Un-becoming redmonk
It's been 11 years since I "became" redmonk, when I registered http://redmonk.net. At the time it had meaning to both Jodi and I, and it was the name of my first freelance business. For 11 years I've used redmonk as a chat name, domain, email address, irc handle, and username on seemingly countless websites.
Several years ago (7 now, OMG) I was contacted by James Governor, one of the partners in a relatively new IT consulting venture: RedMonk. James and I had a pleasant talk about the work he was doing, and he approached me about parting with the redmonk.net domain. I wasn't at all interested in parting with it; 'redmonk' was a core part of my net identity.
So, every couple years, James pings me and we have a nice conversation, and I politely decline to give up the domain.
Over the last few years, I found myself using the redmonk moniker less and less. My blog has long been titled 'monkinetic', and I began using that as my username of choice. I recently moved the blog itself to http://monkinetic.com, and have been redirecting all redmonk.net traffic there.
So, a week or so ago, when James' annual "hi there, how are you, would you be willing to part with redmonk.net" email came around, I was finally in a place where the idea didn't seriously offend me. I talked it over some with Jodi, whose blog is still hosted on redmonk.net, and who has also had a real emotional investment in our domain, and for the first time we were kinda like "maybe?"
So James and I had a few emails, and we came to an agreement that works for all of us. RedMonk will get ownership of the redmonk.net domain, and James will (well, already has!) assume the @redmonk Twitter username.
It feels weird, bittersweet, and even a bit freeing to be letting go of this long-time part of my digital identity. Even apropos, as I work out what it means to be both a netizen and a family member; as Jodi and I have rented our house, are living with the girls in a studio apartment, and are trying to figure out what that means for our family.
There are lots of changes afoot for me and mine, and this one feels right.
