When I started to build the the new data center I went with the Active Directory name stackoverflow.com. One advantage with this split DNS setup is that you can have internal IPs for certain entries. I knew I would have to duplicate domain entries but I did not mind that and I liked the aesthetic so I made that call.

In most cases I don’t think it is really that bad but we happen to run a popular web site that uses that same name. If the developers have to make URL based calls to the site from the site than it would have to be worked around. Other downsides include that the duplicate entries could be wrong. The vote on Server Fault also seems to be against it. So on reflection, this was simply the wrong call.

So yesterday I went about changing the AD domain name to a sub domain. I also was able to keep STACKOVERFLOW as the short name for the aesthetic. This has been a pain and I think there are still probably some things to fix but in the long run it will pay off.

The moral of the story is that when you make a bad decision then suck it up and fix it. I think this is especially true at the core of a system. If something is wrong there than you have to work around that, and then you have to work around your workaround. What you end up with is:

workaround = "workaround"
while workaround:
    workaround += " the " + workaround

So, if you can, just fix your bad decisions.

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