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Comment by dotandgtfo | Hacker News Reader

What's the story with the name? How do you pronounce it?

The product seems interesting, but I'm not a sharer on social media.

Agreed. This product will live or die on word of mouth, and right now I wouldn't know how to talk about it with someone else.

The name is short for "homeskillet," which is a colloquial term of endearment for a good friend. I met my cofounder on an airplane 7 years ago and developed our friendship while each living in distant cities (SF, Taipei, Berlin, London). I called him homeskillet once but he didn't understand the meaning since he's French, so it randomly became our placeholder project name as we bounced around ideas for cool things to build.

Super helpful feedback on the name confusion!

Just calling it “homeskillet” would be better.

(Although, I’ve never heard that term before, so it still wouldn’t be great me for at least.)

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=home%20skill...

Huh, I learned a new word today! Doubt I'll use it, but at least it won't confuse me should I encounter that use in the future.

Thanks for the explanation. Further feedback though, I've never heard this term before, and I consider myself to have a relatively good vocabulary. Here in the UK, "skillet" isn't the most common word either (it's not uncommon, some people do use it, especially referring to cast-iron skillets specifically, but less common than in the US).

At the very least you've got to add the name of the company to the website so that people know it's not just some random letters.

Honestly though, I'd feel silly having to explain this name to anyone so probably just won't.

agreed, as a english-as-second-language speaker both the idiom and acronym was completely lost on me. concept has potential as long as it's not just another clone of snapchat stories.

As an English-as-first-language speaker, it did not at all occur to me what “hmsklt” meant. I haven’t heard the term “homeskillet” used in 20+ years.

homeskillet: noun~ a close friend, more like family, someone from your neighborhood.

That's fine, but it's still going to be very hard to explain to people (or hell, even remember) how it's spelled, so they can search or download it.

Home skillet?

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