Last night I got the umteenth e-mail asking me what I think about Naymz.
Naymz is a site that I have recommended, based on a friend’s recommendation, as a tool to help you claim more of your online profile.
Theoretically it is a site that helps your name come up on a Google search … at least, that’s the way I understood it.
I finally signed up for Naymz to check it out. I was discouraged by two things:
- Of course, like social networking sites, they wanted me to invite all of my contacts to the network. The problem with this, in my opinion, is that if I do this, I’m strongly endorsing Naymz to my contacts, which I’m not in a position to do yet. Plus, I might recommend it to a few people, but I don’t want to do a blanket endorsement to all of my contacts (some of whom I have a strong (or weak) relationship with).
- Just by filling out my profile I get points. Want another five points? Put what country you are in (but don’t put USA – they don’t like abbreviations)! Want another five points? Put what city you are in! Hold on… I want privacy (well, you know what I mean :p)… this idea of getting points is a yellow flag for my skeptical side.
My understanding is you get more points, which makes you more credible (ie, the more points you have, the more real/genuine/trustworthy/??? you are… ??).
Instead of discouraging anyone from using this, I’ll throw it right back at you – what do you know about Naymz? Is this something that has helped you, or that you recommend? How or why?
If you are interested in reading more about Naymz, here’s some buzz in the blogosphere:
- Liquid HR writes Naymz.com business model and context
- Favorite Online Resources writes Naymz Reputation Network
- Technology Evangelist writes A Stalker Enabled Social Network (note, his argument applies to LinkedIn, too. Read the comments on that post to figure out how to “resolve” it, if you are concerned (I’m not))
- Web 2.0 Weblog writes What The Hell Is This Naymz Thing?
I signed up with Namyz six months ago to check it out. I haven’t seen the value in it like I have with LinkedIn and Facebook. The service sends way too much spam. Here’s the latest email I received:
The following unread messages are waiting in your Naymz Inbox:
* Custom Domain Trial Ending
* Reputation Network Invitation
* Reputation Network Invitation
* Custom Domain Trial Expired
* Reputation Network Invitation
* Reputation Network Invitation
* Custom Domain Trial Ending
* Reputation Dashboard
* Custom Domain Trial Ending
* Your Custom Domain
* Reputation Dashboard
* Get 10 RepScore points for any profile update
* Get 10 RepScore points for any profile update
* Invitation expired
* New: Reputation Assessments
* Get 10 RepScore points for any profile update
* Get 10 RepScore points for any profile update
* Naymz partners with Trufina for Identity Verification
* Get one free month of Naymz Premium!
* Get one free month of Naymz Premium!
* Get one free month of Naymz Premium!
* Correction: Perk requires RepScore Level 9
* Your RepScore is below Level 5!
I have not found a compelling reason to give further attention to Naymz. For business connections, LinkedIn is more elegant and most of my connections are already there.
I agree. I got an invite and registered but did not give my address book away to them.
They have spammed me many times and I just don’t see the benefit.
The last thing I want is some points based award system – who has time to keep up with that?
Companies like this think that we have time to promote them for a few points – we don’t.
What I love about Linked In – they help me – and they leave me alone.
cougarmark
Naymz in combination with Trufina gives you a rudimentary reliable identity. Being the vagabond I am, I’ll try anything. So how do you know that this is the real “ferdinand john reinke”? As opposed to some Nigerian flake that has compromised my site. You don’t. If I have one criticism of the internet, web20, or whatever you want to call this mess. There is no reliable identity. It has to start with the ISPs, since they get your credit card and that seems to be a good foundation to build upon. Unfortunately, the Internet Gods seem to like things just the way they are. Spam, DDOS, and all sorts of bad stuff would be history, if and when we have a fully secure identity paradigm. I think it begins with a credit card. And that’s where trufina and namyz start. Maybe yes, maybe no. But, I think I like it. imho, fjohn
I get these requests all the time. I belong to three of four groups that I have no interest in and do not spend anytime networking in. So, I’m not inclined to join any more of these types of groups. I maintain my LinkedIn for professional networking, my Facebook and MySpace for social networking – and of course my MANY Yahoo! group memberships (I belong to over 50 groups in Yahoo!).
Today I received a second request from someone I respect to join, so he could get the “points.” So I clicked on the link and to check out HoverSpot: https://www.hoverspot.com/.
Rather then finding out more about the site, I was immediatly involved in the “join” process. I had the same issues Jason mentions below. I was required as one of my steps to chose one of my email providers (I chose Yahoo!) and was asked to put in my password. The next page pulled up my 519 contacts. There was NO option to SKIP this step, so I backed out, which sent me to my page.
I was then told I’d be given points to fill in “profile” information. Which I don’t plan on doing.
I back out of the group. Done for now. I later get a notice that I have a new Buddy request. So I go to check it out.
Okay, get this – The picture of my new potential Buddy was a NUDE man with a large Santa hat completely covering his head and a smaller cap covering his no-no area! I hit the REJECT button and I backed out, in a fright! Before I backed out, I checked to see if their was a way to send this invitation to SPAM or to report Inappropriate content. There was nothing on the “Buddy Invite” page for me to do either (like I am used to seeing in MySpace).
Their policy “Inappropriate content is not tolerated on HoverSpot. We, the HoverSpot member services team, work hard to keep HoverSpot safe and clean while still allowing our members to freely express themselves. We review each of the 20,000 photos that are uploaded to our servers daily, usually within 24 hours of the photo being uploaded.
If you feel a comment, photo or other content on our site is inappropriate, please use the report link at the bottom of the page to report the specific content to us.”
Since I already backed out, I have no way of finding who the perv was that has that ridiculous picture as this default photo. So, I can’t report the picture. Now that I think about it, the photo was kind of funny (especially due to the “sizes” and placement of the hats). But at the time, I was shocked.
This all happened to me today and I got the Jason’s blog the same day. Thought I’d share this with you all.
BTW, if I get another questionable “Buddy” request, I’m gone from that site!
~ Jayne
Jason,
You can send single invites on Naymz and that is the way I would recommend using it. I think Naymz has value to job seekers and business owners especially those who either have a limited online identity or a damaged one. It certainly doesn’t have the cache of a LinkedIn or a Facebook but it can help build and shift a person’s professional identity.
Hey Jason,
I have a different take on Naymz than some of the other folks who’ve posted here.
I did set up a profile on Naymz quite awhile ago, before they had any point system. I didn’t upload my contacts or get involved with seeking out others to vouch for my reputation, when this feature was added. Still, my profile is highly searchable, which is really the point for most of us, isn’t it? If one is simply after an easily accessible place to have an online presence which includes some similar and some different information than the LinkedIn profile, I’d suggest that Naymz is worthy of serious consideration. For those who blog, the Naymz profile even follows your blog and includes the titles of your latest posts on your profile.
I do get all sorts of invitations to connect with others on the site, but then, I get these from many others sites where I don’t have a profile at all. While the constant invitations lead to too much unwanted email, I’m not convinced that being listed on the site leads to any more than I’d be receiving anyway. This is more about others who have me in their contact lists and who upload the information to various sites than it is about Naymz. I’m too protective of my contacts’ information to upload them to the various sites and hope for the best.
If one is simply seeking another option for an online presence, I’d say Naymz has value.
Irene
2nd tier networking sites like Naymz & Tagged seem to all have some kind of pestering annoyance factor. I signed up for both because a few friends had done so and invited me. After 3 months of nothing on Naymz other than constant notices from Naymz itself about special offers, I just deleted my account there. For Tagged, I gave up on the subscription process because it wanted too much personal info.
The thing people often forget about all these sites is they require time & effort to maintain. I’d rather do a good job with one or two (like Linked-In and Facebook) than a mediocre job with 4 or 5.
To Jason and everyone who contributed their comments on this topic,
Thanks for taking the time to provide the information I needed to make a decision about joining Naymz. Since I don’t spend a lot of time online with the one network I already belong to (LinkedIn), it doesn’t make sense to join another networking group. Also, Jason’s link to the article re: ‘stalking’ was very helpful.
Have your own web-site and optimize your keywords and other meta tags, publish articles, press releases and opinions using your real name and you will be picked up by Google. I like LinkedIN and will not use Naymz. My “Reputation” is already good enough and I don’t like their slogan!