

The "Taken Username Effect" on Twitter - diego
http://diegobasch.com/the-taken-username-effect-on-twitter

======
udp
The frustrating thing about so many usernames being taken on Twitter is that
while new accounts are having to add numbers and underscores, most of the time
the name they want is just a ghost account from 2008 with 0 tweets.

Twitter should really have some kind of policy for releasing the names of
completely unused accounts.

~~~
graywh
There is a policy on inactive accounts, but there's nothing about requesting
an account be released. [https://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-abuse-
or-policy...](https://support.twitter.com/groups/33-report-abuse-or-policy-
violations/topics/148-policy-information/articles/15362-inactive-account-
policy)

~~~
Timothee
Note that this hasn't changed in a long time. Meaning: they'll never get to
release them in bulk.

 _"If a username you would like is being used by an account that seems
inactive, you should consider selecting an available variation for your use on
Twitter. In general, adding numbers, underscores, or abbreviations can help
you come up with a great available username.﻿"_

Every time I read this page, (I checked it a few times because @timothee is
taken but has never been used) I'm amused by the "if blah blah…, we offer no
solution. But here's a 'solution' that we'll tell you is even better even
though it's clearly not."

~~~
graywh
If that's your long-time username on the Internet, you could file an
impersonation claim. But that will be a harder case to make for a common name.

------
dgabriel
This phenomenon hits me all the time because I'm an early adopter. There are
many dgabriels in the world, and all of them think my gmail adress is theirs.
I have gotten emails meant for theater directors, therapists (with very
confidential info), been signed up for a million services (including
adultfriendfinder and some Australian hook-up site). I get chain mail with
puppy pictures from other people's grandparents, and yoga lesson
confirmations, and invitations to participate in physician studies.

On one hand, it's a fascinating window into the diversity of dgabriels and
their lives, but it gets irritating when I repeatedly get stuff after telling
the sender I am not the droid they are looking for.

And, yes, I totally grabbed my outlook.com username, even though I don't
currently have plans for switching...

~~~
petitmiam
I can relate to this. Last week I received 2 rather lengthy and intimate love
letters, in my inbox from a lady in half Italian/half English. This was made
all the more interesting, by the fact that a month ago I received a series of
risqué photos from a _different_ lady speaking Italian. Maybe it's just
coincidence, but I like to think there's some Italian stud out there who's too
busy working his charm to remember his correct email.

Other highlights have been a company requesting a toothbrush design (to which
I promptly replied with a ms paint mock-up) and 2 requests for me to provide
artwork for graphic novels.

------
kmfrk
Sometimes, the fun of a pseudonym is the necessity under which it had to be
created.

I still am undecided on how to go about account names - do I want people to
infer my online handles from my name or other account names and e-mail
addresses?

I still don't know if it's in my interest to have a unified account name
across GitHub, Outlook.com, Gmail, Twitter, etc.

Convenience and privacy are often mutually exclusive, unfortunately. With
GitHub, it's like a digital resumé, so I don't mind using my full name there.

Then again, if you manage to secure your last or first name, it could just as
well be any of your namesakes.

------
echelon
This story reminded me about this handle.

I've historically used 'echelon' everywhere since 2001. It's my Gmail address,
my Github account, and while I don't tweet much, it's also my Twitter handle.

I was so disappointed when 'echelon' was already allocated on Reddit and HN.
It took me years to sign up for either site because I was put off by having to
use an alternate username. Ultimately I registered here as 'possibilistic'.

Just under a year ago I randomly tried to register as echelon again; I suppose
pg deallocated all of the unused accounts of a certain age--I got my
originally desired username. My problem now is that all of my posts are under
'possibilistic'. As much as I'd like to be 'echelon', I like my comment
history too. :-/

I wonder if I could bother someone at HN to rename 'possibilistic' to
'echelon' and just delete this account entirely? It's probably not worth their
effort, but it would be really nice.

~~~
jcc80
Interesting in that I've had the same experience in delaying signing up for
services when my name was taken. It's silly I guess but I didn't sign up for
twitter for about a year because of this. Maybe that's the only argument a
company would care about enough to make a change - the idea that they won't
have as many users if squatters take so many names. Of course, if your service
is at the point where there are name squatters maybe you're doing well enough
already and don't care.

------
3am_hackernews
Yes, it happens to almost every single popular service, starting with Hotmail,
Yahoo!Mail, GMail, facebook and so on.

Why is this even a post of discussion? Aren't there better things to discuss
about? Isn't this a typical first-world-problem?

~~~
incision
1) There's always something "better" to discuss or, even better, something
better you could do to better yourself or maybe even make the world a better
place. Better, better, better, pointless.

2) The post is useful in that it takes something everyone has experienced and
is familiar with and actually quantifies it. As the article suggests, this is
particularly relevant on Twitter where longer IDs directly impact one's use of
the system.

3) This "first-world-problem" meme or whatever the hell is some silly
bullshit. Until HN starts filling up with topics like "Food: How to ensure
that your infant doesn't die of starvation tomorrow night" - they're all first
world problems.

------
_delirium
After enough frustration getting my preferred usernames—both my normal
pseudonym, and variations on my initials in real-name situations—a few years
ago I just settled on adding an underscore to the front of my preferred
pseudonym. I sort of like how it looks, and haven't had username problems
since... except at sites that don't let you start a username with an
underscore.

It'd admittedly be confusing if there were an active 'delirium' and also an
active '_delirium', but so far my doppelgangers hve all been inactive accounts
(example: <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=delirium>).

~~~
omaranto
Actually, "delirium" sounds boring and pretentious, but "_delirium" (I
pronounce it as "subdelirium") sounds whimsical and fun. I'd say your username
definitely benefits from the leading underscore. :)

~~~
_delirium
Hah, interesting point. I must admit I'm not as fond of 'delirium' as a
username anymore either; a legacy of picking a mildly pretentious handle as a
teenager and then feeling sort of tied to it. So, glad the '_' improves it. :)

------
fourstar
This happens with every popular service that doesn't release names. AOL used
to release names every once in awhile, but it was few and far in between and
when they did, they'd be all registered within a few days (because they had a
tendency to release good names). I ended up compromising a lot of names in the
late 90s on AOL to end up selling them for hundreds of dollars.

My parents always wondered how I ended up making so much money by selling
"screen names".

~~~
alttab
Tell them "by being an ethical internet citizen."

------
edj
Has anyone here bought a twitter username?

I imagine it wouldn't be so different from buying a domain name. Probably an
escrow service would be a good idea. Other than that it seems like it would
just be a matter of reaching a meeting of the minds on price.

------
kragniz
And that is why I have a fairly unique nick as my preferred username.

~~~
yorhel
That's what I thought as well, but "yorhel" has been taken on Twitter for
quite a while.

------
pixelcort
One solution other sites could adopt is a .com ownership rule.

If the username you want, suffixed with .com, is a registered domain name, you
would have to verify the postmaster email address at that domain to prove you
own it. (Or upload one of those random HTML files like other domain ownership
checks do.)

This way you can just own the .com domain name of your preferred username and
guarantee you'll get it on sites that implement this.

------
mmanfrin
I'm usually quick to get 'manfrin', but here I was second and with skype I
couldn't even get mmanfrin. I had no idea what to register at that point.

~~~
gosub
mmmanfrin?

------
B-Con
Thankfully, my handle is pretty unique. I use it pretty much everywhere and
not only is it available, but I've only seen two other instances of it used by
someone else (both on sites I didn't care about).

Unfortunately, hyphens aren't always allowed so I have to switch to an
underscore. And if those aren't allowed I have to switch to a backup username.

------
jhrobert
A while ago I started using my camel cased name: JeanHuguesRobert (some sites
don't like jean_hugues_robert)

Long and weird enough. Well, too long sometimes. In those cases I revert to my
"unix login name" ie jhrobert.

But, for twitter, where size matters, I got @jhr - I guess it must have been a
long time ago.

------
davidw
It bugs the shit out of me when I don't get "davidw". I know it's sort of
silly, but I've been "davidw" since 1993, and I've grown kind of partial to
it, as well as having a lot of muscle memory primed to type that at logins.

~~~
slantyyz
I used to use "slant" in the 80s on BBS's. Once the Internet came around, that
name was always already chosen.

Coming from Toronto, I added the local airport code (YYZ) to my nick.

The problem is that what I thought would be pronounced as "slant why why
zed/zee" came out to others as "slanty eyes".

Fortunately, I have slanted eyes, so I guess nobody can accuse my nick of
being inaccurate.

~~~
nathan_long
>> Fortunately, I have slanted eyes, so I guess nobody can accuse my nick of
being inaccurate.

This made me laugh a lot. I imagine it spoken by a slightly-embarrassed news
anchor on the Simpsons.

~~~
slantyyz
An acquaintance of mine once told me there was heated debate among his Twitter
friends after they saw my handle in an @reply tweet.

They (none of whom were Asians) thought that I should change my nick because
it was racist and/or offensive to Asians, despite the fact that I'm Asian
myself.

~~~
king_jester
Duh, everyone on the internet is a white straight man /s

------
n0mad01
i "invented" my username n0mad around the year 2000, now this username is used
everywhere i get too late to register.

i don't know if this has to do with usernames being copied or because so many
people are around the net nowadays and they all have the same idea now.

~~~
slantyyz
Probably the latter.

~~~
n0mad01
yeah, i now and then try out m0nad, nobody uses that one -> lets see for how
long.

