Identity change in branding | Ramblin' & Amblin' | Nov 4, 2026
Ramblin' & Amblin' Field Notes with Mike Hall (Staff Software Engineer)
Recorded on the move: engineering observations, systems architecture, and software craftsmanship reflections.
• Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNtb969T2-l0
• The Sound Above Curriculum: https://www.just3ws.com/series/the-sound-above/
• Canonical Profile: https://www.just3ws.com
Spoken Overview:
"Let's see if I can keep myself in frame for this one. I'm going to talk about identity, and the reason I've got my face on this one is it's about literally the identity of e ukatastic and why it's called WhoisTechCommunity, and that..."
Recorded: November 4, 2026
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Let's see if I can keep myself in frame for this one. I'm
going to talk about identity, and the reason I've got my
face on this one is it's about literally the identity of e
ukatastic and why it's called WhoisTechCommunity, and that
my handle is Just3Ws, but it's not spelled www, it's J-U-S-
T-3-W-S, Just3Ws. It's also been a couple other identities, but I'm going to
stick with these here, because they're the three that are
core to what is this whole project, and one of the things
that finally did get me were the overwhelming. One thing I've learned in life, in professional life, is
whenever you see a project change names, right when it's
getting successful, or appears like it's about to be
successful, that's a big tell, okay?
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
That's a big tell that things aren't going as well as they
'd like you to believe. I've seen this a couple times, and
that's what happened with me. Eukatastic, user groups, fantastic. User groups with lots
of say, interviews and more.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
No way to sharing bright ideas
in a tech community. Fascinating conversations, plethora of
information. Find out for yourself today at eukatastic.com. Come on, what was I doing?
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Why did I change it to Who is
Tech Community? What anxiety was I really exposing? I do this with my own projects. I keep spinning up names.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Like, for some reason, I can't have my identity be
associated with the project. I have to, like, somehow keep it separate, so that way it
isn't just mine. It's such a stupid thing. I just own it.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
That's all. I'm stuck with it now. Okay. Tested.com.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
That's the only good moment. I really appreciate you doing something again, so thank you
for the next time. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Retain continuity on their domain. Just through W's.com and eukatastic.com in particular.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I'm not getting paid by them, but they did help me out. Who is Tech Community was an attempt for me to decouple
from only being user groups. And the who is, and the who is, is a play on the lookup. There's a command called who is command, and it goes and
tells you the domain.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
It looks up, so you say, who is, eukatastic.com on your
command line, provided you have the tool installed. Which is shit, which is pretty universal, as far as I'm
aware. It's on every computer I'm on, so I think it's universal. So it was a play on that, and what I was trying to do is
decouple from only being user groups, and also, I was
trying to get away from some of the commentary and feedback
I got from being a little too campy, silly,
with the, um, with the, um, with the, uh, um, Kyle McLeod,
and, uh, the oompa, and the, uh, the theme song.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
People, uh, online, and on that original, um, YouTube
channel complained about it. Um, and that's all I heard. And I thought, okay, I want to be more, like, towards the
history of, of technical community, and expand beyond just
user groups to be, uh,
and I have this written down not to, to pull that up, but,
it was basically user groups, tech influencers, um, but I
meant tech community influencers, people who, um, were
speakers, renowned in the field. Like, like, I considered, you know, like, let's just say a
Martin Fowler, or an Uncle Bob, and, um, you know, they,
they, they, they're, they're thought leaders, um, and, uh,
and, and the community listens to them.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
And people that did stuff, tech conference, uh, open source
, uh, organizers, uh, and contributors, and I wanted to go
beyond just the coders,
and, and, and the, uh, the rock stars, you know, the, I
mean, ultimately, a dream is, uh, Linus Torvalds, and a, uh
, Steve Wozniak interview. If that, Steve Wozniak is the dream, um, but I fumbled, and
I couldn't quite pull it off. I did, I did, I did, I mean, I did have a complete rebrand
ing, but I just couldn't see it all the way through. But, it was a sign that I was struggling with my own
identity, with my own presence, anxiety, low self-esteem,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
But, um, it was, now it's something I have to live with. I, if I change it now, everything, like, all right, so, my
YouTube channel, um, is, WhoisTechCommunity, all lowercase,
whois, W-H-O-I-S-T-E-C-H-C-M-T-Y, because I couldn't fit
all of it in there. Uh, so, again, uh, uh, death on, uh, domains and branding
is, is abbreviation. Uh, it's, uh, never works out.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
And there was a obsession back then with short domain names
, like, it mattered. Uh, now it doesn't even matter at all. Um, you see what Kubernetes does. Oh my gosh.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Um, and AI, who cares, domain name can be whatever the
maximum it is. It doesn't matter anymore. The branding isn't the same. Um, but I have to own it because it's part of the history.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
It isn't something to be hidden or feel ashamed about
anymore, if it ever was. Um, my identity since 2000, online, has been just 3ws.com. I did Uketastic, and this is why, you know, I was even
thinking a bit about, you know, Star Wars
and changing, and what is it for the artist to, uh, change
the, uh, meaning and intent of
their, of their own work. And for me, it wasn't a change so much as a refinement and
trying to line up with, um,
some, like, perceived maturity in our branding.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
And, like, I always went and I sought out unencumbered, un
licensed public domain images,
um, that supported what I wanted, uh, to be able to express
. And if you look at, uh, some of the banners and the, uh,
art that I created, um, for the,
um, WhoisTech community, you see that I have a diverse, as,
as much as I could, representation
of the early history of computing. I love it. I love it.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I love it. But that also means the Uketastic jingle. That was super fun. And, uh, you know, I was doing this kind of flattening of
my persona because I thought
it was necessary for, um, um, go taking this to the next
level or whatever was in my mind
at the time.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I don't even know. But, uh, when you change an identity in the middle of
something, sometimes you just got
to stick with it, even if it isn't exactly, like, you
better have a darn good reason for
renaming something. I, I've seen, I'm not the only one. I've seen this happen, um, in internal projects where also
sometimes it's used as a technique
to hide that the thing that they originally did, um, failed
.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Yeah, yeah, Catalyst, I see you. Yeah, Phoenix Project, I see you. And then you could even say, oh, I'm calling out one
company. I wish, I wish.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I've seen that exact pattern. I don't know what it is about people wanting to call their
new projects Catalyst or Phoenix. It's hubris. But anyway, um, if you are creating something and you're
getting feedback from it and your
instinct is to change your name or rebrand, stop.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Take a deep breath and consider how much you might be
throwing away in goodwill and your
own sanity because it will now be a wholly different thing. And, uh, you can lose your entire self of, of sense of self
. And if you lose your own sense of self, how can anybody
follow you? You know?
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
So, you-tastic, who is that community? What's up, man? Hi. I'll just turn this way so I'll give people their privacy
on the, uh, trail.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Um, yeah. You-tastic user groups, fantastic. It was catchy. It was cool.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
You know, I look back and I think, you know, I, I, I, with
my kids, you know, I, I think
about, um, you know, they've, uh, they're getting old
enough where the things that they've
gone through that, that cycle of, uh, mom and dad, you know
, did something that was silly
and it was cute. And then when they grew up a little bit, they wanted to
identify themselves and it suffered
from that and they didn't like, uh, maybe some stuff that
was too corny or campy, not corny. That was the word I was looking for earlier. You-tastic was corny.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I'm corny. Um, embrace it. Um, if you really want to change, that's, you do that. Like, but just know there's a cost.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
There is a cost to it. And it could be your own willpower. It could drain you. Um, and, and have you chasing something that, um, now you
're having to explain yourself
and, um, undermining your very own efforts because of some
unspoken anxiety or belief that
if I just, if I just, if I just present this way, then they
'll listen.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Um, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,
nope, nope. I mean, other cases, I'm sure, but, uh, is it the rule? It's the, um, anti-rule. So, uh, so, uh, so, yeah.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Who is Tech Community is my YouTube channel. I hate to say that I don't, I don't have a domain name
right now. Um, I have to double check. I don't think I do, uh, for who is Tech Community.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Um, because the identity of this project is also really euk
atastic, but all of this stuff
is really just 3Ws. And just 3Ws is really my call. And, um, I have that on my, my channel, so. It's all a complex bundle of mush right now.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
And I just have to get a spoon and get to goblin. Um, because it's all one melange at this point. There is really very little difference, uh, between them. And, uh, yeah, yeah, if you are working on a project and
you're, you're getting to a point
where you think, I got to rename this thing, I got to reb
rand, I got to change my identity,
the look, the feel.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
You do you, okay? But, uh, I know, personally, myself, that most of that, for
me, came from a sense of anxiety
and listening to people who really didn't have anything
constructive to say. And, uh, ultimately, it was me who paid the, uh, price for
that. And, uh, ultimately, me and that price was not fulfilling
my mission.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
And all these people that interviewed with me who for years
didn't see their interviews published
because I basically collapsed underneath my own condition. I don't know. Um, my own BS. Um, it weighed heavy on me for a long time.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Again, it's not done with me yet, but, uh, don't betray
yourself. Don't betray yourself. Your, your first instinct. If you got it out there and you, and you built it and you,
you put it out and people were responding.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I, I, I was listening to people who I wouldn't have even
asked them for their opinion
while failing the people who stood up in a microphone with
me. Okay. This isn't a small thing. And, uh, some of these videos are still unedited.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I just had to put them up because it was that or not
publish them at all. And that was untenable. So this is, you could say, my art here, and I'm going to be
facing that in time as I'm going through these re-watches. There's people that probably wonder, where's my interview?
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Why isn't it published? It's because I listened to the wrong voices outside and
inside. So, they're all the same. Who is Tech Community is the YouTube channel.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Technically, there's still a Twitter channel, uh, account
out there somewhere. And for Ugetastic as well. I don't think I ever took those down. Um, but I haven't used them or logged into them in, ever,
uh, effectively at this point.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I don't know if they're still active, uh, on that, which I
will not name. I guess I don't care. Um, the, uh, domain name, Ugetastic.com, actually resolves
back to just three Ws.com. Uh, it's the same website.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Um, and everything has surfaced through my GitHub account,
just three Ws, GitHub account. And actually, it's, uh, the repo is just three Ws.github.io
. So it's my own personal page. So when you go there, you see my personal persona.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Oh, I know none of you guys saw that, but a black cat just
crossed my path. Let's see how this goes. Oh, kitty, kitty, kitty. There she is.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Are you? Do you see it? Hi, kitty. Hi, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I'm gonna walk over your path. Don't be mad. Beautiful. What?
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
What? What are you looking at? Hmm? It's okay.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
It's okay. The, um, I don't need extra bad luck. I bring my own. Um, yeah.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
So all of this is, is me trying to reason and hoping that,
um, other people who might be looking
at this, this project and being like, oh, what is it? Who's tech community? Is it you test? What is it?
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Yes. It's my call. It's my call. This guy.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Lisp. And all slur. And all goofy doofus and all corny campy. It's discombobulated sometimes, but also a legend.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Because I've had people who I should listen to recognize
what I did. You don't have to be on top of the world to be on top of
the world. You can be at the bottom. All right.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Enough of that. I had to get off my ass and start recording. Not this. That.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
I will. I will. It's coming soon. Thanks.
Mike Hall
Host, Ramblin' & Amblin'
▶ Speaking
Bye.