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Possible Duplicates:
What should our URL be?
What should our title be?

I've heard, from those listening to today's Stack Exchange Podcast, there was some discussion about the URL (and possibly the name?) of the site: Hermeneutics doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. From what I understand, "Bible" was suggested instead.

Does http://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com make sense? Or is there a URL/short name—more forgiving of people's spelling ability—that could be used instead?

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  • This question has been superseded by this one for the URL and this one for the title.
    – Jack Douglas
    Nov 8, 2011 at 14:28
  • As the site has developed and gained new ground, and as we have gained new understandings and developed as a community, we've decided to rehash this topic. Specifically, after much discussion, we realize that there are two topics involved: the title and the URL. Two new questions (title and url) have been opened to discuss this. Therefore, I'm closing this since it seems that the winds of change are in the air.
    – Richard
    Nov 8, 2011 at 15:07

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I'd argue that hermeneutics.stackexchange.com is much better than bible.stackexchange.com or similar in keeping with the site's goal of attracting experts in the field. A site for "people asking questions about Bible interpretation" will attract a complete different set of people than a site discussing "Biblical hermeneutics and exegetical analysis of biblical texts."

It's hard to type for people unfamiliar with the term, but then again are those the people we want to be core users on the site?

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    This was my reasoning as well, well said.
    – Rebecca Chernoff
    Oct 4, 2011 at 21:14
  • I fully agree with this and also add that I prefer hermeneutics.SE over exegesis.SE.
    – Richard
    Oct 11, 2011 at 14:30
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    The goal of staying on topic is valid, but a URL's purpose is to give a human-friendly name to an IP address. Bible is a lot easier to spell and type than hermeneutics. The URL does not change the site goals.
    – pc1oad1etter
    Oct 11, 2011 at 19:32
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    Unfortunately, however, it's the experts in the wrong field. This site's title is hermeneutics, but the majority of the questions are not hermeneutical questions, but exegetical ones.
    – Ray
    Nov 4, 2011 at 7:51
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I think it works quite well. It is the common term for what we are trying to do here and it helps clearly distinguish the subject matter. "Bible" is a much more broad term that I think would broaden the scope on its own. I think that would make keeping the Q&A on topic more difficult.

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I think bible.stackexchange.com is a good idea for an alias. It's way easier to spell and remember, and there isn't any other SE site that would conflict with it.

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  • We can add an alias if there's a clear need for it, like deutsch.stacexchange.com for german.stackexchange.com, but in this case, I remain unconvinced.
    – Rebecca Chernoff
    Oct 5, 2011 at 21:31
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    Well, I can spell hermeneutics so I don't have a problem with it, but I think it would help others to spread the word.
    – Lance Roberts
    Oct 5, 2011 at 22:55
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    +1. Having this alias does not change the goal or intent of the site. bible is much easier to remember and spell.
    – pc1oad1etter
    Oct 11, 2011 at 19:34
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As I see it, there are two main topics in scope: Biblical Hermeneutics, and Exegesis. As it so happens, the large majority of our questions fall into the latter category, which is a real mismatch with the site's title and URL.

The field of hermeneutics is a bit more theoretical, whereas exegesis is the application of the former to specific Biblical texts. In other words, a hermeneutician is more like a philosopher, and discusses concepts of communication and epistemology. An exegete, on the other hand, will use hermeneutical principles (consciously or not) to read and interpret a text.

Being that the larger part of this site's scope does not match the title and URL, I would propose the site's title to be changed to "Biblical Hermeneutics and Exegesis" and the url to exegesis.stackexchange.com.

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    I still prefer hermeneutics, but if we had to change in order to get a hermeneutics tag, I could get behind this suggestion. I feel this site ought to have a philosophical bent, even if most of what we do is applied hermeneutics. The proportion of questions seems right to me as we are demonstrating hermeneutics by application sort of like how 90% of a mathematics class is not doing mathematics but doing problems. Or how you never do physics in a physics class, but you apply principles and use observations discovered by working scientists to learn the concepts.
    – Jon 'links in bio' Ericson
    Nov 4, 2011 at 16:04
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I agree that Hermeneutics is tough to spell, even though it's ideal in conveying the site's purpose. Some other alternatives (which may or may not be as attractive to experts) but would be much easier to spell, might include bibleexperts.stackexchange.com or biblescholars.stackexchange.com or biblicalscholarship.stackexchange.com