Domain switch

If you are a somewhat regular reader, you have probably noticed that I’ve changed the domain name from babinho.net to berislavbabic.com. Maybe you didn’t notice it at all, kudos for that, because you have been redirected automatically. There were a few reasons for my decision, and I’ll try to sum it here. I won’t go much into details of how to do it, because you already have a lot of information on the Internet covering it. First to explain the babinho moniker. I’ve been using it for a lot of time now. It’s a nickname that dates back to the year 2000, and stems from the obsession with Brazilian football players way back then, when we all had similar nicknames. And mine just stuck around. I wanted to retire it for a long time already, but the more you are invested in something, the harder is it to move away from it. I decided to follow the advice suggested in many places, and used by a lot of people I’m following and consider to be internet famous, at least in the small niche that I’m following, e.g. Nathan Barry. As this is a personal technical blog, I decided to go with my name and not some SEO optimised domain name. I believe that personal branding is the corner-stone for each developer, and something everyone, in the tech world or not, should work on as much as possible. There is no better way for you to stand behind your work by stating your name loud and clear. It is professional to the core, and gains you more respect than some childish moniker. It is the scariest thing you can do, because if you make a blunder people will know. But don’t obsess with it, because people rarely or even never remember other people’s blunders. And they will appreciate you more for trying and failing, than for not trying at all. I know that I stood behind that moniker for a really long time, and it has defined my work and sometimes my hobbies. I was not ashamed of my real name, but I just decided not to stand behind it. Going by a nickname was cool and hip, and somewhat unprofessional. Although I’m not saying you shouldn’t use some kind of an alias, especially if you are not allowed/afraid to write because of some repercussions (please do yourself a favour and change the job or the place you live as soon as possible), I am saying that you should use your own name when you engage in technical writing. If you are considering to write or are already writing about really controversial and dangerous stuff, then do everything needed to protect your identity, and be as anonymous as possible. I won’t go into details on how to do that, but there are many privacy oriented websites, so you just have to look around.