Vkontakte approach: you're doing it wrong
If you are bored with posts about Vkontakte, you can immediately skip this one, but I think that it is not so much about the site, as about the approach to work, peculiar not only to him. I believe that the new case with Xerox shows how wrong Vkontakte often operates - and the problem is not that it takes away subdomains from people, but how it does it.
What Vkontakte in the case of subdomains did wrong:
1. At first, when short user names were only entered, the company, apparently, did not even think about registered trademarks and said nothing about them, although this is important information.
2. As far as I know, immediately after this, Samsung had to try to reach them at all possible addresses and phone numbers during the day in order to at least find out something about Vkontakte's position regarding the trademarks. When a large company does not communicate important information, this is bad, and when another large company cannot contact it about this important information, because letters sent to official addresses are simply ignored - this is hell.
3. After this, the samsung subdomain was nevertheless transmitted, and an official tweet “Note for cybersquatters appeared: you have no chance. You can not even register names like Samsung and so on. " It seems that the situation was tried to be clarified - but it’s still not clear, it’s a tweet that is only about professional cybersquatters or ordinary people, it’s not clear whether singer Maxim can claim to be a subdomain of maksim, and so on.
4. While the tweet had long gone down in the tape, the official blog and the official rules simply did not tell about the decision, that is, those users who want to know if they can take the name of a large company, in official sources still don't know anything.
5. Now, in the case of Xerox, Vkontakte again “thinks” and “consults with lawyers” - although, once there were precedents, it was then possible to determine everything unequivocally so that more controversial situations did not arise.
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What should have been done: choose a clear strategy of behavior before entering names (and not so important, which one - at least introduce a stop list for the names of the largest companies, at least take the side of users as much as possible - the main thing is to have it), after which you should clearly report it users: for example, write “you can register the name that matches the company name directly in the name selection window, but we will select it upon the first request of the company” (ideally, with a tick “I agree”). If you really do not want to scare all users with warnings - at least make a list of large companies and display a warning to those who are trying to register a name from this list.
This is not the worst case, yes - but the problem is not in himself, but in the fact that this approach is flourishing in general and Vkontakte, and in other places. The fact that users often just hang in the void and do not know what to expect and what they will do with them tomorrow (the same compulsory inclusion of microblogging - why it was impossible not to inform everyone about this decision in advance and not to argue for it, so that they would not have to deal with with an angry mob that no longer perceives arguments?). Moreover, not only ordinary users encounter this uncertainty, but also people who have professional activities associated with social networks (application developers, SMM users, advertisers), that is, those who bring money to the site and who generally don’t quarrel. It is clear that now Vkontakte is the “king of the hill” and can dictate his conditions, and everyone will be forced to agree to live in limbo, and much more. But I want to believe that the emergence of competition with the increasing popularity of Facebook will change the situation.
What Vkontakte in the case of subdomains did wrong:
1. At first, when short user names were only entered, the company, apparently, did not even think about registered trademarks and said nothing about them, although this is important information.
2. As far as I know, immediately after this, Samsung had to try to reach them at all possible addresses and phone numbers during the day in order to at least find out something about Vkontakte's position regarding the trademarks. When a large company does not communicate important information, this is bad, and when another large company cannot contact it about this important information, because letters sent to official addresses are simply ignored - this is hell.
3. After this, the samsung subdomain was nevertheless transmitted, and an official tweet “Note for cybersquatters appeared: you have no chance. You can not even register names like Samsung and so on. " It seems that the situation was tried to be clarified - but it’s still not clear, it’s a tweet that is only about professional cybersquatters or ordinary people, it’s not clear whether singer Maxim can claim to be a subdomain of maksim, and so on.
4. While the tweet had long gone down in the tape, the official blog and the official rules simply did not tell about the decision, that is, those users who want to know if they can take the name of a large company, in official sources still don't know anything.
5. Now, in the case of Xerox, Vkontakte again “thinks” and “consults with lawyers” - although, once there were precedents, it was then possible to determine everything unequivocally so that more controversial situations did not arise.
')
What should have been done: choose a clear strategy of behavior before entering names (and not so important, which one - at least introduce a stop list for the names of the largest companies, at least take the side of users as much as possible - the main thing is to have it), after which you should clearly report it users: for example, write “you can register the name that matches the company name directly in the name selection window, but we will select it upon the first request of the company” (ideally, with a tick “I agree”). If you really do not want to scare all users with warnings - at least make a list of large companies and display a warning to those who are trying to register a name from this list.
This is not the worst case, yes - but the problem is not in himself, but in the fact that this approach is flourishing in general and Vkontakte, and in other places. The fact that users often just hang in the void and do not know what to expect and what they will do with them tomorrow (the same compulsory inclusion of microblogging - why it was impossible not to inform everyone about this decision in advance and not to argue for it, so that they would not have to deal with with an angry mob that no longer perceives arguments?). Moreover, not only ordinary users encounter this uncertainty, but also people who have professional activities associated with social networks (application developers, SMM users, advertisers), that is, those who bring money to the site and who generally don’t quarrel. It is clear that now Vkontakte is the “king of the hill” and can dictate his conditions, and everyone will be forced to agree to live in limbo, and much more. But I want to believe that the emergence of competition with the increasing popularity of Facebook will change the situation.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/107943/
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