(Up to ProjectNameProposals)
Meaning
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Ack is an offshoot from the other proposed name "Snack". It was proposed to drop the S and make it Nack. This reminded me of NACK (abbreviation for "Not Acknowledged") so I figured a more positive name would be "ACK" ("Acknowledged"), but to avoid it looking like an acronym let's spell it "Ack".
Good Points
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It's short.
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At three letters long, it can fit into the same space as "RSS", thus making for similar buttons.
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There are no apparent pronounciation ambiguities.
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It will hopefully have positive connotations to those who know what ACK means!
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To those who don't, it's just a weird, memorable name.
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It can be used as a verb if you like that sort of thing: "Acked", "Acking", "Acker".
Bad Points
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People sometimes say "Ack!" when something happens to their distaste, but I think they are frequently joking, so this is not really a negative connotation more a humorous connotation.
Trademark
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http://www.ack.net/ is a newspaper in Nantucket. I have no idea if they have a trademark. What trademark field does this project fall into anyway?
URL's
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As might be expected for a three-letter name, ack.org, ack.net and ack.com are all taken.
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Only ack.net actually points at a useful website, but of course the others might be used for email.
There are probably available names featuring "ack" and some other word, but I'm not sure which words to try.
Usage
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"I have an Ack feed."
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"Do YOU have an Ack feed?"
Icons
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(Display sample icons here)
Discuss
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Jargon File entry
[jayseae] I like the shortness of Ack. Agree with the earlier comment that Ack looks a little strange, when used to seeing ACK. Also has an off-beat Bill-the-Cat association that comes up when I first see the word. Not that that is a bad thing.