Ask HN: What FaceBook 'ScreenNames' were you able to capture?

2 points·keltecp11··4 comments

I saw some good ones disapear quickly:

Facebook.com/ -innovation -nanotech -solar -etc...

What did you walk away with?

An honest question: Is there real value in these usernames other than convenience and ease of typing? It seems unlikely to me that Facebook would allow any kind of selling of the names in the future. On top of that, your username is permanently linked to your account so unless you're using a fake account registered before their cutoff time, you're stuck with it for your real account. Is it to get more traffic to your profile from popular keywords? Somehow monetized with links? Either you lose your real profile or you were able to make a fake account.

I mean, I see value only if the username is relevant to the person choosing it but otherwise what's the point of -nanotech, -solar, etc. other than comic value?

BTW, I stuck with mdolon for my username. =P

Facebook are pretty adamant there'll never be a secondary market for usernames. They're not transferrable and if you quit Facebook, your username won't be reusable.

I see this as a move on their part to encourage real names in profiles and made-up names in usernames. The value in the Facebook ecosystem is that people are who they say they are, that's potentially much more valuable than eBay's ratings system.

errant was protected apparently :(

But I got errantx without any sweat at 10am GMT.

The best: daniel.tenner

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