New Facebook Short name @eastbaybeats

Our process to get a short name on Facebook was pretty interesting. At first it seemed that we did not have some number of “likes” or “followers” or perhaps that the name “Offbeats” was taken. Time and again we tried things like “Offbeats Band”, “Offbeats”, “Offbeats NoThe” and kept getting errors. Finally I noticed an error message saying we had “illegal characters” that could not be used. Whaaaaaat? Was someone confused here? Isn’t this English? Illegal? Should I have chosen Latin? After contacting their development techs, searching again and again through help pages and blogs I FOUND IT. You cannot use the letters F and B together in a Facebook Short name. As in OF FB EATS. HMMM. FB – Facebook. I wonder why?  Gee. Golly. Someone might confuse the FB in offbeats with Facebook and go to the Offbeats Page instead thinking they were on Facebook. Whaaat?

SO – we are @EASTBAYBEATS.

So all you folks out there who are trying to get a Facebook Short name – if you have these two characters – you are illegal and should actually change the name of your band, product, book or whatever so you can get a short name… or just adapt. Hey, Facebook is a free service right. Like I should complain. Thank you Facebook!