comments

• Georgi on September 25th, 2008:

  yaaaay at least something new

• Stacy Prince on September 25th, 2008:

  Hi, Stef, and welcome.

  I’m a bit confused. Were you sent here to distract us? Or to hold our hands? Because the “promises, promises” we’ve been hearing for a long time on a lot of fronts (money, revamps, new projects) haven’t received the follow-through I’d expect of such obviously intelligent and motivated businesspeople.

  Any insights you can share?

  Thanks!

• matt on September 25th, 2008:

  oooh … I had really nice things to say about you in a post that’s going up. I think I should edit them.

• ben on September 25th, 2008:

  Stacy, you’re breaking my heart.

  breaking my heart.

• lacy on September 25th, 2008:

  Don’t tell my heart, my achy breaky heart
  I just don’t think it’d understand

• Kristen on September 25th, 2008:

  @klustercrew - before you all turn on Stacy, remember that she has been patiently and kindly trying to help others with their questions for weeks now. For example, when there were recent questions by one user about the need for Mastercard and another about the age limits for Payoneer, she held their hands and explained everything clearly. You would have alot more frustration (yes, that’s possible:-) around here if it weren’t for Stacy. Thank you Stacy!!!

• Stacy Prince on September 25th, 2008:

  I don’t mean to break your heart, Ben. But lately the love has felt one-sided.

  As with any relationship, it’s all about communication. I want so badly to believe that smart, idealistic people can remake the world — including the way we communicate, create, and even reform economic structures — that it causes me great frustration and sadness to see this marvelous experiment losing good people (many wonderful namers have left), or leaving its fans frustrated unnecessarily. It’s hard not to feel “uncollaborative” when “12 more hours for the revamp” turns into 168 hours with no explanation. I think a lot of us feel stood up at the altar here. Hey, if the limo’s stuck in traffic, at least call the bride!

  I’ve put a lot of positive energy toward Kluster in the last four months, in naming, community building, idea generation, and communication (”Here, kid, is how the site works….”). I didn’t mean my comment to be snarky. Seriously– read it straight. I apologize if more of my frustration than I intended leaked through.

  Truly, Stef sounds fun and interesting, but I don’t know why she was posting, and what we are to make of the post vis a vis the things we’re all waiting for (namethis improvements, exciting new projects, streamlining of the financials). It would have been cool if she’d told us what she was doing for Kluster. After all, you all know a lot about us (not the least of which is what our function is on the website).

  @ Matt — While public acclaim is always nice, my goal here has always been to help you create the best possible product, one that will enrich you, us, and your clients, both financially and in “usage satisfaction.” If my post above makes you feel the need to pare back on the “really nice things” you were going to say, I guess our relationship wasn’t as strong as I thought it was. (Weep into lacy hankerchief.)

  Guys, you have the chance to do something amazing here. And while it’s possible that “new blood” will mean you can churn through klusterers indefinitely, it would be far more effective to maintain relationships. And that means not taking us for granted. (Weeps again into handerchief; fingers engagement ring contemplatively.)

  Maybe a sports analogy is better. We’re ready to play, Coach. Coach? Hey, Coach, we’re you go? We’ve been working out and practicing our passes and talking about how to make the team better and…Coach? We wanna play!

  With love.

• Stacy Prince on September 25th, 2008:

  @ Kristen. Thanks.

• Jesse Hattabaugh on September 25th, 2008:

  Something similar to this happened back in August at Brightkite. They made a promise to deliver an iPhone native app by the end of the month, and they didn’t deliver. This is what they did about it; http://blog.brightkite.com/2008/08/04/soits-the-end-of-the-month-where-is-the-iphone-app/ It’s one thing to apologize for delays, and a whole other thing to explain the reasons and post pictures of the people responsible for people to throw tomatoes at, that takes guts! But the most impressive thing about it is the reaction of the users in the comments. Rather than take pot-shot at the two poor devs who’s overly optimistic ETAs (still not delivered on BTW) most people expressed support and admiration for the transparency. NameThis is a great site, I like using it, but my life will go on if the changes don’t get launched for a few more weeks. However, if I come back day after day expecting to hear updates, but get nothing but the frustrated comments of fellow users, eventually I’ll stop coming back. I’ve always enjoyed the progressive technologies that Kluster & co. come up with, but your community management thus-far has not reflected your forward thinking attitude. The lesson to be learned is that your users will understand, but they will not be ignored.

  @stef if you’re the new blog-mistress, just give it to us like it is. We won’t bite (and yeah that *is* what she said )

• ethan on September 25th, 2008:

  Cool stats on the new namethis set-up.

• stef on September 25th, 2008:

  stef’s–er, i’m–just new…and hadn’t blogged…and was offered the opportunity to…while the others work tirelessly to make namethis shiny and new, and everyone else shiny and happy.

  as for what i do here, i’m…well…howdoyousay, the office-bitch of sorts. (please note that “office-bitch” is MILES away from being the “office bitch.” the space and/or hyphen is key.) i keep the electricity flowin’, the health insured, the money in motion, express opinions, call out typos, laugh perhaps a little too much, etc. i’m also really good at planning company happy hours. but not until the namethis upgrade launches, fear not!

  anyway, sorry if my timing seemed off…no intention to rile people up. just an interim post from a newbie while the boys do that voodoo that they do.

• Stacy Prince on September 25th, 2008:

  Sounds like a fun job, Stef. Hope the baptism by first hasn’t soured you on the experience, unless of course it’s whisky sours at happy hour!

• Stacy Prince on September 25th, 2008:

  That’s “fire.” But as proofreader, you probably caught that!

• Georgi on September 25th, 2008:

  wooooooooow finally is here eeeeeee now waitin a lil bit explications about the “points”, top winners, top namers, … what we should do now…. c’moooon cant wait

• Georgi on September 25th, 2008:

  hmmm this points…. 30watts = 1point… what kind of investmensts we should do now?

• Matthew Cua on September 25th, 2008:

  Hello Stef !!!

  and Good Going Stacy !! xDDD

• Kristen on September 26th, 2008:

  Stef - Since you’re the money in motion person over there, here’s a way to understand all of our frustrations. Picture yourself telling all the hardworking guys at kluster headquarters that their paychecks were held up and then being told weeks later that they would only receive $200 a month just for a month or two. Then picture a few months later when they are still receiving only $200 a month without feeling any real possibility of more. That’s the group of users you’re dealing with at this point. That being said, good luck with the new position! Although we’re a frustrated crew, we’re also, in general, quite pleasant
  You mentioned them needing a woman around the office - whatever happened to Tiffany? Is she gone?