I get a lot of people who write and tell me that they like the title of my blog, “Bibliosaurus Text.” Some say it made them smile, others just tell me they like it, and I appreciate every one of these. I came up with the name by brainstorming with my boyfriend, then googling each idea to see if somebody was already using it. When I saw that Bibliosaurus Text wasn’t taken, I bought the domain name. It was only after that that I began my blog.
Imagine my surprise when I saw an @… on twitter to another person who had NEARLY an identical name. Only two letters were different. I thought there must be some mistake, and that they mistyped my twitter handle. Except they didn’t. I looked around, and another librarian has taken up Bibliosaurus and uses something else instead of Text. I don’t want to put it up here, as I may encounter her professionally, but it made me sad. I registered my stuff in January this year, and it looks like she started using it in June.
Does the fact that this bugs me make me a bad person? Is this indicative of my desire to not share my toys in the sandbox? Or am I somewhat justified in feeling miffed? I know it’s a big world, I know I’m not anywhere near being the focus of most other people, but I’m bummed. Has anybody else gone through this and have advice and/or insight?
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It would really bug me, too! I am really bad at coming up with creative names for things, which is why my blog is so uncreatively-titled, but if I had taken the time and thought you did in it, and even bought a domain name, I’d be bothered.
I don’t think yours is uncreative! I’m really bad at it too, though. I must have gone through at least 50 ideas, most of which my boyfriend shot down right away. But yeah, I wanted to make something that would stick with me and be unique
I totally understand, and I think it’s natural. I’m so mad at myself when I named mine. I hadn’t even planned on really using it, and I just played off of the name of an animal organization I help with. I know what I’d love to change it too, but then I’d have to change a lot of other stuff. What a pain.
Oh no I’d be furious if I was you! You have every right especially when we work hard on our ideas. I had a few tour banners taken from my sidebar and I was pissed – luckily I asked them to remove them and they did but still. Gah! Why can’t people come up with their own ideas!!
Giselle
Xpresso Reads
I’m glad people took down the banners. I think a lot of people think things like that are free for anybody to use, and don’t consider the person that took the time to make them.
A similar situation happened to me.
I used a quote that I really love and say all the time in a blogpost. A couple of my blogger buddies suggested I use that for a blog button so other blogs can grab it and put it up on their blog. A follower of mine did just that, but not only with the blog but on their twitter account as well…they didn’t change their twitter handle, but it is the headline on their twitter page.
This particular blogger was a part of the conversation, so I know it wasn’t an accident, but I really felt like it was pointless if I did anything. I’m not whiny and I didn’t have my sentence trademarked, so after I said/typed it, I guess it was out there for the world to see. It just STUNG.
So I totally understand your feelings. And now, I can barely stand to look at the blog or twitter that has MY clever little sentence/phrase being cleverly used as their own, plastered all over the place.
Me personally, I just had to let it go. But I totally felt/feel miffed.
Yeah, that isn’t cool. I’m so sorry to hear it! My boyfriend uses a particular name around the internet, and somebody asked him to explain it. Then, about a week later, the guy bought the domain and started a website by that name! You can imagine how ticked my boyfriend was!