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Saying "bicycles.stackexchange.com" takes nine syllables. When I'm talking to my wife, I sometimes stammer out "that bike question site", which is shorter by half but vague and awkward. I don't think I've ever verbalized "bicycles.stackexchange.com" except when talking to someone at a keyboard, where I could insert pauses while I wait for them to catch up.

I'm vaguely aware of some historical drama about domain names in StackExchange (see: Public Service Announcement: ongoing, offsite discussion about Area 51 graduates' branding and https://webapps.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/624/webapps-stackexchange-com-versus-nothingtoinstall-com), and I'm specifically not asking for a non-StackExchange domain name.

I just want a canonical name that I can comfortably say out loud and expect people to be able to reliably find this site as the first hit when they search for it. In comments on the site, people often refer to "bicycles.se", but this can't be typed in a browser search bar because it looks like a URL. I've also seen "Bicycles at Stack Exchange", but this is still long and impossible for a new user to remember.

Is there a reasonable canonical way to verbally refer to bicycles.stackexchange.com?

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    We should probably try to convince SE to make bikes.stackexchange.com redirect to bicycles.stackexchange.com
    – freiheit
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 17:50
  • Request for the 7 syllable friendly redirect has been placed: meta.bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/741/…
    – freiheit
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 17:54
  • Hmm. On my computer, searching for "bike stack" or "stack bikes" gives bicycles.stackexchange.com as the fourth hit. This is only a little bit of SEO away from being a reasonable possibility.
    – amcnabb
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:17
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    "stack bikes" - that sounds awfully familiar. ;-)
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 3:31
  • @freiheit Not sure when it was done, but bikes.stackexchange.com does redirect now, as does cycling.stackexchange.com
    – Criggie Mod
    Commented Jan 2, 2022 at 22:54

3 Answers 3

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Yes.

Stack Exchange has their own redirector (I think) of "s.tk".

s.tk/bicycles == "ess dot tee kay slash bi cy cles" is only 8 syllables.

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    I've never heard of s.tk before. In combination with the bikes.stackexchange.com redirect, this is down to 6 syllables: "ess dot tee kay slash bikes". I just tried "s.tk/bikes", and it seems to work. Unfortunately, it's very line-noise looking.
    – amcnabb
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:12
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When I verbally refer to an SE site (besides Stack Overflow, or an explicitly named one) I just say SE (ɛsiː, ess-ee). Bicycles SE, Physics SE, Chemistry SE, etc.

This gets you down to five; of course the person has to know what SE is beforehand.

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  • Unfortunately, there seems to be a company called "SE Bikes" that beats bicycles.stackexchange.com in a web search for "bicycles se". But maybe this will change soon.
    – amcnabb
    Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 4:14
  • Does it need to be #1? Bicycles [space] SE is both easy to say (5 syllables) and is #2 in the search results - not perfect, but a good compromise IMO.
    – Ehryk
    Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 4:24
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    For those who have never heard of it before, being #1 is important to avoid ambiguity. But I think this is my favorite suggestion so far, especially since it's similar to "Bicycles.SE" which already seems to be in common use.
    – amcnabb
    Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 4:32
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On both Google and Bing, it looks like "Stack Bicycles" gives bicycles.stackexchange.com as the first hit (it's hard to know if this true for everyone). I also noticed that the Twitter account for the site is "StackBicycles".

"Stack Bicycles" is just four syllables, so it seems like a reasonable way to refer to the site.

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