

Show HN: Call Me Not: solving the "when to call?" problem. - Suan
http://market.android.com/details?id=com.threedot.android.callmenot

======
dasht
It's an interesting feature but calling it a "reverse call blocker" is (a)
confusing; (b) makes it sound antagonistic.

In essence this thing is supposed to help you avoid forgetting when the bad
vs. good times are to call someone... or to remember not to normally use some
number you otherwise would. In other words, this tool helps users to be
_considerate_ \-- a concept which the word _blocking_ doesn't suggest.

If you stop calling it _blocking_ then you don't need _reverse_ \-- some other
word.

The confusing terminology did "make me look" but that's probably not a strong
marketing strategy. Before I looked I couldn't imagine what in the heck
"reverse blocking" was supposed to mean.

I'm afraid the name "call me not" has the same problem. I'm not sure what to
suggest for a better one.

Feature-wise: seems like there could be a "social" / "groupware" kind of
aspect to this. E.g., I can publish my schedule that might get abstracted down
to "good times to call" for various groups of people, and the app can somehow
just join those against my contacts list to automate .....

~~~
Suan
Thanks for your thoughts dasht! I created this app mainly for my own uses to
not call my girlfriend when she's in class, and initially when I went
searching for such an app, the queries I used were similar to "reverse call
blocker", and "outgoing call blocker", hence the title. That said I might
change it to something else...

The "Call Me Not" app name I agree is confusing, but it sounded really catchy
and a whole lot better than "Call You Not", so we stuck with it.

We did consider other groupware/google calendar approaches as well, but there
was the question of implementation and the receivers' incentives to download
the app and/or publish "don't call" times on their calendars. We ultimately
decided on this approach for a first pass since it fit _my_ needs perfectly,
at least. Completely changing the mechanics in later versions is not out of
the question though, and will be based on valuable feedback we get from users
like you =)

UPDATE: Title changed as per suggestion!

~~~
dasht
Best wishes and god speed. I'm glad you liked my comment. In terms of hooking
it up to social/calendar stuff -- those also seem to me like the bright maybe-
promising-if-the-thing-catches-on future, rather than 0.9 features, so to
speak. I didn't mean to imply you need to do that right away (if that wasn't
clear). (I can't give you feedback as a user since I don't have a phone on
which the app can run.)

Also: "when to call" --- brilliant! perfect (imo).

