I originally considered using something more conventional, e.g. “michaeleriksson.de”; however, the regrettable situation in Germany is that even domain names with a strong personal connection can be given to someone else on a court-order, should he be able to prove a similar connection, a precedence in some area, a sufficient business interest, or similar. Though the risk was probably very low in my case, I preferred to avoid the legal readings and necessary research to be certain, and chose to go with a name that was sufficiently original that a competing claim could not reasonably be large enough to overcome the fact that I registered the name first.
(The German system is to be contrasted with valid court-interference against domain squatters, “stolen” names, and disputes where one party has an indisputably and considerably larger interest, hypothetically a dispute over the domain name “ford” between the car company and someone with the last name “Ford”.)
My reasoning behind “aSwedeInGermany” is that it describes my own situation rather well, whilst bringing English into the mix. (Apart from most contents on this site being in English, I read more books/see more movies in English than in German and Swedish combined.) At the same time, it manages to put in a minor joke on the many movies named in the pattern of “An American in Paris”. (I deliberately chose Germany over Cologne, because there is no guarantee that I will remain in that city even in the mid-term. Possibly, I will someday leave Germany too, but the likelihood for the next few years is very small.)
I considered using a name more appropriate to the main mission of this site (hypothetically, “smartGuy” or something similar); however, such names just seem too pretentious to me. Further, the weaker personal connection could possibly have opened a legal weakness (cf. above, better safe than sorry).
The above stems from 2009.
By 2012, I have:
Indeed left Cologne, transitioning to Düsseldorf in the third quarter of 2011.
Added several other domains to increase the possibility that someone who is looking for this site will actually find it, as well as reducing the risk of “name competition” somewhat. However, these all redirect to my main domain and their loss would, therefore, not be anywhere near as damaging.
By 2023, I have:
Moved on further, from Düsseldorf to Wuppertal, after spending great stretches of time living elsewhere for work reasons (including Munich and, again, Cologne).
I have seriously considered leaving Germany entirely, in light of the absurd political situation, the COVID-era abuses of government power, and the general anti-Rechtsstaatlichkeit displayed by German politicians and the German government. Unfortunately, most countries (to which a move would be reasonably easy) appear to have similar or other problems, which makes it a choice between Scylla and Charybdis.
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