Using strange forum user names in real life

[hellymedic]

You would have liked my Audax bike; it had Helen on the right side of the top tube and H D Vecht on the left.

[Kim]

 

[CrinklyLion]

I tend to introduce myself as CrinklyLion in forumite-rich settings, and have no objection to being called that in RL.  It does quite amuse me that it seems to get abbreviated to Crinkly, Crinkles and CL (although that sometimes confuses me in threads where closetleftie has posted) fairly often.

[IanDG]

Can I change my name to 'Breeze' as I seem to be less active these days, with time I may become 'Puff'

[barakta]

I will happily answer to barakta on and offline.  While Kim claims to eschew being called one of the online variants of her name she quite happily calls me barakta a fair amount of the time.

Another friend writes to me as baraktalizard on snail mail which I quite like. 

I will remember things I have read much better than things I have just heard in audio.  Names are a deafies nightmare as they could be anything and you haven't got context to guess it.  I will probably be that annoying person calling forum people by their forum names when I meet them.

[Kim]

I will happily answer to barakta on and offline.  While Kim claims to eschew being called one of the online variants of her name she quite happily calls me barakta a fair amount of the time.

Cause and effect, innit.  You actually identify with barakta in a way I don't.  I tend to address people in the manner in which they've expressed a preference, assuming I know who they are and what that is.

And anyway barakta is a really cool username, even if nobody can spell it.

[fred the great]

One problem with forum names is that you never actually know whether the person is male or female. We assume when we meet June, Helen and Gladys for example they will be female but who knows these days?

And for your information I am a real dog as my name suggests

Be careful, I enjoy biting certain cyclists

[Hot Flatus]

Does anyone else find this mildly irksome?
Quite a few times now I've met people at audaxes and mountain bike meet ups to be greeted with something like
"Hi, Ben, I'm bungeecyclismo, and this is my mate easyrider!"
(or something along those lines)
Are you?  Really?    I'm still none the wiser as to who you are/what to call you.

I don't feel I represent the forum, and I think it can be nice to feel unattached from it when out riding. Not that I mind talking about it or using it as a stepping stone to get to know somebody, but I think it's important to remember that it's an extension of real cycling life, rather than real cycling life being an extension from it.
We're the masters, it's the servant - not the other way round.

I'm quite simply more interested in who people are in real life than who they are on the forum. If they are on the forum, it's normally very easy to work out who they are.

(Not having a go at anybody in particular with this.)

To me, you'll always be bonj.

[Wendy]

My forum name started off as a real-life nickname.

Same here, and I've only changed mine once, quite a while ago now, I think.

[Regulator]

I can't remember the real names of half the forumites I've met... 

[Euan Uzami]

Does anyone else find this mildly irksome?
Quite a few times now I've met people at audaxes and mountain bike meet ups to be greeted with something like
"Hi, Ben, I'm bungeecyclismo, and this is my mate easyrider!"
(or something along those lines)
Are you?  Really?    I'm still none the wiser as to who you are/what to call you.

I don't feel I represent the forum, and I think it can be nice to feel unattached from it when out riding. Not that I mind talking about it or using it as a stepping stone to get to know somebody, but I think it's important to remember that it's an extension of real cycling life, rather than real cycling life being an extension from it.
We're the masters, it's the servant - not the other way round.

I'm quite simply more interested in who people are in real life than who they are on the forum. If they are on the forum, it's normally very easy to work out who they are.

(Not having a go at anybody in particular with this.)

To me, you'll always be bonj.

I do have the excuse however that I have been called that since back in the day, it's a hark back to the 2001/2002 days when I used to be mental.

[Polar Bear]

The most amusing thing for me was when I first saw Roger.   I was standing outside a shop very close to a significant YACF event with a loaded tourer (well, two actually) beside me, dressed like a MAMAL.   Now, I'd thought that visually it's easy to understand why I have my username, which is also a nickname used by a number of my close friends btw.

Roger never clicked!          

[Wendy]

Must say I'm hugely impressed with you nowadays compared with the bonj days.  Respect to you Ben, and well done.

[Tom B]

I m thinking about changing yahudamoon to my real name if I can ?

A fine idea  - I like the idea of a Yahuda Moon in MCR 

[tiermat]

IRL when I meet other forumites I always introduce myself using my real name AND my forum name.

I don't mind if you call me by either, in fact, as my real name is quite common (and common on here), and phonetically sounds like a few other names which is difficult for me to decern as I have hearing issues, it is sometimes easier to use my forum name.

And yes I do fall into the group of "you can't tell a person's gender by their username"

[Jaded]

I've had this name online for 17 years, and if you know my real name, you know where this one comes from. 

TBH if someone at an Audax start (I'd never see them at the finish) said "Hi, I'm Benjamin Toblerone-Smithtinkle" I'd have more difficulty connecting them with posts on here than if they said "Hi, I'm Ben T".

I'd stick to Ben T, Ben T. 

[Greenbank]

I have just tried changing to my real name, John Diffley, got as far in the change your profile page where it asked me for my password. I entered my password.

Go to your profile page, your username will be YahudaMoon but you can change the 'Name' field to your real name (or anything else). But when you login you'll always need to use the username YahudaMoon.

[Andrew Br]

I've had this name online for 17 years, and if you know my real name, you know where this one comes from. 

TBH if someone at an Audax start (I'd never see them at the finish) said "Hi, I'm Benjamin Toblerone-Smithtinkle"

I can't work out how you get Jaded from that 

[Euan Uzami]

I've had this name online for 17 years, and if you know my real name, you know where this one comes from.  

TBH if someone at an Audax start (I'd never see them at the finish) said "Hi, I'm Benjamin Toblerone-Smithtinkle" I'd have more difficulty connecting them with posts on here than if they said "Hi, I'm Ben T".

I'd stick to Ben T, Ben T.  

don't even need the "T", I normally just introduce myself as "Ben".

thing is though I don't get the need to "connect them with posts".

If someone (notp) introduced themselves to you at a bike ride as who they post as on bikeradar, say, or singletrackworld, you'd possibly be a little bit confused.
Worse still on audaxes, it kind of propogates the myth that this forum is the 'official' or 'only' forum of audaxes.
If you use several forums, and you use a different user name on each, which one's username do you introduce yourself as?
I use my own name on the forum, but if I didn't, I wouldn't introduce myself as my username because it's not up to me to presume that people want to remain in the context of the forum when they're not sat at their computer, or even that they do use the forum. That may be (probably is) a slightly cantankerous viewpoint, but still.

edit: I think I hold that view probably because personally I largely reject the role of the internet as a social interaction vehicle - I refuse to use facebook, twitter, etc. The forum is, for me, a tool - for research, and finding out about bikes, bike riding and bike events, rather than a mechanism with which to socialize with people.
 I'd rather people know me more from meeting me in person than from interaction on the forum, than the other way round.

[Polar Bear]

And yes I do fall into the group of "you can't tell a person's gender by their username"

Hmmm.  People make assumptions with names anyway.  Take Shirley Crabtree and Hilary Benn for instance.   Until you know more about the person...

[tiermat]

Fair point PB.

Ben, in answer to your question RE: which username, it's relatively easy for me as I only (now) use one cycling forum, and only introduce myslef using my forum names on rides organised through this forum.

Each to there own though, if you are happy to introduce yourself using your RL name, and maybe let the conversation get around to which fora you use later on, fine.  My online persona is a little different to my RL persona, but that is more due to the confines of cyberspace than anything.

[Euan Uzami]

PS. Why do I always end up on Regulator's right hand? How're you doing, Greg?

Is he ...fagging?    

[Jaded]

To echo tiermat's point - I only use this forum and I look out for YACF jerseys, badges, buffs etc.

I can't see any point in introducing myself without saying my forum name. That would be odd - tantamount to hiding who I am on here.

[IanDG]

+1

I rarely meet any forum members, so when I do, what's the point of introducing myself as 'bob'?

[itsbruce]

I'm bemused at the hostility of the OP to people using their forum names; it's a standard behaviour regarding real-life meetings of people who first met online.  If somebody wants me to know their real name, they'll tell me.  I don't expect them to.

Even if they don't know you from a forum, if it was the forum that brought them to the event then people will often tend to use their forum name (at least for consistency, if not also for privacy).