Monday
Jun292009
Facebook Changes Username Eligibility for Fan Pages on Gameday!
Monday, June 29, 2009 at 6:06AM
Facebook really let down many of us who stayed up late this weekend waiting patiently to get our vanity usernames (facebook.com/companyname). These vanity names are a very welcome replacement to those very long url strings, and provide a nice clean address for companies to promote their pages. Not only did they not follow the same schedule of opening the doors at 12:01 am of the date, but also added new restrictions days before - and then hours before. Very frustrating.
Facebook released the program earlier in the month and allowed individuals to register their personal usernames two weeks ago - along with brands who had over 1,000 registered fans previous to May 31. For all others, they were to wait until Sunday the 28th. When they posted the eligibility requirements, there was no minimum number of fans required. Then last week, they added a 25 fan minimum requirement. Then just a few hours before the doors were to open, they upped the threshold to 100 fans.
It was a pretty funny moment though, when I went to capture /propellermediaworks. Having anticipated beating what I understood to be a 25 threshold, I was dumbfounded when it told me I was not eligible. So I went back for the billionth time to reread the guidelines, only now to read the change to 100. I had 99! I was lucky to find someone online on chat to hook me up. Thanks Buck!
Clearly they want to combat the inevitable squatting spree. I get that. How could they not plan better for this. Everyone knew this squatting thing would happen, and they had already used a fan threshold before to block squatting, so why wasn't it until the last hour - literally - before adjusting the threshold to a level that would be effective?
I did get ours at least... www.facebook.com/propellermediaworks
Side note: in this process I had debated whether to try to capture facebook.com/propeller. Sure that would be nice, however I don't own the trademark to that name. AOL does, and they have lots of lawyers.
When considering a username, I advise only taking what is yours - and which you can defend. Be assured that many intellectual property lawyers have a ton of new business streaming in today!
Facebook released the program earlier in the month and allowed individuals to register their personal usernames two weeks ago - along with brands who had over 1,000 registered fans previous to May 31. For all others, they were to wait until Sunday the 28th. When they posted the eligibility requirements, there was no minimum number of fans required. Then last week, they added a 25 fan minimum requirement. Then just a few hours before the doors were to open, they upped the threshold to 100 fans.
It was a pretty funny moment though, when I went to capture /propellermediaworks. Having anticipated beating what I understood to be a 25 threshold, I was dumbfounded when it told me I was not eligible. So I went back for the billionth time to reread the guidelines, only now to read the change to 100. I had 99! I was lucky to find someone online on chat to hook me up. Thanks Buck!
Clearly they want to combat the inevitable squatting spree. I get that. How could they not plan better for this. Everyone knew this squatting thing would happen, and they had already used a fan threshold before to block squatting, so why wasn't it until the last hour - literally - before adjusting the threshold to a level that would be effective?
I did get ours at least... www.facebook.com/propellermediaworks
Side note: in this process I had debated whether to try to capture facebook.com/propeller. Sure that would be nice, however I don't own the trademark to that name. AOL does, and they have lots of lawyers.
When considering a username, I advise only taking what is yours - and which you can defend. Be assured that many intellectual property lawyers have a ton of new business streaming in today!
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Reader Comments (2)
It's frustrating that they changed the rules so late in the game. And unfortunately some of my clients didn't make the cut because they had slightly less than 100 fans (not as close as 99!).
What I'm wondering is why they didn't offer customized URLs from the beginning. Other social networks like MySpace and Linked in have had this is place. Why didn't Facebook?
I am still confused why there is eligibility criteria