1 - For the record I didn't take any offence at the second invite I signed up to Naymz a few months back, didn't like it, and now have cancelled (I wrote about this on my site at the time). So please don't take offence at the lack of response from me, and no doubt others.

2 - @Tom (3) - I didn't know that about the other networks; I must admit, however, that I haven't tried that many, and those that I have I have invited others to join my network piecemeal. As far as LinkedIn goes, I would venture to say that virtually everyone with which I have connected was already in their network, so connecting to them was much easier.

As far as Naymz goes, I haven't given up yet I do think that there are areas where you could improve the interface. I'll make a couple of suggestions regarding the invitation process, since that is the topic of discussion.

First, I like the import feature from LinkedIn. I have over 300 connections, so that was easy and useful; however I would make it very clear when the initial invites will go out, when subsequent followup reminders go out, etc. Furthermore I would make these user-configurable, and simply "default" them to your current behavior.

Second, let's talk about the Invitations management interface itself. I would allow the user to choose how many invitations you view at one time, and have it default to the current amount of 10. I would then provide some "Actions" that can be applied to all selected invitations, such as modifying the number of reminders, expiring options, delete, etc. Along with these actions I would provide the ability to select "All Invitations", regardless of whether they are all visible on the screen or not.

Actually, I would suggest you look at GMail for "inspiration" in this area, especially the way GMail handles the inbox and spam views. Their interface in this regard is intuitive yet powerful when dealing with multiple documents.

So Tom, I am not put off by Naymz - just disappointed that the system sent those followups without my explicit approval or because of some deliberate action on my part. I think that a general rule-of-thumb that should be used when designing interfaces like this is that the system should never send any emails to a user's contact/invite list without the user taking some deliberate action to cause it or to approve it happening at some future date. You know how us geeks are - we don't like surprises, and we really don't like unsolicited emails (receiving them or them being sent on our behalf) without our knowledge or expectation.

Finally, I want to thank you for stopping by and participating in this discussion. I am very pleased when I find an executive who takes a hands-on approach to his business, especially when dealing with customers and critics. This definitely speaks well of you, and I appreciate the effort.

I look forward to our continued dialog, and to continuing my participation in Naymz.

Rock

3 - If Satan existed, you'd be his child he he.

I signed up and they still keep sending me emails :)

4 -
Hmmm. I recall some wisdom offered not long ago. Sherman! Crank up the Way-Back machine!

<snip>

[3/17/2008 3:01:18 PM] Andrew Pollack says: nothing personal - going to ignore.
[3/17/2008 3:01:47 PM] Rocky Oliver says: sure
[3/17/2008 3:01:40 PM] Andrew Pollack says: read their FAQ, looks pyramdial, monitization seeking, and otherwise unhelpful to me.

<snip>

5 - @Tom (7) - Thanks for the insight into Naymz, and for continuing to respond.

I agree that people hate to read - but people usually double-check choices that are presented to them. So if you were to modify the initial import/invite screen to list each of those things as choices, defaulted to the desired behavior, instead of just static text I bet many more people would read it. Just a thought.

I'll keep checking in at Naymz to see how it progresses. I think it is an interesting model, and you have a good shot at making it.

Best of luck!

Rock

6 - @Rock

First off, the idea of being called an executive makes me cringe . In the spirit of being transparent about our business, we are a small team of three guys trapped in a small room trying to build a useful/cool product on a shoe-string budget. For better or for worse, we are not backed by any VC's or corporation. That being said, candid feedback and input like this is invaluable to us, particularly in these early stages of our business.

With regards to the invites, we try to be very open about how they are managed. At the very top of the 'Invite Management' page we state:
** Invitations expire after 30 days
** Reminders are sent every 8 days until expiration
** Recipients can opt-out from receiving invitations at any time

The problem is people don't always like to read. I suppose we can look for ways to make these pop more either through design, placement, or execution (i.e. confirmation window).

The idea of giving some additional controls in terms of how the invites are sent out is a great one and something we are going to definitely explore. We will certainly take a look at how GMail executes this on their interface.

I'm more than glad you brought some this to light and appreciative of the discussion here.

@Andrew

Yes, we are in the business of making money. We do have premium level services that do cost money. Yes, the email invitation model helps our site grow.

While a large part of our growth has come via email marketing through the invitation model, it certainly isn't our entire business strategy. Search engine marketing, word-of-mouth, and PR are just as important for us. We have had plenty of coverage from major media outlets which has helped tremendously { Link } . We believe we have taken the high-road in terms our email practices in relation to most social platforms that rely on viral growth through email invitation. We allow recipients to easily decline or completely opt-out from receiving another email from us ever again. Most social networks do not allow for this.

NOTE: I edited this to fix the weird characters so that it is easier to read. The actual content was not changed at all. **Rock

7 - Hey Rock, thanks for the information about them sending out the emails. I didn't know that either and almost went and deleted my account until I read the responses from Andrew. Now that he says the text is there, I saw it. I do agree that it needs to become a user selectable option with a repeat option.

Regarding them adding feature, a couple of weeks ago (March 18th) I sent Andrew an email asking him to start using cookies on his site so that each time I clicked on my Profile, it didn't get counted on my hits page. I did get a response from them saying it might be in place by the end of that week. No joy here yet, but I am not giving up on them for another few weeks. If they add this one thing before the 18th of April, a month since I requested it, I will continue my membership. If not, LinkedIn is still my top networking site and will just become that much more used.

8 - Hi Rocky,

Our network invitation model is on par with most other social networks out there, including LinkedIn. Naymz sends out one invitation out to each individual that our members provide us addresses for as well as two reminders over the following 30 days. After 30 days, the invitation automatically expires. If the recipient of the invitation does not want to join someone's network, they only need to decline the invitation by clicking the "decline" button. They can also opt-out at anytime from receiving any invitations from us in the future by clicking the opt-out link at the bottom of every email we send (which LinkedIn does not provide).

We also do allow the sender to cancel their invitations (which you have done). I put the "bulk deletion" request into our product pipeline.

We are sorry your experience with Naymz wasn't a more positive one. If you have any recommendations on how we can make this less intrusive/annoying/etc., we would love to hear them.

Best Regards,
Tom Drugan
Naymz Co-founder

9 - @4 (Andrew) - Well, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt. Why? Because all of the various business-oriented social networks out there are "pyramdial" and "monitization seeking". I don't see Naymz being any more egregious than, say, LinkedIn { Link } or Xing { Link } (popular in Europe, especially Germany).

Rock