时间:2024-09-20 08:08:42 来源:网络整理编辑:探索
Over a weekend, Elon Musk announced he was "bidding adieu" to the entire Twitter brand and calling t
Over a weekend, Elon Musk announced he was "bidding adieu" to the entire Twitter brand and calling the platform "X." Within days, the company rolled out logo changes across the site and even took down the physical Twitter logo from its corporate headquarters in San Francisco.
However, as Mashable previously pointed out, the whole rebrand seems rather thrown together with large swaths of the website unchanged, referring to Twitter, and still carrying the blue bird.
Perhaps nothing shows how this was all hacked together last minute better than the main official account for the entire platform still using the @Twitter handle. Over the past few days, many users who are critical of the rebrand have pointed out: Why hasn't Musk and company changed it to @x?
Well, one big reason may be that @x already belongs to a Twitter user, one who has actively been using the platform since they registered the handle in March 2007.
"I haven't been contacted by Twitter / Elon," said Gene X. Hwang, co-founder of event photo company Orange Photographyand owner of the @x handle on the platform formerly known as Twitter, in an email when Mashable reached out to him.
UPDATE: Jul. 26, 2023, 8:05 a.m. CEST Twitter's official handle has been changed to @x, and Hwang seems to have moved to the handle @x12345678998765.
"I am keeping an eye out on DMs and such to see if they do touch base about it," he explained in an email exchange with Mashable about the @xhandle which he has been tweeting from for more than 16 years.
Gene X. Hwang recently went private with his @x account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.Credit: Mashable ScreenshotHwang shared how he first found out about Twitter thanks to living in San Francisco and having friends who either worked at Twitter or had already been using the platform.
"X is my middle initial and often I'd use genex as a handle for online services," explained Hwang as to why he chose the username.
SEE ALSO:Elon Musk and company take @x handle from its original user. He got zero dollars for it.Twitter had gone public on July 15, 2006. However, growth was fairly slow until Twitter debuted at the SXSW festival in March 2007. It was there that the company took off. It was that same month that Hwang and some of his friends signed up and they noticed that users could register short, one-letter handles, many of which were still unregistered.
"We found out you could have single letter handles so we got them," Hwang said. "I was friends with @a, @j, @c, @k and @t…I might have left some others off. It wasn't that big back then but as it grew it kept being useful and fun to use so I was pretty active right from the start."
"With the original shorter character limits on Twitter, it made sense to get a shorter handle like @x," he continued, sharing how besides his own middle name, he has an affinity for the letter due to his pinball initials and being Gen X'er.
Hwang recently went private on his @x account due to the recent rebranding from Musk.
"[The account] was public most of its life but I changed that more recently with the "x" stuff that Elon was tweeting since it was evident that was coming and the noise got even worse," he said.
This isn't the first time Hwang's short Twitter handle has caused him problems. Users have constantly replied to him over the years by accident, making that particular Twitter feature hard to use at times.
This is how Gene X. Hwang's @x account looked earlier this year, before he went private.Credit: Mashable Screenshot / Archive.org"Mentions are a mess…but @a had it worse with folks tweeting things like "I'm @a bar," Hwang explained, adding a crying laughing emoji.
But, there are worse issues than messy mentions. Rare usernames on prominent platforms can fetch a large sum of money on online black markets. With only 26 letters in the English alphabet, single-letter handles are worth a lot and often become the targets of hackers looking to make a quick buck.
In January 2014, for example, software developer Naoki Hiroshima went publicwith how a bad actor hacked his Twitter account and stole his single-letter username, @N. Hiroshima shared that he had previously been offered as much as $50,000 for the handle, but had turned it down. His story quickly went viral and Twitter eventually intervened, taking control of the username and giving Hiroshima his account back.
"Some of us single letter names had an email chain going on about security," Hwang told me. "There was a hack through AT&T text messaging online or something back then that was being used to steal 2FA codes or something IIRC. But, lately it's been fine though I get the occasional 'reset your password' attempts and such."
So, what will become of Hwang's rare and valuable @x handle on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter?
Hwang didn't specifically mention selling his handle to the company in our email exchange. But, he did add that he's "sure something could be worked out."
It's certainly possible that Elon Musk will reach out to Hwang in the near future about acquiring the handle from him. According to previous reports, the company itself has looked into auctioning off rare inactive usernames in order to generate revenue.
However, Musk and company can also very likely just choose to take control of the @x handle too. In fact, Musk has already done so with other usernames. According to a reportfrom Zoe Schiffer of Platformer earlier this year, Elon Musk had Twitter transfer the single-letter handle @e to him "shortly after the takeover."
The @e account was in limbo at the time after the individual who originally registered it was hacked and Twitter temporarily suspended it. And, unlike the case of @N in 2014 where Twitter got it back for the original registrant, Musk reportedly just requested @e for himself.
TopicsSocial MediaTwitterElon Musk
Richard Branson 'thought he was going to die' in bike accident2024-09-20 08:04
近5場詹姆斯37+9+6下 ,湖人好事成雙 ,基本不會成為第二個籃網了(2月13號湖人灰熊)2024-09-20 07:24
42+10!59+11!超級得分王真無解,神擋殺神佛擋殺佛 ,哈登賭贏了(哈登交易)2024-09-20 07:07
空砍32+9+6 !恩比德曆史第一,塔克兌現價值,哈登迎來複出時間表(NBA13號哈登)2024-09-20 07:02
Whyd voice2024-09-20 07:01
恩比德42+11哈登27分 錫安傷退76人擒鵜鶘取主場十連勝(哈登數據統計)2024-09-20 06:30
恩比德狂轟42分 ,76人複仇鵜鶘!哈登27分8助,錫安又受傷了(哈登44+17)2024-09-20 06:26
詹皇43+11+6湖人滅黃蜂 威少8中1傷退三球24+7+6(湖人黃蜂第三節)2024-09-20 06:09
The U.S. will no longer have the final say on internet domain names2024-09-20 06:08
原創 俄國防部:士兵非法使用手機致烏克蘭空襲成功(詹姆斯三雙湖人大勝 視頻)2024-09-20 05:39
Nate Parker is finally thinking about the woman who accused him of rape2024-09-20 07:49
35歲的梅西,37歲的C羅 ,3項數據對比,球迷:C羅時代結束了(c羅和梅西哪個更厲害沒有爭議)2024-09-20 07:28
詹姆斯狂砍37+8+6三球空砍26分 湖人勝黃蜂豪取四連勝(詹姆斯2018凱爾特人搶七)2024-09-20 06:52
詹姆斯43+11+6暴走,湖人險勝倒數第2!威少2分 ,虎將驚豔 ,3球24+7+6(詹姆斯33+11湖人雙加時力克活塞)2024-09-20 06:52
Honda's all2024-09-20 06:50
排麵!巴黎列隊歡迎世界冠軍梅西歸隊,姆巴佩美國度假弟弟代表鼓掌(梅西缺席全隊合練)2024-09-20 06:16
同為絕代雙驕,為何梅西享受著團寵的地位 ,而C羅卻遭球隊嫌棄 ?(c羅跟梅西誰強)2024-09-20 05:55
濃眉哥44+10 詹姆斯28+8+11 湖人力克雄鹿 普爾30分勇士擊退公牛 庫裏19+11+6湯普森26(23號籃球明星湖人)2024-09-20 05:55
This chart shows just how high Simone Biles can jump2024-09-20 05:43
C羅加盟沙特球隊,中東版“千金買馬骨”的故事(C羅什麽時候加盟的皇馬)2024-09-20 05:33