Should we rename BFGMiner?

[nwoolls]

Pros

1. The most common acronym associated with "BFG" contains a swear word. As Bitcoin and mining gain visibility, so does this choice in naming. While there are other things it could stand for, the question remains: when people hear "BFGMiner", does that call to mind a professional software project?

2. The association with the colored history of the project and its affiliation with cgminer. Distancing the project from any drama is a step in the right direction. A name change (along with other positive changes) can help move this project forward in a more professional, less dramatic, more team-oriented manner.

3. The association between BFGMiner and Luke-Jr's personal statements about alternative crypto-currencies. As this project grows to involve more contributors, to target more algorithms and technologies, it would be beneficial to move it away from the close association with the personal comments of its authors. The actions and source code already speak to to this, but a name change could also help move the project in the right direction.

Cons

1. The loss of positive reputation and history of the BFGMiner name. While changing the name may help move away from some of the drama, it may also muddy the positive technical aspects of its past.

2. The loss of recognition from the BFGMiner name. The BFGMiner name is already associated with mining and well known. A new name would have to gain visibility and traction.

3. The potential to confuse both existing and new users. Another miner name in the mix of existing miners, old miners, and forked miners. It would take time for users to adjust.

This is a Free Software, community-driven project and, after discussing this a bit on the BFG-dev mailing list, this is now being put to you - the users - to discuss and vote on.

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[AbiTxGroup]

Yep.  Who could forget the BFG 9000.  I spent a lot of time in '93 playing Doom.

When I first seen BFGminer, I thought the programmer was an old gamer.

I voted for a name change.

[freddyfarnsworth]

BFG reminds me of doom/quake Big F Gun. But I am old.
Did not ring a bell of what it really means, Better F Miner or Big F Miner ?? never linked it to anything but old BFG above a doom reference.

I do get them confused when editing command lines, have done that a few times.
The word part of miner, is used everywhere minerd ect...

I really wonder if it is a good idea to change it however, never rename a existing business with a good (reputation) it is folly.

Changing windows to portals would be something to do, perhaps (depends on your viewpoint).

Luke... puke duke kook, nope no rhymes that work.
Luke... bible coolhand, eh no associated words come to mind.

Get rid of miner and call it something new, BFL -NO -oops

Lj should be in if changed.

Lj combo multi robodig ect, just throwing stuff out there.

Edit: Nope! I could not come up with a good name that did not have Miner in it (only part of the name that is bothering me, redundant)
So voted No change. Till miner can be overcome.

[atomicchaos]

I voted yes, but honestly, as long as it has active development and supporters, it can be called anything in my book.

It's just a matter of spreading the word again for any Scrypt miners as well that they have software that is being actively developed / supported for them. I can tell you as one of them, I do appreciate the work from Luke and yourself on this.

[vs3]

I vote for keeping it. Everything has history. Some drama is actually even a good thing - who knows maybe one day we'll have another movie like the FB vs MS
(bfgminer vs the other miners )

But aside from that - and what matters most - that name has built a lot of reputation. And I'd say a very good one on top of that.
A good name is not something that you get in a day. Unless you have some really really really good reason (and I see none here) - I'd say keep it.


Plus - the BFG was awesome! I still play that game once in a while ... to see how long would I last before I have to resort to iddqd

[nwoolls]

But aside from that - and what matters most - that name has built a lot of reputation.

Well put - I tweaked the wording of the cons ever so slightly to include your wording: reputation.

[Luke-Jr]

Totally unrelated side note: Doom's BFG actually means Bio-Force Gun.

* Luke-Jr ducks.

[bensam123]

As someone from outside of the community I think #2 is the only issue I see. Not necessarily because of drama (that is transparent from the outside), but rather because it seems like a CGminer clone and a lot of the functionality seems identical.

I don't think the rest of those matter so much. Geek culture has spread enough where something like BFG could be seen as acceptable even if not completely professional. Just make up a stupid acronym instead of the traditional BFG if it worries you guys. Big Fun Gorilla's Miner?

Drama problems seem like a bigger issue when you're on the inside and have dealt with them directly, but most people don't give two flips from the outside. Caring about them just perpetuates the drama.

[AbiTxGroup]

Totally unrelated side note: Doom's BFG actually means Bio-Force Gun.

* Luke-Jr ducks.

That was the weapons name in the Doom movie.  In the game itself, it was the Big F******g Gun.

[Luke-Jr]

Totally unrelated side note: Doom's BFG actually means Bio-Force Gun.

* Luke-Jr ducks.

That was the weapons name in the Doom movie.  In the game itself, it was the Big F******g Gun.

I didn't think the game ever defined it?

[AbiTxGroup]

Totally unrelated side note: Doom's BFG actually means Bio-Force Gun.

* Luke-Jr ducks.

That was the weapons name in the Doom movie.  In the game itself, it was the Big F******g Gun.

I didn't think the game ever defined it?

I have the original floppies packed away somewhere. Just have to scrounge up a 3.5" floppy drive.  Should have one on one of my old netware servers.  I know that one of the games, either Doom or Quake, did the announcement in-game when someone picked up the BFG.  But when I try to think back, I only hear the damn "Headshot" from Unreal Tournament, and now that is stuck in my head.   

[vs3]

Totally unrelated side note: Doom's BFG actually means Bio-Force Gun.

* Luke-Jr ducks.

That was the weapons name in the Doom movie.  In the game itself, it was the Big F******g Gun.

I didn't think the game ever defined it?

if this is to be trusted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BFG_%28weapon%29

The abbreviation BFG stands for "Big F*cking Gun" as described in Tom Hall's original Doom design document and in the user manual of Doom II: Hell on Earth. The Quake II manual says it stands for "Big, uh, freakin’ gun".

[HellDiverUK]

It's also called "Big F**king Gun" in the terrible Doom movie.

As for the name change, I don't see the point, as the other two muppets will just continue their tirade of nonsense.  It'd never even crossed my mind about the BFG bit and the Doom reference until now.  Obviously I'm too naive.  

I'm thinking if it IS to be renamed, something like CompleteMiner, because it is now the only miner that supports GPU, CPU and ASIC for SHA256, and GPU, CPU and soon ASIC for scrypt.  Completely Great miner, which could be shortened to c....er...maybe not. 

[AbiTxGroup]

Totally unrelated side note: Doom's BFG actually means Bio-Force Gun.

* Luke-Jr ducks.

That was the weapons name in the Doom movie.  In the game itself, it was the Big F******g Gun.

I didn't think the game ever defined it?

if this is to be trusted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BFG_%28weapon%29

The abbreviation BFG stands for "Big F*cking Gun" as described in Tom Hall's original Doom design document and in the user manual of Doom II: Hell on Earth. The Quake II manual says it stands for "Big, uh, freakin’ gun".

Section 14 of the Doom Bible by, as you said, Tom Hall from 1992.

[d(o_o)b]

Nope - Like maybe you should concern yourself with how people name their kids.

BFGMiner is history in the making, man!

I also happen to think it's the best freaking good miner too!

But, if you see lukejr in ckolivas corral - you know it's gonna be a shootout!

[Darquer]

BFGMiner doesn't bother me as a name. If you feel strongly about a change, I like VersaMiner.

[-ck]

The name bfgminer was originally coined by Kano as an alternative to cgminer (he happily goes to great pains to present IRC logs proving it), and eventually adopted by lukeJr and allegedly was named after saint barbara, disguising the fact it was named after the big fucking gun.

Forks of my code I don't have a problem with. There are now dozens of them used by various asic manufacturers who feel they want total ownership of the code that is running on their hardware, and I actively encouraged people to fork the GPU and scrypt code in cgminer after I announced I was dropping support for it, including help some people set up repositories to work from.

The coloured history and association with cgminer stems from luke contributing some code to cgminer, and then forking cgminer 9 months after I started the project - as bfgminer - and then claiming through some absurd logic that cgminer was the fork because of his contributions to cgminer to that date. Since then he has continued to take thousands of patches from cgminer while cgminer has taken virtually no code from bfgminer in that time. Even if you rename bfgminer, if he continues to pull cgminer code, and continue to claim that cgminer is the clone, the controversy will follow you forever.

Controversy in the bitcoin world repeatedly follows luke wherever he goes and if he remains the main contributor and maintainer, it really doesn't matter what you name the software, the controversy will follow you.

Your problem is the association with luke-jr, not the bfgminer name.

[Cassey]

Basically F**king Good Miner - I like it.  In mixed company it becomes Basically Friggen Good Miner.  With my British fans:  Bloodly  Friggin Good.

Keep the name, color is sometimes good.

[Anonymailer]

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but people would get confused if common parlance suddenly started calling them s••t daisies.

Indicating that the two projects are related is also probably a good thing - if bfgminer and cgminer maintain a similar set of standards that could lay the basis for other software going forward as far as things like API data fetching is concerned.

[Mudbankkeith]

"Meeeoooouuuu"

Easier to rename CGminer to Bitc*ing Cat Miner

It's open source guy's n gal's,

If your choice of miner works for you, then support it, If it dont, then try another.(over the next year it will all change again)

P.S. or write another fork.

The name bfgminer was originally coined by Kano as an alternative to cgminer (he happily goes to great pains to present IRC logs proving it), and eventually adopted by lukeJr and allegedly was named after saint barbara, disguising the fact it was named after the big fucking gun.

Forks of my code I don't have a problem with. There are now dozens of them used by various asic manufacturers who feel they want total ownership of the code that is running on their hardware, and I actively encouraged people to fork the GPU and scrypt code in cgminer after I announced I was dropping support for it, including help some people set up repositories to work from.

The coloured history and association with cgminer stems from luke contributing some code to cgminer, and then forking cgminer 9 months after I started the project - as bfgminer - and then claiming through some absurd logic that cgminer was the fork because of his contributions to cgminer to that date. Since then he has continued to take thousands of patches from cgminer while cgminer has taken virtually no code from bfgminer in that time. Even if you rename bfgminer, if he continues to pull cgminer code, and continue to claim that cgminer is the clone, the controversy will follow you forever.

Controversy in the bitcoin world repeatedly follows luke wherever he goes and if he remains the main contributor and maintainer, it really doesn't matter what you name the software, the controversy will follow you.

Your problem is the association with luke-jr, not the bfgminer name.

[chek2fire]

The name bfgminer was originally coined by Kano as an alternative to cgminer (he happily goes to great pains to present IRC logs proving it), and eventually adopted by lukeJr and allegedly was named after saint barbara, disguising the fact it was named after the big fucking gun.

Forks of my code I don't have a problem with. There are now dozens of them used by various asic manufacturers who feel they want total ownership of the code that is running on their hardware, and I actively encouraged people to fork the GPU and scrypt code in cgminer after I announced I was dropping support for it, including help some people set up repositories to work from.

The coloured history and association with cgminer stems from luke contributing some code to cgminer, and then forking cgminer 9 months after I started the project - as bfgminer - and then claiming through some absurd logic that cgminer was the fork because of his contributions to cgminer to that date. Since then he has continued to take thousands of patches from cgminer while cgminer has taken virtually no code from bfgminer in that time. Even if you rename bfgminer, if he continues to pull cgminer code, and continue to claim that cgminer is the clone, the controversy will follow you forever.

Controversy in the bitcoin world repeatedly follows luke wherever he goes and if he remains the main contributor and maintainer, it really doesn't matter what you name the software, the controversy will follow you.

Your problem is the association with luke-jr, not the bfgminer name.

Open source means everyone to use the code but to return back the changes that have done.

[Cassey]

My final thought:

Say you call it "Ralph".  For the next several years, every time you use the term "Ralph", your going to have to say "Ralph (formally bfgminer)".  I see no point.

[fastcore]

Makes me think of the kid's book BFG - The Big Friendly Giant!

[ManeBjorn]

It's difficult to vote on this as BFGMiner is a known name and a solid product.  When talking to others I just have to say BFG and other in the community know what it is.
Changing the name does not change the history and controversy which in the end is not a big deal.  There are always going to be differences of opinion and ways of doing things and schisms will happen.

Changing it though has pluses as it can be named something more dynamic as it has been a very dynamic and well supported program with wide recognition.  Giving it a branding that exemplifies that could be beneficial.

I am going to have to think some more before I vote.

[irrational]

Controversy in the bitcoin world repeatedly follows luke wherever he goes and if he remains the main contributor and maintainer, it really doesn't matter what you name the software, the controversy will follow you.

Your problem is the association with luke-jr, not the bfgminer name.

Well said, and exactly the reason I avoid bfgminer.

That said, I don't think the type of people who'd take offensense to BFG would likely be installing a miner.

Just my 2-bit-cents.

[Luke-Jr]

Controversy in the bitcoin world repeatedly follows luke wherever he goes and if he remains the main contributor and maintainer, it really doesn't matter what you name the software, the controversy will follow you.

Your problem is the association with luke-jr, not the bfgminer name.

Well said, and exactly the reason I avoid bfgminer.

Your forum handle fits well.

[Trongersoll]

I dunno, every time i see BFG i think ButterFly Girl. Left over from when someone appeared to be BFL's lackey.