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Comment by rogerchucker | Hacker News Reader

"Tampon"? Seriously? Trying to be edgy?

Perhaps it's a hopelessly misguided attempt to encourage women to get involved with the project, but I think it's just an attempt to grab attention via shock value.

Cringeworthy.

I don't think women get attracted to the name (just because they are women). I think it's more for people with a sense of humor.

I think it's more for people with a sense of humor

More accurately: "for tone-deaf people with a seventh-grade sense of humor"

"seventh-grade sense of humor" Even if this would be the case: is this a bad thing? Why so serious?

A seventh-grade sense of humor is fine, when you're in seventh grade. I'm not ashamed to say I'm more sophisticated than that.

If you want me to make me laugh OR take you at all seriously, you're going to have to step up your game. I love humor and levity. Github and Zappos are both great examples of companies that don't take themselves too seriously without being juvenile.

The first thing I thought when I saw this was "Great, another silly project name, but now everyone's going to feel awkward saying it." I'm the first to crack jokes on the team, but I don't need my co-workers giggling my direction every time they need to mention it. Not to mention that some [dev] environments aren't very considerate of women/women's issues, and it has the potential (if referenced in/as a joke) to make some people really uncomfortable. Just not worth it.

Tampon is French for Buffer. I think this is funny.

And "Douche" is French for shower. Both are, as far as humor attempts go, pretty lame.

"The Aristocrats" is a very funny joke. But that doesn't mean it's appropriate to tell in every circumstance. Tampon may or may not be funny, but being funny is not, in and of itself, the measure of whether a name is appropriate.

"The Aristocrats" is a very funny joke. But that doesn't mean it's appropriate to tell in every circumstance.

Aha! This might explain why I haven't been invited to any family events this year..

Sure, sure. But the logo is of a Tampon, the feminine hygiene product, so the connotation is in English.

I guess Tampon in French also means "look we're gonna make an offensive joke for the English world and then point to the French language when criticized for it". Either that or the French engineers live in an alternate Francophone universe.

I honestly fail to understand why you feel it's an "offensive" name - distasteful perhaps, but offensive? To whom?

This is a "Show HN" post, right? Presumably you came here looking for feedback. So far, essentially all of the discussion is of the name.

You might think it's funny. Your primary school friends might think it's funny, too. But it's not really getting you anything, right?

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