As I’ve said before, I've been really impressed to see how the team has been handling everything.
Here’s a quick overview of how I think name changes can be handled moving forward.
If you have any questions about what you're seeing, don't hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter at @GarySheng.
It's quite peculiar that if you alter your name on Twitter, even by just adding an emoji—a common practice especially in the web3 space but fairly universal nonetheless—it can lead to the loss of your Blue Check. This change is often a natural action for people, for instance, when they're visiting a different city like Austin from their home in San Francisco, they might want to reflect that in their name.
For example, there was a pop-up city in Montenegro called Zuzalu for two months, and a number of people changed their names so they could signal they were there.
Another example of changing your name is when you change your name to reflect affiliation with a movement or community. In the following instance, Gitcoin changed its name to affiliate with the “Shields Up” pro-crypto industry movement.
Unfortunately though, gitcoin lost its Blue Check.
People and orgs should not lose their Blue Check for changing their name for these common use cases, because they risk inadvertently portraying themself as untrustworthy or fraudulent.
We certainly wouldn't want to deter people from enhancing their Twitter experience (by signaling their geographic location / community affiliation) due to this predicament.
AI can help a lot in determining if someone is changing their name from:
- A valid usecase, like: “Gary Sheng” to “Gary Sheng 🛡️” ✅
- An invalid usecase like: “Gary Sheng” to “Brian Armstrong” ❌
On a related note, you should not lose your checkmark if you are changing your profile picture and it’s clearly you in the new picture. Again, AI can come in handy here.