended as a call to more creative suggestions which can then be voted on.

• Fatalize: The Stack Exchange rejects
• Dennis: This is precisely why I suggested Code Golf. Not because I'm trying to imply that the site is just about code golf, but because I think it is catchy.
• Martin Ender: @Dennis It is catchy, but in the context of this site, it's bound to imply a lot about our scope. (And if it isn't supposed to be about scope then it's counter-productive to people not wanting any of our design/logo etc to be associated with "golf".)

Answer 13

Programming Challenges and Code Golf

Based on Rainbolt's answer.

Answer 14

Programming Puzzles and Challenges

Similar to our current name, but covers all challenges instead of just code golf.

Answer 15

PCG Cup

I don't think we need such a descriptive name and should go the way of Ask Different and Seasoned Advice, having fun with our name.

PPCG is a fun place, so we have to reflect that in the way we present the site, therefore by not using a boring, descriptive title, we are probably going to attract more users to SE's party site. ;)

We have to remember, however, that a huge number of our challenges are code golf, so there is no point in steering away from that and focussing solely on programming challenges. For that reason, I decided to incorporate golf as a sport into the title:

The PGA Cup is a famous golfing competition, so I changed the name slightly to the PCG Cup. This could also allow us to have fun with the logo and/or theme come graduation (if ever).

Here, we can redefine PCG to mean Programming Contests and Golf, allowing us to move away from the theme of programming puzzles.

• Calvin's Hobbies: Frankly, I think the site has more to do with "programming puzzles" (whatever those are defined to be) than actual golf.
• Geobits: While I might be persuaded by the idea of a "fun" name, I'm not really a fan of this one.
• Beta Decay: I'm getting déjà vu :P