We’re going to try something new for dealing with baby name questions. We now have EVEN MORE questions coming in than the last time I fretted about what we should do about having too many questions to answer. I was fretting about it to my mother, and she had what I thought was a really good idea, and I want to give it a try. So instead of going by due date, I’m going to answer questions by choosing a few from the ones that come in that week. We’ll try that for awhile and see if it goes better.
This means that if you’ve submitted a baby naming question, you’ll need to resubmit it (unless you sent it in the last week). This will also help me weed out the questions that no longer need answers.
This is basically a good idea, but I see a problem with choosing just from those requests that come in only within a specific week. Example, Susie is due in June and has sent you a request for help choosing a name. This morning she reads “New Way” so she — and all the other parents waiting for you to respond to their name requests — sends you a new email with her baby name question. Next week you choose a few of those that were resubmitted following your “New Way” announcement. Susie waits to see if her question appears, but you haven’t chosen it. So what now, does she send it in *every* week until the baby is born? Does someone who waited a week or two after the influx you’ll probably get after readers see “New Way” have a much better chance of getting her question published?
I think if I were Susie and really struggling to find the ‘right’ name for my baby, I might pick a day of the week to keep sending in my request, writing it a little differently each week until the birth, hoping you would eventually choose my request. Multiple that by many “Susies”, and you may end up with still more questions coming in than ever!
I’m wondering if you’ve set up a computer program to keep track of the requests. This would help you eliminate, if you so choose, requests that are submitted more than once, limiting each submitter to just one chance to get an answer. I think eventually this would be fair, but for next week it seems that if many of those who are waiting for an answer resubmit their questions, the competition will be too stiff: the odds that “Susie’s” question will be chosen are far less than they will be a few weeks from now after your “New Way” has been in effect for awhile.
This dilemma seems to be the result of being so good at what you do, Swistle!
PS Could you increase the number of questions that you post with no response from you? Although “Susie” is no doubt really hoping for your input, I think she’d be happy to have the suggestions and comments from your readers, and as a group of name enthusiasts, we’ve got the time, collectively, to respond to every question you post.
I recall that you have 5 or 6 kids. Having raised 9 in the pre-internet days, I don’t know how I would have been able to devote as much time to a blog like this as you do. You’re amazing — and most likely very efficient!
Yes–“Susie” (more likely “Jenny”!) should probably wait a few weeks as we make the transition from Old Way to New Way.
Fairness might or might not be an issue—we’ll have to see how things go. I plan to select by question-related criteria, not randomly, so a question that isn’t answered one week is likely to passed over no matter how many times it’s resubmitted, unless it changes in a way that in fact makes it a better candidate for answering (adding a surname, finding out the sex of the baby, etc.).
That was my PS above — didn’t mean to check “Anonymous”. You’re right, Susie really should be Jenny — and I thought about changing to that, but left it as is. And that’s what I meant about “Susie” (aka Jenny) changing her request a little each time she sends it in so that maybe you *will* select it. Too, if everything is included – one gender only, surname, due date – will a request be far more likely to be selected (maybe almost ‘guaranteed’ to be chosen)?
Unfortunately no, which is increasing my fretting hugely: I hate to pass on requests that are really, really good and have everything we need for a good answer—but there are too many even for that. It also pains me to think that there could be weeks when just by coincidence we’d get, say, fifteen great submissions, and other weeks when we’d get only three and they’d all be ones that wouldn’t otherwise be chosen. So I’ll probably have a little list of “good submissions but too many that week” that I can pick from on skimpy weeks.
Another thought about this: to increase the number of Name Updates submitted, how about giving some extra consideration to questions from parents who sent you an update after their previous request was posted?
Is the due date still being considered a factor? I have a ‘Name to Consider’ (and I think it’s a good one! ;)), but am not due until September.
I’m sorry you’re fretting, lady. You do a really great job and I feel like we should all just appreciate what you CAN do instead of being disappointed in what you can’t do (sorry – the name update from a few weeks ago where the lady said she was disappointed that she didn’t get your input made me a tad bit ragey.)
Melissa- I’d say no, I’d stop doing them in due date order entirely. But! Probably one question per pregnancy! So if a couple had a question about a boy name AND was going to find out the sex of the baby mid-pregnancy, they might want to wait to ask until after seeing if they WERE having a boy.
Er, not that I’d have a LIMIT on how many questions per pregnancy! I mean only that if I were deciding between questions, I’d probably tend to give priority to the ones who hadn’t had any questions answered yet.
I have a few (different) ideas. Please bear with me.
Could you come up with a specific format that people must submit their inquiry in? (the put us to work section is a good place to start for the form questions) Then if they haven’t met the formatting requirements, they automatically get tossed. And then some of the “form” questions could also help you decide more quickly to answer or not.
Or much simpler. Just have an auto reply on your email that says you are very sorry but simply can’t answer every question. Then you decide how many you are personally willing to respond to and then farm the rest out to the group.
Or is there a volunteer or group
of volunteers willing to take a little bit of the load and write guest naming posts?
Or maybe you could only regularly answer requests that are within a certain due date range.
Good luck.
You rock at your job, Swistle. So many people appreciate your time, effort, and amazing insight. Thanks for being awesome!
Whatever you decide, if you post it, we’ll comment on it!
I missed this post, because I’m not always the best at keeping up… I wanted to say, I never mind writing some guest posts or helping you out with sorting out things for this blog…. you can always let us know if you need some ‘helpers’ or co-authors or anything of the like!