Name That Pod

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Step one — who are you?

Type your name below. It gets stuck onto every name you suggest and every vote you cast, so people can see who came up with what. You only have to do this once on this device.

Your name

Your player number —

The game board

Each column is one thing we are naming. Names start at the bottom and climb a shelf every time they survive a round. Crossed-out names have been knocked out. The number next to a name is how many points it got in that round.

Score tally

Who has played

A tick means that person has voted in that round. Handy for chasing the stragglers before the clock runs out.

Game master only

Ignore this section unless you are running the game. Everything here stays locked until the key is typed in, and players never need it.

Game master key

Dots each, round 1

Survive round 1

Survive round 2

Names per person, per area

Hours per round

Move on by itself when the clock runs out

Buys the current round more time without changing the setting above.

Areas to name — one per line, as Label | pod or Label | room

How to play

We are giving names to six places in the new office. Everybody suggests names, then everybody votes, three times. Each part lasts 24 hours.

There are three work areas, which we call pods, and each pod has its own conference room. Three pods plus three conference rooms makes six names to come up with.

The short version: suggest names, then vote three times. Each round of voting knocks out the weakest names, so the list gets shorter and the choice gets easier. Nothing is decided by one person.

The 24-hour rule. Every part of the game is open for exactly 24 hours, and there is a countdown clock at the top of the page showing you how long is left. When it hits zero that part closes, whatever you were in the middle of, and the next one opens straight away with a fresh 24 hours. Nothing you have already submitted is lost. Anything you had clicked but not submitted is. So press the button before you wander off.

Start to finish that is four days: one day to suggest names, then one day for each of the three voting rounds. You do not have to do it all in one sitting, but you do have to show up once a day.

What you do, in order

Put your name in

Top of the page, the box marked "Your name". Type it and click away from the box. That is it. The page remembers you after that.

Suggest some names — day one

You get up to three suggestions for each of the six places. You do not have to use all three, and you do not have to suggest something for every place.

Type a name, click Add. If somebody already suggested it, the page will tell you and you can try something else. You can delete your own suggestions with the little pink × until the clock runs out.

Round one — spend your dots — day two

By now there will be a long list of names. This round is just about shortening it.

You get three dots for each place. Click a name to put a dot on it. Click it again to take the dot back. One dot per name, so you cannot pile all three onto your favourite.

a lit-up circle means you spent a dot there

Think of it as: which names deserve another look? Not: which is my favourite? When you are done, click the big pink button at the bottom.

The five names with the most dots in each place go through. The rest are out.

Round two — tick anything you like — day three

Only the survivors are left now. Tick every name you would be happy to see on the wall. There is no limit. Tick one, tick all five, whatever is honest.

✓ a tick means you would be happy with this one

This sounds odd but it matters. If three people suggest names that are basically the same idea, voting for only one of them would split the support and all three would lose to something nobody actually wants. Ticking everything you like stops that happening.

The three names with the most ticks in each place go through.

Round three — give marks out of five — day four

Three names left per place. Give each one a mark from 0 to 5. Zero means you hate it, five means you love it. You can give the same mark to more than one.

0 3 5 tap the number you want

Then two things happen. First, all the marks are added up and the top two names go into a head-to-head. Second, the winner of that head-to-head is whichever of the two was given a higher mark by more people.

That second bit is the important one, and it means the name with the biggest total does not always win. If one name gets a lot of 3s from everybody and another gets 5s from most people and 0s from a few, the second one can have a lower total but still win, because more people preferred it. That is deliberate. It stops the dullest compromise winning just by being nobody's least favourite.

Questions you might have

What happens if I miss a round? That round goes ahead without you. You cannot go back and vote in a round that has closed, but you can still join in the next one. Missing round one does not lock you out of rounds two and three.

The clock ran out while I was voting. Then that vote did not count, sorry. The page locks the moment the clock hits zero. Submit as you go rather than saving it all for the end.

Can I change my vote? Yes, as long as the round is still open. Go back, change what you clicked, and press the button again. Your new vote replaces the old one.

Can I vote twice? No. One vote each per round. If you press the button twice it just replaces your vote, it does not count twice.

Can the deadline be extended? The game master can push it out if something comes up, like half the office being away. Ask them, not the page.

What if I start on my laptop and finish on my phone? The page will treat you as a different person, because it recognises the device rather than you. Stick to one device.

Can I see who voted for what? No. You can see who suggested each name, and you can see who has voted, but not what anybody voted for.

What are those numbers on the board? Points from that round. Dots in round one, ticks in round two, marks out of five in round three.

Something looks wrong or stuck. Press Refresh at the top. The page also checks for updates on its own every twenty seconds.