Using strange forum user names in real life

[Euan Uzami]

Out of interest, Ben, is Ben your real name, or is it changed from the name you were given, e.g. shortened.

Benjamin is on my birth certificate, but it's never used.  (so not Benadict, or anything, before you jump to any such conclusions )

So, your real life name isn't your real, real life name.

Depends for me. My real life name isn't the name on my birth certificate but it is the name on my passport and driving license.

Surely that means you've got a false passport and driving license. Are you a russian spy?

[Karla]

Mine's an excuse for an alter ego.  You can call me Jack or Earnest if you like, you choose.

 Wouldn't that cause some confusion with the member known as Handbag?

Oy!

I was jackworthing@handbag.com when Boots launched Handbag!

Your choice speaks volumes about you.  Three of them, in fact.

[vorsprung]

It's only as standard as "meeting" people online can ever be, though, surely

Maybe I'm just being modern and funky, but I don't think of meeting people online as being fundamentally different to the 'real' world.

I've known plenty of people who are charming and loverly online and idiots irl
Or visa versa

[border-rider]

Surely that means you've got a false passport and driving license. Are you a russian spy?

He was born male.

[Greenbank]

Surely that means you've got a false passport and driving license. Are you a russian spy?

He was born male.

Git.

[newtoncap]

I don't know how 'like' me my online persona is - I'd never given it much thought, and suspect that only an outside observer could say anyway.  I think I might be a bit more gobby in person than I am on here, maybe.  I don't make any effort that I'm aware of to be different online to in life, although I think that the differing nature of written vs. face to face communications is that there's bound to be differences in how you appear and how people interpret what you say, and don't go to any great lengths to hide my identity.  What's in a name?

You are the same online as you are in real life.      I like the use of nicknames, I find it brings someone to mind alot quicker than their real name also it means I don't have to describe someone as Matt-from-YACF or Jonathan-from-the-forum  I also don't mind having my nickname shortened to 'Newt' in real life.

[mattc]

I've mentioned before that I used to work in a crew that consisted in part of Morticia, Splodge, Stevo, Stripey, Creeps, Sonia (a man), The Pope, Rat...

The idea that your parents got your name right first time is a bit of an odd one to me.

Do you talk to yourself, or call your own name to get your attention? If not, maybe YOU are not best positioned to decide your name.

[Euan Uzami]

Do you talk to yourself, or call your own name to get your attention? If not, maybe YOU are not best positioned to decide your name.

possibly for the same reason some people give a toss about whether their car is clean on the outside

[mattc]

Do you talk to yourself, or call your own name to get your attention? If not, maybe YOU are not best positioned to decide your name.

possibly for the same reason some people give a toss about whether their car is clean on the outside

I think that is only going to muddy the waters further - some people are very keen that people know they don't care how clean their car is !

(or bike for that matter)

[CrinklyLion]

I don't know how 'like' me my online persona is - I'd never given it much thought, and suspect that only an outside observer could say anyway.

You are the same online as you are in real life.     

Apart from, in Real Life_TM, being a bit shorter.  And a bit fatter.  And probably with more cake.

[Cudzoziemiec]

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

...the Magic Dragon! Which, for some reason, we always used to sing on entering Jaded's town. Not that he lived there then.

[Cudzoziemiec]

One problem with forum names is that you never actually know whether the person is male or female.

I'd say that was a feature, because about 95% of the time it doesn't matter.

Probably a throwback to the early 90s, before the internet went mainstream.  A gender-non-specific username made life so much easier when otherwise reasonable nerds would be prone to "ZOMG a girl!" syndrome.

Like Kim - kind of. I'm pretty sure I've never actually met a male Kim, which illustrates another tendency of all unisex names to end up only female.

[Greenbank]

I used to work with a male Kim (from New Zealand).

[Cudzoziemiec]

I don't find it an issue, but then I'm happy to be addressed as clarion in any context.  That's what it says on my touring bikes, and on my Clarion 1895 jersey (and a T-shirt), so why not, eh?

If anyone has a 116-year-old jersey, it would have to be you!

[Wendy]

I used to work with a male Kim (from New Zealand).

I've met several male Kims.

[border-rider]

BBC News - Pontypridd MP Kim Howells standing down at election

His ministerial career took in the departments of education, trade and industry, culture, media and sport, transport and the Foreign Office.

After leaving government in a reshuffle last year he became chair of the Security and Intelligence Committee, overseeing the work of MI5 and MI6.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Excellent! I've never met a male Hillary or Shirley either...
And then there are those names where the spelling is supposed to be different in male and female versions, like Lesley/Leslie. I was at school with a male one and uni with a female one, but I can never remember which is which.

[Cudzoziemiec]

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.

That prompted me to google "barakta lizard", thinking it might be some species of saurid. But all I found was a couple of posts which were you on other forums, and transcribed Arabic, which I think was from the Koran or a prayer. Disappointed.

[hellymedic]

One problem with forum names is that you never actually know whether the person is male or female.

I'd say that was a feature, because about 95% of the time it doesn't matter.

Probably a throwback to the early 90s, before the internet went mainstream.  A gender-non-specific username made life so much easier when otherwise reasonable nerds would be prone to "ZOMG a girl!" syndrome.

Like Kim - kind of. I'm pretty sure I've never actually met a male Kim, which illustrates another tendency of all unisex names to end up only female.

I've met (at least) three RL male Kims. One sent me an email this morning. (He's my widowed Swedish aunt's partner.)

Tracy, Stacey, Evelyn, Joyce and Jocelyn are good names...

[Ivo]

A few forum members I've met before I was on internet.
Mostly I use my real name. Sometimes, when it's allread in use, a version of it. Years ago, at work, the manager adressed me by my nick I use on a Dutch forum. It was allready a known fact that some of the higher ups at work lurked on that forum so I wasn't too bothered.

[ravenbait]

I have a fairly unique internet handle. But, to be sure, my real name is at the bottom of every post. I answer to either and lots more besides.

As the likelihood of anyone ever meeting another cyclist of any stripe with one black eye is next to zero, I'm generally easy to spot.

Sam

[Arch]

One problem with forum names is that you never actually know whether the person is male or female.

I'd say that was a feature, because about 95% of the time it doesn't matter.

Probably a throwback to the early 90s, before the internet went mainstream.  A gender-non-specific username made life so much easier when otherwise reasonable nerds would be prone to "ZOMG a girl!" syndrome.

I don't know whether there has been a YACF "Arch is a girl?!" moment yet...

Arch is a nickname I picked up at uni, and a contraction of my surname, so there are several people who address me that way outside the internet.

I also find it confusing when I try to remember forum names, real names and faces - so I'm happy to stick to forum names.

[TimO]

Like Kim - kind of. I'm pretty sure I've never actually met a male Kim, which illustrates another tendency of all unisex names to end up only female.

The classic case of course being Kim Il-sung.

I also have a lot of difficulty associating people with both real and forum names, but it doesn't worry me.  I tend to remember forum names more easily than real names, probably simply through greater usage, and often an image of them as their Avatar.

This does make some people look nothing like what you expect when you first meet them, but then again, I don't look exclusively like a pair of disembodied feet wearing shoes and striped socks.

[GruB]

Grub is my nickname, my proper one.  It is far from just a forum name.

[redshift]

Probably a throwback to the early 90s, before the internet went mainstream.  A gender-non-specific username made life so much easier when otherwise reasonable nerds would be prone to "ZOMG a girl!" syndrome.

Whilst that's true (and indeed, I'm old enough to remember being online when you were lucky to get 1200/75 splite rate Viewdata), I was actually greeted with "Sagoi!  female!   " on an SGI forum only a couple of years ago...