Unable to open another store

[anni]

I have three stores and am trying to open a fourth (because of very different subject matter that needs a dedicated store). However, when I start typing my new store name I get a red alert message that it has to be numbers and letters and between 6 and 20 characters. My name is correct according to all those specs. Then sometimes I get the captcha pic, but a few times I didn't. When I submit nothing happens - even after the few times that I did get a captcha pic. Why do I get a message that my choice of name is not acceptable - or why can I not open another store?
Is there a maximum amount of stores? Hope someone can help me.
Anni

[Sara_H]

@anni it could be that the store name you want is already taken by another creator. If you're getting an error and unable to create a new store, report it with the steps you took and which browser and screenshots etc in the Technical Forum and I'm sure they'll investigate

[anni]

Hi Sara

It has transpired that the name cannot have spaces! I got hold of someone in the live chat.  All my other stores have two part names, so it must be something new. There has to be an underscore _ in place of the space! Why they cannot say that clearly is beyond me. The red alert says you can use numbers, letters and underscores. It does not say you have to use the underscore in stead of a space! Cost me hours of time because I went online searching for possible answers - for something so freakin basic. Jeez.
Many thanks for responding. xx Anni

[Sara_H]

@anni Glad you got it sorted. As long as I've been here - store urls can't have spaces (but store names can - you can add a space in your store settings but the url will always have no spaces)

Good luck with your new store!

[ColsCreations]

This is because the store name becomes the actual URL for it and URLs can't have spaces in them.
If you don't want characters running together in a URL you would have to use either hyphens or underscores.

mystorename
my-store-name
my_store_name

I chose to run my characters together as I didn't want special characters in the URL causing encoding headaches, and then just used the store setting where you can change the name (it doesn't affect the actual URL) to type it with caps & spaces.  Also, Google doesn't recognize underscores so would see "my_store_name" same as "mystorename" anyway.  Hyphens are seen as spaces though so "my-store-name" would be treated as "my store name". But if Zazzle doesn't allow hyphens, then it's underscores or nothing and my amateur opinion is that nothing is better.

[anni]

Thanks for your answer. I just wish the info was somewhere to clearly explain. Maybe it is somewhere but it needs to be right there where one types a new name. Like I say - my other three shop names did not have this when I set them up (eons ago - and all with spaces) so I was completely perplexed when this came up. Now I have those silly underscores. It did not say hyphens are ok in the red alert sentence - but that would have been better. Now I am wondering if I should close the new shop and then reopen with all in one word.

[Badeesie]

The store visible on your profile, Anni Arts, actually does have the store name all run together without spaces. When you set the store name at the beginning, what you are really choosing is the url - which, as @ColsCreations said, can't have spaces. You can later set the store's display name on its settings page, and that one can include spaces.

[anni]

Hi

Thanks for your suggestion but I have actually deleted the store. Additional problems just made me pack it  in - migrating products to the new store, trying to figure out how to do still do categories and banners for categories and collections .... and on and on going around in circles. I have always found  Zazzle to be very clunky compared to other POD sites, but  now after the changes introduced last summer it is even more non user friendly.