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Steven HarmanSteven Harman is a passionate developer who believes that writing great software isn't just a job, its a craft.

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Readers, I Need Your Help...

Tonight on the way back from dinner (Ok - pizza and beer at Byrne's Pub) Carli was asking what I did today so I started to tell her, in all too much detail, about how I helped a buddy install a new Subtext blog, built a new Virtual Machine for some development work, read some blogs... yadda-yadda. Then she brought to my attention that my blog "has way to much geeky stuff".

To be honest I didn't even know that she looked at this site, but she said that she usually just reads the headlines, looks at the pictures, and then checks out the comments - totally ignoring my geek speak.

This got me to thinking... perhaps I should follow Phil's lead and start a new blog that is targeted at the non-techie audience out there. Since I'm running on Subtext, I can get another blog up and running in seconds, but before I do that I still have one hurdle to overcome - what should my URL (that's my web address) and slogan be?

I'd like to come up with something clever and easy to remember (like Phil did), but I'm not too good at that type of thing. So... I'm petitioning you, my readers, for suggestions. Here are a few (admittedly bad) examples to get you started:

  • offline.stevenharman.net
  • life.stevenharman.net
  • diversion.stevenharman.net
  • daytoday.stevenharman.net

Like I said, those aren't the most creative URLs... just something to get you thinking. So, please leave a comment with any suggestions you have. Thanks!

What others are saying.

# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Dave Frank
Dec 22, 2006
uhh...

TheReal.StevenHarman.net
nongeeky.StevenHarman.net
personal.StevenHarman.net
TheNonTechnicalBlogOf.StevenHarman.Net
TheSofterSideOf
TheSoftAndFeminineSideOf

:)

Does it have to be a subdomain?

stevenharman.net/nontechnicalblog/

what about: not.stevenharman.net

that's kind of funny. It's *not* stevenharman.net, it's something else....

OK, I'm out of ideas...
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Steve Harman
Dec 22, 2006
@Dave: you have some great suggestions! I like not.stevenharman.net - it is clever, but I fear that it won't translate well to the target audience of the new blog, you know?

As for your other question the answer is Yes, I require it to be a subdomain.

The reason - I'll be hosting both blogs on the same Subtext installation, and I'm moving this blog to stevenharman.net and dropping the "/blog/" off the end (a future post will explain how). So, if I use a folder like in your stevenharman.net/nontechnicalblog/ suggestion, then that will "Hide" this blog b/c it doesn't have a folder in it's URL.

Does that make sense?
# Re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Some more ideas...

mr.steveharman.net
thediaryof.steveharman.net
news.steveharman.net

I like life.steveharman.net too.

Phil
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Simone Chiaretta
Dec 22, 2006
What about

about.steveharman.net

but also life.steveharman.net is great
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Steve Harman
Dec 22, 2006
@Phil: mr.stevenharman.net is my father! Seriously... my dad's name is also Steven, so the "Mr" makes me think of him - I'm not ready to be a Mister yet.

@Simo: I actually considered putting about.stevenharman.net on my original list, but thought I'd see if anyone else came up with it, and you did!

For the record, that makes two (2) votes for life.stevenharman.net.
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Carli
Dec 22, 2006
what about
me.stevenharman.net
steve.stevenharman.net

but I personally like thesoftersideof.stevenharman.net!
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Steve Harman
Dec 22, 2006
Good job Dave... do you see the kind of trouble you cause. Now I'm never going to hear the end of this, thanks! :)

@Carli: I think that steve.stevenharman.net is a bit too, uh... redundant. And the answer is NO to Dave's suggestion(s) about TheSofterSide...
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Dave Frank
Dec 22, 2006
You're Steve Harman. You're secure enough in your masculinity to show your softer side. If you can wear that pink shirt to the office you can certainly have thesoftersideof.stevenharman.net.
It's not like you have a choice now anyway. You remember pulp fiction don't you? "My girlfriend is a vegetarian, which pretty much makes me a vegetarian too" :)

PS I also thought of:

journal.
livejournal. ? (copyright shmopyright)
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Dragan Panjkov
Dec 23, 2006
I was thinking to recommend private.stevenharman.net but now i see that it is too formal. I think life.stevenharman.net is quite good choice.
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Shiva
Dec 23, 2006
blog URL : inside.stevenharman.net
slogan : "Ask your Doctor about Steve."

Ofcourse the "inside" might be interpreted differently by different people ;)
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Dave Frank
Dec 23, 2006
I like the way you think Shiva. yeah, anything requiring explanation could be done with a slogan....

twicedaily.stevenharman.net

slogan: 9 out of 10 doctors (or dentists) say you should read about steven harman twice daily.

Steveagra.stevenharman.net

slogan: Read the blog and find out if Steven Harman is right for you.

The possibilities are endless... :)
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Steve Harman
Dec 26, 2006
@Dave: Thanks for the inspiring words and the extra vote of confidence! But I still don't think I'll be picking up TheSofterSideOf.StevenHarman.net - but who knows, maybe I'll end up doing it just for kicks.

I think that the TwiceDaily idea may have something to it, but I'll need to toss it around the ol' noggin a bit to see if it sticks. Oh, and good point about using the slogan as an explanation - though, I think I'm still looking for something that doesn't need any (or very little) explaining.
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Steve Harman
Dec 26, 2006
@Dragen and @Shiva: I don't think that private nore inside are quite the words I'm looking for, but I like where your heads are at.

By my count we're now up to three (3) votes for life.stevenharman.net. Also, Carli (my g/f) has voted against using that one because she says that I/you-all can come up with something better. But I have to admit that it is starting to grow on me.

Oh, and I also thought that TheOther.StevenHarman.net might hold some promise. I think it kind of falls in line with Dave's earlier suggestion of not.stevenharman.net. What do you think?
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Dave Frank
Dec 27, 2006
The other could be taken to mean that you want to differentiate yourself from some other steven harman out there (even though its just to differentiate yourself). Besides, it reminds me of that movie "The others" ("But I am your daughter!").

If you like the descriptive phrase Idea, you could have:

TheBurningSoulOf
TheDrivingForcesBehind

You could perhaps make the geeky blog be "thebrains." and have the non geeky blog be "thebrawn".

You could go with something suave...

"WineWomanAnd.StevenHarman.net"

everybodyloves.stevenharman.net

I.Am. might be interesting as far as subdomains go.

If you often wax philosophic or poetic, you could whip out the latin:

bloggoergosum.stevenharman.net

venividibloggi?




# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Keyvan Nayyeri
Dec 27, 2006
How about i.steveharman.net?
# re: Readers, I Need Your Help...
Gravatar Steve Harman
Jan 02, 2007
All,
Thanks for the great suggestions, but the contest is now over. :)

OK, so it wasn't really a contest, but I did end up setting up my new personal blog tonight. You can see my announcement here.
The URL for my new personal blog is... life.stevenharman.net
Thanks again everyone!
Comments have been closed on this topic.