Alternate domain name

[BrandonSi]

Please don't take this as a criticism in anyway, I think the site is great and very informative. I feel that it may be beneficial, especially down the road, if an alternate domain name is setup for site access.

Just my opinion, but I think having 'cigarette' in the domain name can easily lead to a negative connotation to the less informed. I'm also hesitant to spend much time on the site at work (during lunch) on a site with 'cigarette' in the domain name as well. I really don't want that in the server logs, and my history.

I understand ECF has built up quite a brand and reputation, and I certainly wouldn't suggest abandoning it, but perhaps a new (more neutral) domain name could be registered that could be used alongside ECF, and would point to the same forum/site behind the scenes. I know of a couple of other sites that do this, mainly because their original domain names are a bit 'controversial' and blocked at most places of business.

I think it would also be beneficial down the road when hopefully the community moves away from the 'cigarette' moniker all together, towards a more acceptable name, be it personal vaporizer, inhaler, etc..

Again, certainly not a complaint, but just something I would love to see, and something I think would be beneficial to the site and its members in the long term.

 

[Liscab]

once you hit your 15 posts you could create a poll thread and see how many agree with you idea, i would be interesting

 

[bmwjen]

this is interesting.

 

[JerryRM]

Yes it is interesting and I agree, we should get away from "cigarette".

 

[Chrissie]

Ever since I bought my first e-cig over 3 years ago, I've wanted to tell the world about them (& have tried to do so in as many ways as possible). So just a thought, how many smokers that have never even heard of e-cigarettes are likely to google PV's? Or for instance, if someone sees you vaping & asks what it is, would a smoker think "Oh I must get one of them" if your reply was "it's a PV"?

Please don't get me wrong, I've nothing against folks calling e-cigs PV's but also got nothing against them being called e-cigs - far from it

 

[JerryRM]

Chrissie made some good points and has convinced me that this is not the time to change the name from "e-cigarette". I hope that sometime in the future, when e-cigs are well known, that then we can get away from the word "cigarette".

 

[poolslime]

While I agree that the term Personal Vapor is not common place, I disagree that the domain name exemplifies all that is great about them. I certainly didn't do a search for PV, or any variation of terms that don't have cigarette in the name, but was still brought to this site because of the content, not because of the domain name.

That being said, I don't have any issue with "cigarette" being in the domain name, but I still like the case of something else that can be used in tandem with the current one. I don't see this as a suggestion for replacing the domain name, but having one coincide with it, especially if it makes it easier for folks to avoid proxy blocks. I've been seeing companies start to take action in changing their policies to ban all tobacco products on their premises (i.e. no smoking designated sections, no smoking in car, etc.) in the name of cheaper insurance rates, so blocks on domains with "cigarette" in the name is likely to start becoming more common.

Just something to think about.

 

[CarrieD]

For the most part, I'd agree with Chrissie - I know I found this incredible place by searching for "electronic cigarette". OTOH, I think the OP's point was to set up a domain name that would work alongside the existing one, not necessarily eliminate it.

 

[rolygate]

I sympathise with your point of view, also the possible problems with company firewalls.

It would be impossible for us to function with any other name apart from 'e-cigarette' or 'electronic cigarette' because nobody would find us on the web, and we would get no traffic. However, as you say, we could perhaps use an alternative domain name to reach the site. This is quite easy to do, for example we could get something like vapeforum .com and redirect it to here, so that when you enter that in the address bar you end up here.

There are two ways to do this:
1. After vapeforum .com redirects to the ECF site, you go to ECF, and the ECF domain is seen in the address bar: e-cigarette-forum .com

2. After vapeforum .com redirects to ECF, you go to ECF, but the vapeforum .com domain stays in the address bar and all site pages have that prefix

Both of these are easy to arrange: #1 is the easiest to sort out and is a straight redirect. You just end up at ECF. However this will not get you through the company firewall properly as it will block you immediately you click another page and the URL prefix becomes e-cigarette-forum .com -- so this won't work for the purpose you need it for.

And with #2, although it looks perfect: a 'clean' domain name all the way through - there is one small problem. Google will give us a search penalty as we then have two sites with the same content, and this is against Googles's (unwritten) rules. So although it is technically possible, it isn't practical.

So it looks as if we are stuck with the e-cig label for the foreseeable future.

There are several ways to get around firewall blocks: for example use a proxy, or have a portable browser and VPN app on a USB stick, and run on that when needed.

 

[CarrieD]

I sympathise with your point of view, also the possible problems with company firewalls.

It would be impossible for us to function with any other name apart from 'e-cigarette' or 'electronic cigarette' because nobody would find us on the web, and we would get no traffic. However, as you say, we could perhaps use an alternative domain name to reach the site. This is quite easy to do, for example we could get something like vapeforum .com and redirect it to here, so that when you enter that in the address bar you end up here.

There are two ways to do this:
1. After vapeforum .com redirects to the ECF site, you go to ECF, and the ECF domain is seen in the address bar: e-cigarette-forum .com

2. After vapeforum .com redirects to ECF, you go to ECF, but the vapeforum .com domain stays in the address bar and all site pages have that prefix

Both of these are easy to arrange: #1 is the easiest to sort out and is a straight redirect. You just end up at ECF. However this will not get you through the company firewall properly as it will block you immediately you click another page and the URL prefix becomes e-cigarette-forum .com -- so this won't work for the purpose you need it for.

And with #2, although it looks perfect: a 'clean' domain name all the way through - there is one small problem. Google will give us a search penalty as we then have two sites with the same content, and this is against Googles's (unwritten) rules. So although it is technically possible, it isn't practical.

So it looks as if we are stuck with the e-cig label for the foreseeable future.

Interesting and informative, thank you!

 

[poolslime]

2. After vapeforum .com redirects to ECF, you go to ECF, but the vapeforum .com domain stays in the address bar and all site pages have that prefix

I didn't know that about google, it definitely makes it difficult.

As an interesting side note, my original google search was "best electronic cigarette for a new user" which has ECF at the top of the list to the FAQ section closely resembling the title. I did a few more searches to just see what would come up...

e-cig ECF bounced from being 4th to 6th in the list.
e-cigarette ECF wasn't on the first page.
e-cigarettes ECF was third in the list.

Kind of odd that the plural version had a better hit than the non plural. I'll also say that while I had no clue of the PV term until doing more research on this site, I also was not savy on the term e-cig or e-cigarette either. I think I got more lucky with the "new user" bit of my search than anything else.

But I do agree that changing domain names completely is definitely not the way to go. However people get here, ECF has recognition and that is not something to be messed with.

Keep on vaping!

 

[Liscab]

edit to correct, wrong thread post

 

[BrandonSi]

Thanks all for the good discussion! One option that may mitigate the impact of the google issue is to make that alternate domain available to 'premium members', or members who donate to the site. I'm not sure if you want to implement that model (or if it even exists), but maybe the extra money might offset the google 'penalty'. Just a thought, thanks again for taking the suggestion seriously.

 

[rolygate]

That's a good idea - I mean providing password-locked access to the second domain. Hadn't thought of that.

Not sure if it is possible, but if it is, we could do that (google can't get past logins unless you allow a special tunnel, so it might fit the bill).

 

[ScroungerLee]

I would love to see an alternate domain name without cigarette in it.