Using strange forum user names in real life

[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.)

[clarion]

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?

[Kathy]

I have a lot of trouble remembering names. Given that I am likely to have more communication with each forumite on the forum than in real life, the forum name is the handle which my brane attributes to the person. I frequently find myself confused on rides when (a) failing to remember "real" names which I've only heard once as opposed to the "forum" name which I've heard 100+ times, and (b) having met 10 people I will have 10 "real" names, 10 "forum" names, and 10 faces and can guarantee that I will get everything in a complete muddle by lunchtime. Cutting out the real names (since I stand a better chance of remembering forum names) helps me.

It's a lot simpler when people's forum names are the same as their real ones.  

[Butterfly]

Well half the time I call clarion clarion and I'm married to him.   I like forum names because they are what we've chosen rather than what were chosen for us; however, I really have to resist the urge to shout HELLO SCUM when I see Scumoftheroad across a station .

[hellymedic]

My forum name is fairly transparent. I find it irksome when people keep changing their name.

[Euan Uzami]

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?

That probably don't come under the umbrella of what I'm talking about then. It's obviously a general nickname you've adopted regardless of the forum, rather than a flippant proliferation of what was originally just typed in to the box on the part of the registration page where you choose what appears next to your posts.

[αdαmsκι]

I'm looking forward to using Raminphrikesh Pharghangitalivati's latest name when I next see him on a ride.

[Jurek]

I'm looking forward to using Raminphrikesh Pharghangitalivati's latest name when I next see him on a ride.

Did you 'copy & paste' that? 

[IanDG]

I've no problem with 'Windy'. It's what most have caled me when I have made a forum ride. I've also used it on other forums and on my blog, a very good friend here in Lewis always uses it - I think she'd struggle to remember my real name 

[Ham]

My given name is Hamilton, so it should come as no surprise why I'm happy being Ham on the forum and in <s>real</s> the other life.

[clarion]

I'm looking forward to using Raminphrikesh Pharghangitalivati's latest name when I next see him on a ride.

Did you 'copy & paste' that? 

No need to c&p.  Surely we all know how to spell Ramenfreecash Phargarglegitvalley by now?

[clarion]

My given name is Hamilton, so it should come as no surprise why I'm happy being Ham on the forum and in <s>real</s> the other life.

Ohhhhhhh  *FX: penny dropping*

[Adrian]

I'm looking forward to using Raminphrikesh Pharghangitalivati's latest name when I next see him on a ride.

And what is it?

[Euan Uzami]

I remember the first time I met Laurence, Keith, Andy, Matthew and TJ, to name but a few, on different forum rides. Their faces didn't look like their avatars - and I trust yours won't either, Ben T - and so it was much easier to recognise them when they told me their forum names.

...but don't you use personalities and other details such as what rides they were on, etc, to marry up forum identities with real people, rather than what they look like?
If you can't match up forum identities to real people going by linking past experiences/matching posting style to personality, then .... it could be said, why do you need to match them up?

.... a perfect example follows: I knew exactly who he was straight away without looking through much past posting history 

I'm looking forward to using Raminphrikesh Pharghangitalivati's latest name when I next see him on a ride.

can you pronounce it though?

[αdαmsκι]

I'm looking forward to using Raminphrikesh Pharghangitalivati's latest name when I next see him on a ride.

can you pronounce it though?

I'll abbreviate it. To honey .

[border-rider]

I think that the context in which one meets is relevant.  

On the Elenith I could identify people as YACFers from either their shirts or their bikes, and the context of talking to (at least initially) them was our shared forumming.  It makes sense to have a discourse in that context within the framework of a forum ID.  

People I've met through the forum and gone on to "know" or be friends with in real-life - or people who I've met first outside the forum - I'll call by their real-life name.

On audaxs quite often you can spend hours in someone's company before finding out their name so a forum name is a step forward

[AndyH]

Half the time I can't remember who I am. Having a confusing forum name would lead to some bizarre conversations on the road. Think Basil / Manuel. Que?

On Sunday I rode for about an hour with a guy who I'd ridden with for 2 hours only a month ago. It took us 45 minutes to work that out.

So on the whole I don't find it irksome. Apparently most of them are Kunst anyway.

Richard Andy

[Beardy]

well I was Captain Beardy to my scouts, thanks to one of my Ventures using the name. Then a friend who is a Deck Officer couldn't bring herself to call me captain, so I morphed into Beardy, which is what I'm known as around town and since the advent of Forums on teh Internet, here as well. I occasionally have to use CaptBeardy when some imposter has beaten me to Beardy on a forum though.

I've no idea why (avatar pic to be updated shortly)

[Bledlow]

I find it irksome when people keep changing their name.

+1

[mrcharly-YHT]

I find it irksome when people keep changing their name.

+1

+3

I tend to remember people by their forum name.

My forum name started off as a real-life nickname. I used it on forums because I like it, because of why I was called it in the first place.

[YahudaMoon]

A discussion we had last year
YACF Names & Real Names

[YahudaMoon]

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

[David Martin]

I'll have to give up using a pseudonym then.. It makes it hard for people to work out who I am.

[YahudaMoon]

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.

Got error message 'Password not recognised'

I may delete this account ?

[Kim]

I tend to use my real name online when possible.  It's short, easy to type, and tends to reduce confusion.  I'm not one of those people who thinks the internet is somehow less real than real life - if anything, I'd have a strong argument for the reverse.

Unfortunately 'Kim' is often taken, so I end up using one of my other standard usernames.  I don't use them offline, though, and it confuses me when people do.  It's more a login than an identity.

Like Kathy, my brain is hopeless at correlating names, usernames, faces and indeed bikes.  So it all deteriorates into a best-guess muddle, with the quality of the guess depending on whether it incorporates a previously established online identity.