So there I was, sippin’ my first or second… maybe fourth, cup of coffee checking the ‘hot sheets’. When looking over my twitter feed, it looks like some schmuck stole BackStageJobs hilarious twitter icon. The Theatre Magic gauge, the very same one I borrowed here. What is even worse, they have a crazy twitter name, OffStageJobs.com. Copying someones hard work can be a sign of flattery, but this was just a bit TO close.

Then I looked at their twitter stats, how in the hell did they get 5,000+ followers like BackStageJobs?!?  And over 16,000 tweets! Time to visit OffStageJobs.com.

“WTF”

Now this has gone a bit TO far, they even copied the site design! Then there was a message from the webmaster. “Hey, I know Patrick! He runs BackStageJobs.com” Long story short, I was ready to get really pissed that someone stole a great idea from a long standing site for our industry.  Not just stole, but copied. CLEARLY, I over reacted after reading Patrick’s note. The opening sentence says it all.

Relax, It’s just a name change.

I guess that is what happens when you are out of touch for a bit of time. Here is a bit more about the name change from BackStageJobs.com OffStageJobs.com.

We haven’t been bought, we’re not shutting down. Everything remains the same, except for the name, which means you will need to update your bookmarks to OffStageJobs.com.

Why? Well, the folks at Backstage.com and I got to talking. A visitor confused about which site they are really dealing with is an unhappy visitor. Neither the folks at Backstage.com nor I want visitors to be confused when finding our sites, especially when we offer some similar services. So, after some very friendly and positive conversations, we’ve decided this name change should help everyone.

We now become OffStageJobs.com. Backstage.com takes legal title to the name “BackstageJobs.com.” Just the name, not the service. There will be a period of transition to allow everyone time to update their links and bookmarks, but there will be no interruption in our service.

You can read more about the name change here. Everything remains the same, you just have to update your bookmarks with the new URL and you are all set.