Considered creating a similar service myself a year ago but rejected it as unworkable in the real world.
There’s no way to ensure that someone pays the person for their suggestion, it’s not like a template or script where something tangible has to change hands.
It becomes a hey thanks for the free suggestions forum instead, especially with a $50 minimum payment plus SP’s take.
Stephen, we don’t have a process for that yet. This is our prototype. If the service proves to be a hit, we’ll implement payments like we have at 99designs.com, where we take care of collecting and holding the prize money while the contest runs, and then pay it out to the winner at the end. One step at a time. It all depends if the community get behind it.
That sounds like it should work well once it is implemented that way. Let’s hope that the trial isn’t ruined before that by people refusing to pay the winners.
Technically, if there is documentation that someone came up with a name, doesn’t that automatically constitute a copyright (at least in most countries)?
I fail to be impressed by this service, not least the rather high prize for the suggestions. It may encourage people seeking ideas to pay up if the prizes to be won were in the region of $10 to $20 instead of minimum $50 upwards.
Who would pay a minimum of $50 for a mere name? Plus whatever service fee Sitepoint decides to charge?
It would be a worthy cause if there were no prizes to be won. Members would happily make suggestions for fun. One hardly sweats over suggesting a name anyway.
I had a go at trying to think up names for a couple of the ones already listed. After about half an hour’s thought I still hadn’t come up with anything worth suggesting.
If the offered payments were lower I don’t think anyone would put any significant thought into trying to come up with a usable response - all you’d get would be the same junk you’d already thought of yourself and already rejected.
Heh, there’s already one called “Name My B*tch!” Those people seriously don’t need names from others, they’re already snappy and inventive! : ) Besides don’t racing animals have really weird names? Who the hell thought up “Sea Biscuit” anyway?? Sounds… icky.
I’d want to see the entries after the poster chooses one, just for the lawlz.
What’s to say a person will pay even if SitePoint would collect the prize money before showing the listing? I can see two distinct scenarios:
You start up a listing and legitimately do not like the responses received. Surely you would not pay out prize money for suggestions which you will not be using at all.
-however-
You can then simply say you do not like any suggestions, do not have to pay out your prize money, and then take away a name you liked for free (or the small listing fee).
This service really cannot be administered as far as I can see.
If you don’t sweat over a name, you’re potentially making a business destroying decision… there’s a reason why naming agencies like Tungsten & A Hundred Monkeys charge 6-figures and up for naming companies.
Likewise, the domain name space is competitive. Almost any serious start-up will have to acquire their domain name from a domain name owner, and prices are all over the map from a few thousand to millions of dollars for a generic word… it helps to have options, since they can save you huge amounts of money.
