So I’m eagerly awaiting the next batch of names.

Thanks again for your great service.

Here are my thoughts on Messenger. I think it was a special name created by one of the alternative registration portals. I have a hunch that it was not intended for public consumption. It was listed on the registration page of this one community only. I never actually created an account with that name to verify that it would actually work. The name did grow in usage over time. It was listed there for over 200 days, so maybe it was put there on purpose after all. In any case, its gone now. I don’t think its coming back.

A similar situation applies to “Pond”.

If you think the current list is atrocious, then please vote for WEB-704 in SL’s JIRA.

The Google Group and new name alert are still working. It has a perfect track record so far.

I like the idea for the strikethrough. Thank you. The only names like Messenger are Pond and GossipGirl. I don’t remember what portal offered Messenger. I’m always on the lookout for 3rd party registration portals but it is very rare that they offer a special name. A major exception was CSI:NY.

My site really doesn’t really keep a history of what name was offered where. All that information is overwritten every 15 minutes. For example, the names that were offered exclusively through CSI:NY are indistinguishable from all of the other retired names now that they are retired, too. I could make the website keep a history… Conceivably, that information could help me spot patterns and decode the Join Now system.

Oh well.

I’m setting up a bot in my shop, and it’s also going to serve as a product model. I was hoping for a good name. Doesn’t look like there’s much available at the moment, luckily I have an alt or two that can serve the bot duty until a better name is available. I like the “new names notification” on Google groups. I signed up, so I hope it still works.

One thing I do wish… I wish that for a period of time, names that have been marked as “inactive” would still show up on the registration page. Some little part of me wishes that I knew which site(s) “Messenger” was last available through, so I could go see if it was still there, and maybe just a glitch on your end.. Maybe the use of strikethrough to show names that “appear to be dead” for let’s say a couple of weeks?