"The name <foo> is already taken" is a poor experience

[Alan Pope 🍺🐧🐱 🦄]

A new person to snapcrafting, who wants to register a snap and deliver it to users will often (as per our docs) issue "snapcraft register foo" as one of their first steps. They will be met with:-

https://github.com/snapcore/snapcraft/blob/881a7940552a1eac3c8f0833e33e71017d5b549b/snapcraft/storeapi/errors.py#L169

"The name 'foo' is already taken. We can if needed rename snaps to ensure they match the expectations of most users. If you are the publisher most users expect for 'foo' then claim the name at 'https://dashboard.snapcraft.io/register-snap/?series=16&name=foo'"

We have seen multiple occasions where this is off-putting. In our experience we find developers believe this means they are not allowed to use the name, even if it's a name they have for their own software project. They will then register "devname-foo" or "foo-devname" in the store for their own project, which looks awful when searching, and means users have command lines which consist of <devname-foo.foo> in some cases.

I believe it's the first sentence which triggers this. Mostly because of the land grab we did before launch. We should re-word this so it's less off-putting for new users.

Perhaps something which implies that we want them to go through the extra step, but doesn't imply they're not allowed to use it. I fully appreciate we don't want people grabbing stuff they're not "expected" to own, but in many of these cases they are, but do NOT move on to the next step of registering a dispute because of the dismissive language used in the first sentence.

[Qazi Omair Ahmed (omairqazi)]

Thanks Pope! I also faced this issue while registering the name (instantnews).