On the vast majority of web services that offer free screen names it is expressly forbidden to sell your name to someone else.
Why? It’s mainly to offset screen names turning into property that the providers can’t control, i.e. it would turn into a huge big frickin’ mess. Trust me, there are very good reasons why screen names are forbidden from sale.
Andrew Baron has evidently decided it’s a-okay to sell his Twitter screen name. It’s on eBay right now and has a current bid of over $1,000 at the time of this writing.
Is this correct?
No, it isn’t.
However, due to a possible loophole in the TOS (Terms of Service) for Twitter, Baron can most likely get away with this.
The reason this is so disgusting is because Baron is basically selling off not only his Twitter account but also all the “followers” on it as well. And I don’t really think they necessarily appreciate that.
This is wrong in so many ways. You don’t sell a community or even so much as a piece of it, be it large or small. That would be like PCMech selling it’s entire forum to someone else without any consideration of the users at all.
[Source: /Message]
Selling your Twitter account might be ‘legal’ but I thought Ebay had stopped the sale of ‘digital’ goods??
Yeah, it is wrong in some ways to do such a thing especially when considering there are so many other users out there that weren’t even extended the opportunity to express themselves on the situation. However, this is America. We’re built of the principal of capitalism and if someone is dumb enough to pay for something like that… let them do it.
As of right now, Ebay has ripped the listing down. Maybe due to their own TOS. I personally think it’s wrong too but there’s a sucker born every minute so if someone will decide this is a wise purchase then it’s their own tough luck if it doesn’t work out.
A fool and his money are soon parted.