Earlier this month, I wrote a post that Twitter should create a registration system in which people would pay an annual fee for a username in the same way they people for a domain name. This would prevent people from squatting on usernames, and provide Twitter with a way to generate a significant amount of much-needed revenue.
Not surprisingly, the idea wasn’t enthusiastically received, which reflects the reality that few people want to pay for anything even if has great value.
So, here’s another stab at the registration/username issue, which might address the issue of username-squatting. Twitter users should have to provide information about their identities rather than being able to remain anonymous. It would be modeled along the lines of Whois.com. It could be something straightforward such as name and e-mail address.
This registration system would hopefully do two things: provide more transparency about the identity of Twitter users, and make it possible for companies and individuals to approach Twitter users about purchasing usernames.
The lack of transparency is one of Twitter’s shortcomings, especially compared with Facebook, which has made having a real-world identity of core part of its service since the beginning.
A registration system would also address another flaw within Twitter – the lack of a marketplace for usernames, which has made it easy for squatters and inactive Twitter users to sit on usernames for as long as they want.
Would you be in a favour of an improved registration system?
How About More Twitter User Info?
Earlier this month, I wrote a post that Twitter should create a registration system in which people would pay an annual fee for a username in the same way they people for a domain name. This would prevent people from squatting on usernames, and provide Twitter with a way to generate a significant amount of much-needed revenue.
Not surprisingly, the idea wasn’t enthusiastically received, which reflects the reality that few people want to pay for anything even if has great value.
So, here’s another stab at the registration/username issue, which might address the issue of username-squatting. Twitter users should have to provide information about their identities rather than being able to remain anonymous. It would be modeled along the lines of Whois.com. It could be something straightforward such as name and e-mail address.
This registration system would hopefully do two things: provide more transparency about the identity of Twitter users, and make it possible for companies and individuals to approach Twitter users about purchasing usernames.
The lack of transparency is one of Twitter’s shortcomings, especially compared with Facebook, which has made having a real-world identity of core part of its service since the beginning.
A registration system would also address another flaw within Twitter – the lack of a marketplace for usernames, which has made it easy for squatters and inactive Twitter users to sit on usernames for as long as they want.
Would you be in a favour of an improved registration system?