BLOG: SANTA FOR GROWN-UPS
Twitter Username (@drewmcomedy vs. @DrewMichael)
My Twitter username is @drewmcomedy. I took this one because @DrewMichael was already in use. Not surprising. The domain www.drewmichael.com is currently being cyber-squatted (another blog on that later perhaps), so it’s to be expected that the Twitter username would be in use. Recently, I did some investigating and looked at @DrewMichael’s page. What I found was pretty awesome. It was about a year old, and there were only 12 tweets. (TWELVE!) 11 of them were tweeting at sports writers (like Chris Broussard and Buster Olney) about Boston sports. The other one seemed to be directed at a co-worker. (You can see the page here, however I suggest you read the blog first.) His picture is the default egg, for crying out loud! Here is a sample tweet from his page:
So, in an effort to reach out to him, I started a friendly campaign:
I was honestly surprised (and thrilled) at the response and assistance I got from my followers. Here are some of my favorites:
Now, I’ll just post the exchange. It’s pretty easy to follow. At the time of this exchange, his name was appearing “Drew Denerstein,” but he has since switched it to “Drew Michael.” I’m guessing his full name is Drew Michael Denerstein, but who knows. (For bonus points, take note of the dates as I let a few days pass and he comes crawling back.)
Oooh! He dropped $150 off the price! I ignored him for 2 days and then…
Ignore for three days…
$150? What happened to the $175?
“Good luck with the comedy.” As if this username is the only obstacle preventing me from achieving greatness! Three days go by…
Lawyer? What a Jew.
I checked my inbox and I had received this email:
Attached was a standard contract. I replied:
I have not heard back from him (yet). Something about this guy reminds me of an ex girlfriend I had. He keeps coming back with less and less self-respect until I don’t even want what he has to offer anymore.
Don’t forget to FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER! (@drewmcomedy)
Dude, I’ve had the same shit. @kevinmccaffrey, who had only 3 tweets, two of them to Val Kilmer in February ’09 (not even a big time for Val Kilmer, I don’t think), offered to sell it to me for $1000. He has now deleted all tweets, follows 0 people, and has 7 followers, 2 of whom are my aunts who don’t know how Twitter works.
I do think your guy is especially fun in how officially he tries to talk about “business,” while he essentially haggles himself down to less than 20% of his original asking price. Real Gordon Gekko life he’s livin’.
The value of this post is probably higher than the value of the twitter account.
The exchange should appear in a negotiation textbook, in the section, “How not to negotiate”.
i can’t believe this exchange is what a certain amount of finite life has been dedicated to. we are such amazing creations.
You should forward this information to Twitter. Not only are you doing business as “Drew Michael” professionally, but he’s also basically told you that he’s OK giving up the name. I don’t really know how these disputes are handled, but that might be enough to get Twitter to step in. It’s probably worth a shot, if nothing else.
Interesting- https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311-the-twitter-rules
“Selling user names: Unless you have been specifically permitted to do so in a separate agreement with Twitter, you agree that you will not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade or resell the Services for any purpose, where “Services” is defined as follows: Your use of Twitter’s products, services and web sites (referred to collectively as the “Services” in this document and excluding any services provided to you by Twitter under a separate written agreement) is subject to the terms of a legal agreement between you and Twitter.”
You should reach out to them, for sure.