How Would You Improve The Site? (Cont'd)

Please enable contest entry submissions of in-SH domains owned by other users, in case one doesn’t have the suitable ideas/domains

In this case the submitter wouldn’t get a prize. When a premium domain wins, the winner passes up the prize, in exchange for the commission rate.
I think. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

This is a can of worms either way since most domain owners are contest participants. What if the owner submits a name to a contest and finds someone else has already submitted the name?

Anyway since the fairly recent experimental “Marketplace contests” where contestants were paid a finder’s fee for suggesting marketplace names fit for a business were discontinued, I think this is not a concept that works here.

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I agree. I wasnt up for the suggestion haha just finding out the issue with it :wink:

Hi I also noticed this but because I wanted to change capitalization. Our fantastic blue helpers told me how to do this…there is an option to restore deleted entry. Not sure how that works with dif domain.

@lightless I have already had that happen to me twice. I went to enter my marketplace domain into a contest and it said “already entered”…I was like “What?” How could that be? So it seems that they can enter YOUR name in a contest that has alternate domains (just not your .com version). It is very upsetting.

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I think in these cases that the exact .com domain owner should notify SH via BlueButton and resolve it for the sake of the CH, who deserves the exact .com if that is the name wanted.

Also, I REALLY like the new system. Now that some are chiming in to change it already, that is very frustrating to me. I’ve already put a lot of time and energy and research into adapting to it and before SH makes any changes to it, I hope they will talk to us first.

PS: AND MONEY!

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Maybe a change where if you are the owner of a marketplace name and you enter it in a contest, the same entry by a non-owner gets auto-withdrawn and your’s takes it’s place (And gains the same rating if it already has one).

On the topic of marketplace names, the system still allows domains I already sold (But I forget they are sold) to be entered into contests. This should be remedied.

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@lightless Did you delete them off your list of names? I ask because I was able to still enter too until I saw it in my entries it was taken (I would forget too), but ever since I deleted it off my list, it now shows as “taken” at the time of entry.

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@grant The envelope for messages is not working. I looked because I got an email and went to look at it on the site again and there were 6 other messages that never lit the little red notice that messages were there. Can you have tech check into this.

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I’ll like to be receiving recent winners in my mailbox

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We’ll take a look. Please report directly to us using the Blue Button if the issue persists after a few days. Thank you.

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Could SH add a box for the marketplace descriptions for added search terms? You know how we can add the words that are the roots of our names? One like that would be so awesome. Sometimes I have names that don’t fit into a pre-done category so well. For example, if you have a name that would be great for pest control, it doesn’t really fit anywhere. There are many others I have run across when entering my names but that one comes to mind at the moment. Cyber is another.

If somebody else actually submitted my domains from the marketplace itself then I would consider that as “assisted advertising” of those domains. Shouldn’t that be a “quadruple win” situation, whereby the winning participant gets the prize, the owner gets the domain sold (minus contest prize and etc), CH gets the really desired name, and SH gets the extra commissions?

As for the discontinued “Marketplace contests”, first of all during that time there weren’t as many domains as there are now (and therefore unlikely to have a good chance of getting something that “fits”), and if I do remember correctly, there weren’t as much participation (and prize) as well when compared to the main contests? Do correct me if I’m wrong though.

I did forget about the “minor variations allowed” part, it’ll definitely be a huge hindrance since the company name entry does overlap with domain name entry when it comes to triggering the same name entry checks. But that problem is already there, whether my suggestion is implemented or not. However, if my suggestion is implemented, it could actually solve this problem.

Participants right now don’t know (and may not have/take the time to search) that their entry submission of X dot com domain is in the marketplace, the domain checking system right now merely says “domain not available”. Naturally, the participant will then submit Xagency dot com (or something similar), and hence this problem happening in the first place. If the domain checking system is tweaked to include all marketplace domains instead of from just 1 owner then X dot com will be usable and therefore the ‘alternate domains’ will truly become “alternate” rather than what is now “mandatory”. Is that not correct?

If I understand what you mean, you’re saying the person who owns the domain would get their commission minus the contest prize? That would essentially meant discounting your domain by at least $100, possibly more. For instance, if you were to enter one of my marketplace names into a contest with a $200 prize and it won, you would end up making more from the name than I would. I doubt many owners of marketplace names would go for that. Or am I misunderstanding your suggestion?

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If CH selects a marketplace name as a winner in his contest, he pays the domain name price minus contest prize discount. The name owner gets his commission OR contest award if it is greater (NOT both) and Squadhelp takes the rest.

Now if a fourth guy were to come in between Squadhelp, the name owner and the CH, his prize would have to come at the expense of one of the three others (CH, SH or Name Owner). Since CHs can always search the marketplace and most name owners are also active contest participants, that model wouldn’t likely find much support from the main players.

That is basically it. Yet, for you to end up making less as a domain owner would mean that you priced your domains far too low that it’s not even worth owning it in the first place ($999 - $200 prize - $400 B.Plus commission = $399, still > $200 prize?). There’s an article out there (I don’t think I’m allowed to link it because there’s a reference to a possible competitor marketplace), saying a business owner finds that premium domains $2500 and below are “surprisingly cheap”. Even if you don’t look at that article, there’s another thread in this forum mentioning that price doesn’t matter as much if CH really wants the name (discounts being useless and etc). And even if you don’t look at that thread, the budgets when mentioned by CH should’ve at least given a hint on what prices owners should set, and last I remembered, there weren’t “weird/odd” budgets like $700 or $1100, but rather $1k, 2k, 5k, 10k? And even if you ignore all that, just think from the business perspective, if they can’t even afford a one time low $XXXX memorable name, doesn’t that mean that they don’t even have the required capital to even start or run a serious business that somehow requires a memorable name? And theoretically, even minimum wage workers can buy a $999 premium domain if they do choose to save enough of what they earned. So why price a memorable name so ridiculously low when you don’t have to? Think of the reason why the minimum $400 commission is there in the first place, it ain’t there simply just for SH.

I would like to say that one of my $1999 domain is being shortlisted in a contest without any budgets mentioned, but that is a terribly biased claim on my part.

If CH takes the time to search the marketplace, then there wouldn’t be any contests from that Contest Holder to begin with, no? So that point is basically moot.

Please define ‘main players’, because, aren’t we all main players? I support this model, you don’t, and it’s not like we can speak for others (who may be too busy trying to win instead of being in this forum). It is also possible that the supposed “non-support” from players could’ve stemmed from the “already entered” issue you and jackiehearty and others mentioned previously (which had already persist long before my suggestion, and again I say that this model could solve), or from overly under pricing their domains. Still, @grant I would like to suggest, if possible, an actual poll reaching all players to see whether the model I mentioned is to be supported or not.




On a separate note, @grant I need to report that urgent emails aren’t in sync with in-site notifications, and suddenly I ended up with violations after not checking my email for the past few days. I thought that if there’s something urgent and needed to be addressed immediately, shouldn’t there be more systematic efforts in informing users through as many available channels as possible? This isn’t the case currently, only 1 and only through email. I logged into SH the other time not knowing anything at all until I checked my emails much later on and it was already too late. There are in-site notifications and in-site messages, can’t those be used to inform urgent, time-sensitive issues as well?

I don’t have any basic or basic plus listings, only premium ones, and we aren’t allowed to discuss specific commission rates, but I can tell you for sure in the scenario I described, I would come out on the losing end of things. There is no minimum commission for most of my names. I personally don’t feel they are priced ridiculously low, but of course you are entitled to your opinion. The idea you described just doesn’t seem feasible to me.

I was just giving my opinion on the larger picture since this is a public discussion forum. If SH and all other creatives like your idea, think it has merit and it works out great, sure why not.

In my personal opinion, if it doesn’t benefit me, I’d like the option to opt out with my own names that is all.

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[EDIT: self-censorship due to violation message/email received]

This sounds like a great idea to add on.

So basically, to sum it up, here’s the revised suggestion:

To enable contest entry submissions of SHMP domains owned by other users, in case one doesn’t have the suitable ideas/domains, with the option for domain owners to opt out of this feature. What do you think of this @grant @Darpan ?