Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on auction

Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by diimdeep on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:37PM (#33361999)

> Until recently, 70% of all Telegram usernames had been reserved in inactive channels by cybersquatters from Iran. This created a graveyard of dead usernames that cluttered search results and prevented millions of Telegram users from selecting appropriate public addresses for their accounts, groups and channels.

https://t.me/durov/195

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Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by t0w5a on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:41PM (#33362053)

now they cannot select "appropriate public addresses for their accounts, groups and channels" as well because most of the names are listed for sale on auction!

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Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by uni_rule on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:44PM (#33362116)

> We noticed this problem and therefore have found a very profitable solution to sell everyone

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Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by brink on Thursday October 27, 2022 @02:51PM (#33362225)

They have to pay for servers somehow. Selling long dead channel handles is better than privacy invasion.

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Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by duskwuff on Thursday October 27, 2022 @03:01PM (#33362385)

It's not better when it comes at the cost of taking some of those handles away from people that were using them.

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Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by jaywalk on Thursday October 27, 2022 @03:18PM (#33362621)

But they weren't using them. That's the whole point.

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Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by ls15 on Thursday October 27, 2022 @03:33PM (#33362831)

@pg hasn't posted on HN for two years. Can I have his username?

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Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by brink on Thursday October 27, 2022 @06:01PM (#33364630)

@pg is paying for the servers

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Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by ls15 on Friday October 28, 2022 @01:17AM (#33367953)

But he does not need the account name, right?

However, Aaron Swartz is not paying for reddit servers anymore, can I have u/AaronSw then? Has been inactive for 10 years.

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Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by NayamAmarshe on Friday October 28, 2022 @04:24AM (#33368939)

You can't claim reddit usernames but you can claim inactive Subreddits by contacting the mods.

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Re:Telegram has stolen my channel's username to sell it on a... by duskwuff on Thursday October 27, 2022 @04:34PM (#33363651)

There are a number of situations I'm personally aware of where users had usernames revoked for channels they were actively using.

One common case where this occurred is when users used a channel as a "bio" or "blog", and posted to the channel infrequently to update it.

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