Sk*rt, the small but quickly growing Digg-style site for women, announced tonight that it's changing its name and is asking its users to vote for what the new site will be called. The much smaller and just-a-touch younger women's magazine Skirt.com has been trying to get its hands on the Sk-rt.com domain name for some time and clearly the name is an odd one anyway (I like it, but so goes life). Regardless of why the name is being changed, it's pretty cool that the company is deciding with a vote.
The old name had a subversive thrill to it and was surprisingly easy to remember. The ten choices being offered for a vote, listed below, range from very cool to pretty darned dorky if you ask me. It's very cool that a company with momentum is letting its users vote on its name.
Built on the open source social news site software Pligg, Sk*rt has quickly taken a leadership position in the cutting edge market it exists in. Ad and blog network giant Sugar Publishing, for example, has been unable to unseat Sk*rt with its rival site SugarLoving. Sk*rt is gaining increasing Silicon Valley attention of late and could very well become the subject of some business news soon.
The site combines user submissions with voting and a Propeller-like editors' selected stories column. Its vote ranking algorithm is presumably much less developed than Digg's (age of site and Pligg, am I wrong?) but the site does offer some features Digg doesn't, like a handy bookmarklet for submitting stories from off-site.
The most important feature, of course, is the woman-centric community. Digg is de facto male-centric enough to be generally inhospitable and comments on some gender-related stories there are so horrifying that no one could be blamed for never returning to the site again after reading them.
Community-specific news sites for anyone outside of the dominant demographic groups or mainstream interests are likely to see substantial growth as the underlying technology becomes less exotic to non-early adopters.
Enough about the old site, though. Here are the 10 names that users are choosing between for the new Sk*rt. Which one is your favorite? Mine's the sixth on this list. Voting ends Friday night at midnight, presumably PST. You can vote on the company blog.
Name: Jupe Domain Name: jupejupe.com or jupeit.com, we can’t decide.Name: Lemonade (As in when life hands you lemons…)
Domain Name: Lemona.de (Kinda weird because it doesn’t even need a .com, but that’s also why we like it.)Name: Kirtsy
Domain Name: kirtsy.comName: Phlox
Domain Name: phlox.comName: Mesosoup
Domain Name: mesosoup.comName: SheSaw
Domain Name: shesaw.comName: Fierst
Domain Name: fierst.comName: GabOHla
Domain Name: gabohla.comName:19rocks (The 19th amendment rocks.) Actually this can be 19 anything. Ideas?
Domain Name: 19rocks.comName: HolyMoses
Domain Name: holymos.es
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why thise service is only for woman. i think this website is mostly visited by man's :)
Posted by: Ajay | April 29, 2008 10:46 PMGreat article. Thanks for writing about this and getting the word out about the contest. We can't wait to share the new name with you and your readers!
Laura
Posted by: Laura Mayes | April 29, 2008 11:19 PMMeh. That's the last effing Skirt! magazine I'll ever pick up.
Long live (whatever the new name for Sk*rt will be)!
Posted by: Jenny, Bloggess | April 30, 2008 4:55 AMUnfortunately, this article contains information that is just plain WRONG.
(1) SKIRT! magazine has been in existence long before sk-rt.com was even registered.
(2) SKIRT! magazine does not want the domain name sk-rt.com; it does want sk-rt.com to stop infringing upon the registered trademarks SKIRT and SKIRT!.
Get your facts straight.
Posted by: truth-now | April 30, 2008 5:28 AMDid anyone bother to check the domains? Most of them are taken (potentially by Sk*rt, but who knows), but a few are available. If Sk*rt isn't the one who has purchased these domains, it's kind of pointless to vote on them. Lemona.de is taken, for example. Potentially, they just purchased their favorites or the ones they thought might get snapped up, but it's really kind of crazy to do something like this unless you already own all the domain options.
Posted by: Chris Pratt | April 30, 2008 7:27 AMHi Chris. We've purchased most.
@truth-now. SKIRT! magazine was indeed around for a long while -- just not in any of the cities where the ladies lived or if so no one knew about it. Houston has already come and gone hasn't it? Also, you procured skirt.com well after sk-rt.com launched. So all of this that got us there happened honestly and was unfortunate.
Either way, we are moving on and hope the best for everyone.
@Marshall - thanks for being the first person I've read that "gets it" when it comes to the model. Slashdot was all-moderated and was well done (I still love it) and then Kevin Rose reacted with Digg.com to inject a bit more democracy (and I like that too and all the Revision3 work!) but we think we've struck a middle ground that will let selected articles stand out through volunteer editors and guest editors while allowing the broader user community to get in the mix!
Thanks for getting it and we're glad we found your site.
James Mayes
Posted by: James Mayes | April 30, 2008 8:30 AM@Ajay: while the site isn't only for women, it takes women as its angle. That makes sense, eh?
@truthnow yeah, it sure seems like you can TRADEMARK a word like "skirt."
I'm off to go trademark "car," "tree," and "and," now....
Related art!
Trademarked: Freedom of Expression
Posted by: Jim Withington | April 30, 2008 10:45 AMI met Gabrielle Blair and her girls @ the NYC Mashmeet. I can tell you personally that their members will pick the coolest name of the 10, because they are a smart and talented group. I personally liked the name but I am sure it has its problems. (all unique domains do)
Good luck to the site formally know as sk*rt. We wish you the best.
Gary
Posted by: VOIS GARY | April 30, 2008 11:05 AMCo-Founder
VOIS.com
I hope they take this as a great opportunity to retool their brand. The right change could lead to excellent opportunities for them. I gave them my idea and I'll be eager to see where the week leads them.
Posted by: Deb on the Rocks | April 30, 2008 11:13 AMhere's an archived version of skirt.com about a year ago:
1.http://web.archive.org/web/20070506222426/www.skirtmag.com/
2. then sk-rt launched.
3.then skirtmag.com became skirt.com
3-a.then skirt.com did an 'inspired redesign' and basically ripped off the sk-rt look and feel, complete with logo and typeface. except it wasn't done by anyone with any creative vision, so it's just a crappy knock-off copy. not cool.
good luck sk-rt people, you're creative and your idea is solid.
Posted by: jared | April 30, 2008 1:11 PMI've just trademarked the word "The". All of you will be hearing from my lawyer.
Posted by: jenny, bloggess | April 30, 2008 1:23 PMCheck out this gem from 2007:
Skirt! sues Pink magazine over alleged similarities
Posted by: James | April 30, 2008 2:11 PMhttp://tinyurl.com/5fcp4j
from the 2007 suit:
" The suit says Pink was created in such a way as to have "a free ride on the reputation and goodwill of ... Skirt! magazine."
The suit also says that those similarities may cause confusion for customers, leading them to think there's a connection between the publications. "
Posted by: jared | April 30, 2008 4:53 PMif this is so then why did "skirt!" redesign their site to look just like sk-rt? was it so they could have a free ride on the reputation of sk-rt? aren't they worried that their redesign would lead customers to think there's a connection between the publications?
Hey Marshall,
You omitted PrettySocial from your list :-)
We're a social news site for young women (we love sk*rt, but it targets older women), and our story submissions focus on fashion, beauty, health, relationships, etc. Think of us as a women's magazine 2.0!
http://www.prettysocial.net/
Do drop by and let us know what you think!
Erin
Posted by: Erin | May 1, 2008 1:24 AMSk*rt targets "older women"?! Erin, I consider myself to be a young woman and I use sk*rt. Who are you targeting? 8 year olds?
Skirt! Magazine is a bully.
Posted by: AC | May 1, 2008 8:00 AMGreat article Marshall.
The sk*rt (or fka sk*rt) gals are creative, inspired, and inventive. They truly get the ideals of community, shared opportunity and sisterhood that this litigious web magazine only preaches. This is why my website has been honored to support them from the start and will continue to do so, whatever the name.
(Which we hope is She Saw. That is, unless the magazine now claims to have a trademark on the word "she" and a patent on the written word.)
In the end, visionaries win. Not lawyers.
Posted by: Liz | May 1, 2008 9:33 AMOLD?! OLD?! Erin, maybe you mean "married" or "maternal" (there are scads of moms) but I am not OLD! (Mostly not old. Maybe a little.) I will check out your site!
I love Sk-rt.com and the ladies who launched it. Onward and upward!
PS: I am trademarking the alphabet AND the coveted '*' so good luck to all of you! ;)
Posted by: Super Zoe | May 1, 2008 10:10 AMi think sk-rt is better off in the end. and taking the high road? good for them. and honestly, who has ever heard of skirt magazine? in the end they're losing out of all the inadvertent traffic they got. thanks for the post.
Posted by: ses | May 1, 2008 10:38 AMskirt! magazine has been using "She Said" for years. isn't SheSaw another knockoff?
Posted by: fran | May 1, 2008 11:05 AM"Ummmm, that's what she said?" (Copyright Skirt! Magazine; Steve Carrell, NBC’s “The Office”)
Posted by: Andy | May 1, 2008 11:14 AM@fran - Do you think anyone at Skirt! Magazine (which started in 1994) ever saw the movie "He Said, She Said" which came out in 1991?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Said,_She_Said
Your thoughts?
Posted by: Rav | May 1, 2008 2:46 PMMean People Suck -- can I say that without consulting my lawyer for trade embargo infarction infringement?
Ladies - and you know who you are, and if you don't well, you've got bigger problems up your dang skirt now dontcha? Ladies - I love you. The good shall prevail.
Stick that in your truth pipe and smoke it!
Peace, Love & Light~
Posted by: TrueLightTracey | May 1, 2008 4:06 PMOoh Andy, alert Steve Carrell that Skirt! had that completely innovative phrase first. From now on he'll have to say "That's what the female that I was referring to stated."
Oh, that's much better.
Thanks, Skirt!, for making the world a better place with your unique brand of selfishness.
Posted by: Jenny, Bloggess | May 1, 2008 5:45 PMName:19rocks (The 19th amendment rocks.) Actually this can be 19 anything. Ideas?
Domain Name: 19rocks.com
Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here comes your 19th nervous breakdown
Oh, who's to blame? That girl's just insane. Well nothing I do don't seem to work, it just seems to make matters worse ...
I like it :-)
Posted by: Ivan | May 11, 2008 11:53 PM