Couple of new namethis features
by matt - June 27th, 2008
A couple of (as Ben would say) “funky fresh” improvements:
- Name suggestions are now rate limited. You can still submit them to your hearts content (or, more accurately, the number of submissions that fit in 48 hours), you just can’t do it all at once. Hopefully this will be a simple and easy cap that will keep the name explosion down and make it easier to read the page, while still allowing unfettered brainstorming. We’ll see how it works.
- The name requester can now choose words that must be excluded by submitters. Another simple fix that should make it easier to enforce the rules of the namethisee. Inspiration for this feature came directly from Wilson Lin, on this blog. Thanks Wilson!
Thanks for all your input, community. You guys rock.
Any news on not letting people suggest .com addresses that are already registered?
My first reaction to the rate limit is not very positive but I would defer my judgment until I see it in action. My thinking is that if I had a lot of ideas, I don’t want to come back to the site 10 different times to be able to post all my suggestions. I post some but by the time I come back to post some more, someone else may have posted my ideas. At the same time, just because I was online when the project started doesn’t mean that I get an advantage over somebody that starts late. Hmm.. Tough call……Democracy vs meritocracy?
HULU does not stream to non USA people
same here HULU doesn’t stream to my country too >.<
I still like the idea of being able to “filter” your suggestions so you can find items to vote on, or check if something exists before you add a name. Also, having a box that let me delete a bad entry just for me would at least allow me not to have to see a bad name again.
For those that cannot stream Hulu, the video is an SNL skit…nothing that you are missing about Kluster.
@Aubrey–Yes!
Man i hate sites that dont stream internationally. Please use Vimeo guys.. it has HD streaming and streams internationally.
I really hope you keep tweaking NameThis - I have found it just too hard to use. The flood of names makes investing nothing more than a lottery which really doesn’t help anybody. Keep diggin’ !!
How about only letting people invest a maximum amount of watts per project? Would make it so big investors would only be able to invest as much as smaller investors. Might help split up the wealth, make it harder for people who gain watts to go broke on a bad investement, etc.
can we have the recent comments section in the right sidebar link to where the comments are being made please…. I am going mental trying to follow conversations that are being made under various blog posts
I second that request by Allison…
Ditto (Kristen and Allison).
@kristen, @allison, @stacy don’t say i never did anything for ya
Woo-hoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Matt! This is excellent!
Thanks guys we really needed it…
Guys were can we see the video outside of the states???
Wow, it’s ever so much easier to keep up with which comments fell under which blog post now! I’ll add my heartfelt thank-you to the chorus.
Just wanted to pass along my impression of NameThis.com check out my blog: http://www.crowdsourcethis.com/2008/07/01/namethis-test-drive/
Matt I will name my first born after you….oh wait I already did!
Thanksssssssss
I was named after Matt hahaha xD
Anything new with the new child of Kluster ? it already July >.<
@matthew heh … your as bad as ben. stay tuned … it’s gonna be rad and it’s comin’ soon!
it would be nice if you were so kind as to give the International people an answer on the HULU streaming problem
@rlm it was just a silly saturday night live skit which has inspired ben to say “funky fresh” a lot. it’s not important.
@matt thanks for replying:)
@matt … A question i posed earlier (June 20th) which didn’t receive any clarity but i think deserves to, was on the lines of:
Names or Tag lines which are submitted but don’t win are still the copyright and IP of the submitter as i read from your TOS and common law… am i correct in this understanding?
It would be great to see in the Portfolio section of each Kluster user a “NameThis Winner’s Circle” that includes all the NameThis competitions that a particular user has won (placed in). This would simply show the competition title, the winning name submitted by the user, its rank (1, 2, or 3), and a link to the completed competition. This way a user could build up their portfolio and credibility and I think this would make a nice addition to the socialness of Kluster. Thanks.
It’ll also be great to see the original content written on knewsroom…
@ matt
I’m already too excited hahaha xD sorry
Kluster is awfully quiet this week >.<
I know, I think everyone is waiting to see when the money is going to come before they dive in again. Some of those fellas haven’t changed their activity messages in 15 days!
I really want to get paid. When is this happening?
I know….though I’m checking this blog everyday. I wonder what they are up to ?
I’m wondering the same thing…
OK.. something is borked with the algorithm. The most recent title to end was the LA skin clinic and in 3rd place came ’skin bizzy’ .. I’m sorry that is the worst f***ing name ive ever heard and if people are actually voting for that.. Namethis is going the way of knewsroom fast. I read probably 20 names that were decent and none of the top 3 were even close to a real world name that would be sufficient. Just my $0.02.
And here I am again.. The tax conference.. ALL 3 top places given to mediocre names to to the SAME PERSON.. (Troy Tessalone) .. Awesome…
I think Eric was using sarcasm; personally I can’t believe Tony had all three winning names. Something’s up.
Er, Troy, not Tony. And sorry Eric, I sped-read and now see you agree with me.
Yes.. complete sarcasm.. Something is up for sure..
James and Eric = I agree.
THE ALGORITHM IS OFFICIALLY BUSTED…
@russell i know there have been some crazy results lately and i can’t be 100% sure that there isn’t funny business, but a quick glance at the investors and investments in the winning names for the last auction make it look pretty clean. so, for the rest of the community, please know that the algo is not officially busted.
Speaking of name this, did we name the last two things yet, or am I the only one that sees Talana Kids as the last thing named?
Yeah you’re not the only one and if you invested in the last few things completed and go to them under your account info you can’t see the winners.
It’s getting frustrating that the results haven’t been posted. I assume that they will get posted once whatever bug is figured out, but honestly, my motivation to post new names is beginning to fall because of it. Hoping this gets figured out soon. Would love a heads up on the turn around time and maybe additional info.
fixed.
Awesome, hoping its all back on track!
Awesome!
is there a limit on how many names we can use now? Was there always a limit?
Its rate limited. You can try and submit the name later.
@matt “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” … no activity updates, one word forum replies sometimes, no blog posts, ignoring community questions… the only conclusion that can be made of this is that NameThis is going to the same graveyard as the NewsRoom and the previous project… please have the decency to tell us if this is the case… just letting people continue to spend their time on something that you have given up the ghost on hardly deserves any support on any new projects you decide to release in the future whether that be Kluster or any new venture.
@rlm that’s really the only conclusion that can be made? you don’t think there could be anything else going on? it’s not possible that the team is head down working on improving the namethis system? there’s no chance we’re soon to release something new?
@matt then say something to your community! why is that so difficult for you? A few lines of a post does not cost you any appreciable time. Surely that is not too much to ask for the people in your community that are supporting you? Especially those that have supported you through your first inception, through the NewsRoom and now NameThis. With the track record thus far it is hardly an over assumption to make the same read as what happened before when things suddenly go quiet from your side.
From July 2nd in this thread only, i see questions unanswered and uneasy comments left to fester… is that a good example of community nurturing and you giving back to the community that spends their time testing your projects and feeding you back valuable information? Do you think we don’t have our heads down having to do other things to survive too?
@rlm every question in this thread since july 2nd has been answered (save your tos question. i believe, though i’m not a lawyer, that you are correct in that you retain permission, while giving us full rights, to a name or tagline not chosen as a winner). the cards have been dispersed. the algorithm issues didn’t seem to be as big a deal as they were made out to be. there were blog posts on july 10th. the twitter statuses have all been updated since july 2nd. i’m sorry you feel like we’ve been quiet in the community lately. we’re not trying to keep you in the dark, i promise.
thanks for the replies, i am not going to nit pick, you replied with some substance so i hope it marks ’s a change going forward, thanks
No results have been posted for the last completed name, just a heads up. Here’s the link to it http://www.namethis.com/name_this/projects/554
Yeah. There must be something wrong. Two results are missing.
Also the old project winners all are marked as 2., 3. and 4. graduates?
Pretty much off topic
But I have some problems in make your own kluster …the name I placed is too Long that I can’t click the links on top of the webpage / upper page of the webpage.
I’m also very frustrated with the investing business and with the poor quality of some of the supposedly winning names. I think all participants ought to have the same number of watts to vote with on any particular project and that the winning formula should be based more on the number of supporters an entry attracted than the number of watts invested. And when the results are announced, I’d like to see how many participants invested in each suggestion and the average invested. (Hmmm. If everyone had the same number of watts to invest, and the number of investors was multiplied by the median amount of watts invested, that might work.) Then I’d have a clue as to just how much of a minority my taste in names is. I just invested all my watts in the next project to be decided. It’ll be interesting to see what effect that has. I didn’t have that many but there weren’t that many investments in that project. Still and all, I’m sticking because it’s fun to try to think up good names.
Ok, so I did an experiment. The project on naming the Central St. Martin arts connection had a bit over 3000 watts invested. I had 1160 remaining. So, just to see how much watts mattered, I invested all my remaining watts in my suggestion. In the end, only 5290 watts altogether were invested, of which 1160 were mine, all put in one place. Yet, my suggestion did not even place. With only 4130 besides mine invested, even if the remaining invested watts were all invested in the three winning suggestions, they would have to have been invested almost equally for it to be just barely possible that they all got more watts than mine. 4130/3 is 1377. I consider that scenario unlikely, but it’s possible. Conduct your own experiment.
@donna the winning names are not necessarily the names with the most watts invested, but are the names where the investment implies the most community support
I think there is a cap somewhere to make sure that big investments do not have that much impact on the results. Someone mentioned the cap is at 300 watts. I do not know if that is right though.
So in the end bigger watt investments just raise your benefit returning if the name got chosen.
Don’t forget that Kluster has always been clear that “who you are” matters when it comes to “influence.” Furthermore, I believe our relative “importance” may change with each project. So perhaps a 25-year-old male has more influence on a name for a beer company, but a 40-year-old female would have more influence on a “name this baby bottle” contest. Or perhaps we earn influence by naming or supporting (winners); some recent winning streaks might suggest that. I’m also under the impression that the algorithm itself changes periodically, to reflect klustefolks’ response to the market. All hypothesis on my part, but I’d bet a few watts on it.
Well, if it’s who you are that matters, i might as well move on. No one pays any attention to 57-year-old females. That’s why I wear my hair in pigtails. It’s hard to ignore a white-haired lady in pigtails. Next I may color it hot pink. In fact, in a search of people, I found out that I was the only one here who admitted to being that old. That may have changed since I made the search though.
I’m 49.
And you’re Mom. You’re very well connected to the power folks on this particular site.
There are a lot of smart people here — one of the reasons it can be so much fun!
True. And yet the names that turn up in the top three are consistently predominantly lame. Mechaneer???!!! Kudos??!!! I’m sure that many have figured out that the best way to actually get somewhere is to put some watts on the same five names that end up on the top time and again, but I refuse to do that. Instead, I have begun giving my own awards in the form of messages to those I think have actually posted the most clever names.
@Donna, if you read back through the blog comments you’ll find there are many people who agree with you. Lots of people have stopped “playing” because of these issues.
I’ve been trying to think of suggestions for how the algorithm might be improved, though I’ll admit to totally ignoring demographics in my musings. I do like the two-tiered suggestion. I’d like the opportunity to comment on names, which would be too cumbersome with all the names up, but perhaps not so much on the second tier. Maybe via anti-watts, but mostly just short comments on how the name does or does not fit the brief. (Recommendr? Gives no clue about what’s being recommended. Electrical products? or who’s a good divorce lawyer in Omaha?)
Whoops. Forgot also to comment that I’m now not getting my 10 watts for suggesting names.
Since when do you get 10 watts for suggesting a name?
I would like to see the ability to place negative investions or give a name a negative voting. This could be a limited amount per project. It is just that there are always some names that do not meet the needs required by the clients, like when an available .com address is mandatory and people keep posting URLs that are not available … When there are enough negative votings the suggested name could be removed or moved to a badlist or something similar.
When I first signed on you did. Guess that’s changed.