You Don’t Mess With The Namepros Nancies

“I didn’t expect anything less from the Nancy’s at NamePros.” With those words it  was on.

What started out as a questionable way to handle a disagreement with a customer, turned into an absolute pr nightmare. The other day I wrote a post on how we had not had a popcorn thread like the one I referenced, in quite awhile.

That was the tip of the iceberg, there were maybe 30 posts at the time I wrote the post and things had not gone off the rails. The matter started out with the owner of Brand Root coming to Namepros to post a warning about a member who was still under an exclusivity period.

The owner gave his side of the story and since it is a forum, other members weighed in, (full disclosure I am a moderator at Namepros, I engaged in no moderation on this thread and did not leave any comments).

Members pointed out their displeasure with a private Brand Root matter, being aired in public on Namepros. The Internet is a big place and as perfectly stated in The Social Network, “The Internet’s not written in pencil, Mark, it’s written in ink.” There was also the question of the actual terms of service and privacy policy. Brand Root’s owner believed he had the right to defend himself and on that point I would agree, but this was not a community issue, this thread has turned into a case study on how to destroy your brand in two days.

Once the Nancy line came out, people started posting videos and creating memes.

This did not have to happen, I repeat, DID NOT HAVE TO HAPPEN.

You need to be sure when you come after someone online, you need a checklist:

1) Is this the proper venue ?

2) Do I have my house in order that can stand the test of any blowback ?

3) How will the community respond and will I do more harm than good ?

4) What do I hope to gain ?

5) Do I have a reasonable chance of getting my best case result ?

The owner changed his username a few times, playing a game of musical chairs, and this only made others question the ethics of the owner of a company they do business with.

The thread was public and now is in private legal discussion so you have to belong to Namepros to read the now close to 200 replies.

Anyone who does business in this industry should make sure they read this thread and see how quickly things can escalate and hurt your reputation. Now I believe the Brand Root owner needs to apologize to the community and mend fences, things can be repaired with honest communication.

*UPDATE to the story, it looks the owner of Brand Root apologized to the community, and many expressed a thank you and now things can work toward being repaired.