Names are important, this is why I also don’t use DuckDuckGo.
The reasons for forking from Gitea were also a bit weak in my opinion.
You won't use DuckDuckGo because of the name? DuckDuckGo is so tricky to write on mobile that I copy pasted from your comment, but that doesn't stop me from using it. For me, googlability of names is important, but otherwise I don't care.
I'm really curious about your reasoning. Does it offend your aesthetic sensibilities? Do you think people who would choose such a name can't be trusted with search? Or something else entirely?
Yes. I’m completely aware it’s irrational and probably a bit dumb, but I don’t want to use something with a name I actively hate. Some names are "meh" or boring and that’s ok. But for DuckDuckGo and Forgejo I have a visceral reaction against their name.
DuckDuckGo is an even worst offender because their logo is ALSO dumb and terrible, and I don’t want to see it.
Give me ddg.co or duck.com with no redirect, no branding and no logo and I’ll use it.
jazzyjackson provided the pronunciation guide in a comment above:
> forˈd͡ʒe.jo, to my midwestern ear, "4 Jay yo"
It's totally OK for a project to use words from a foreign language. "Linux" is derived from Finnish Linus (/ˈliːnʊs/) and pronounced /ˈlɪn.əks/, unlike the English Linus - /lɑ́jnəs/.
IMHO Forgejo should have the IPA pronunciation spelled out on the landing page.
> this is why I also don’t use DuckDuckGo
Just how silly "Google" sounded when it first popped up? How Torvalds joked that he named "git" after himself? "Bash" is a play on "Bourne" and "born again"? Silly names are a part of the hacker culture, remaining playful despite the product having huge impact brings color to people's lives.
I knew these examples were coming. Subjectively speaking, these are catchy names, which is why they work. Forjego and DuckDuckGo are not catchy, there's something wrong with their flow. Maybe they're too long or too "breaking", or maybe they don't work internationally (I'm French) somehow, I don't know. I'm not going to write a thesis on why some names don't work, but if someone did I would love it. Silly names are ok but there's a very thin line between "silly" and "annoying". DuckDuckGo definitely crosses it for me.
I pronounce it Forge-oh. I don’t give a crap if it’s “correct”.
I assume your argument is: “Everyone who had to learn English as a second language is so used to completely random pronunciation that they won’t complain about anything anymore”.
(My first language is quite far away from both English and Esperanto, probably should have mentioned that in the original message.)
The jo part is close to German though, so maybe this is why it’s not too bad for someone who knows English and German. And everyone else gets to dislike at least some part of it :-)
Even if one is somehow monolingual, forgejo is a perfectly fine word in English. There are even multiple ways to make it sound funny (forge-joe, forge-yo, etc).