Identity Crisis

[Rapples]

My name is a play on my surname with obvious connotation to Raffles.

It was actually first given to Mrs Rapples, by a rather posh titled chap she worked with for a time.

It's an interesting subject. On Another Forum, I was constantly being told to stop using a false personna of Rapples, and post as myself. I may not be as confrontational IRL but apart from that WYSIWYG. I notice on this forum where many also exist, their personna and stance on subjects is different. In fact recently someone said I was "nicer" on here, but I don't think I'm any different, just interacting with different people. If I'm nicer then perhaps it's because the people I'm interacting with are


That is me over there< I must get around to changing it

 

[marinyork]

This subject caused some very serious and heated debate on another forum I use sometimes, with some users objecting to the anonymity of of usernames and adovcating that everyone should post under their full name (as some on that forum do). Others replied with various points that have already made and others (for example, suppose I registered as "Katherine Sutherland". That looks like I'm posting under my real name, but it is not my name, nor is it even closely related to my real name.)

I use fimm a lot on various forums. It is kind of related to my initials. I like usernames. I'm often intrigued by other people's usernames. Where did dellzeqq come from, for example?

This is another example of real life behaviours appearing on the internet. There are people in real life who place great emphasis on knowing when introduced the full name of someone when meeting them for the first time. For some of them it seems to have some kind of significance of manners, of knowing them properly and getting off onto a proper footing*. There are even people who start talking about the meaning of names when they first talk about or to people! You get pedantry, name dropping, arguments about not being able to trust someone, judging people by whether they have contracted their name or not. You get the entire lot in real life. Everything.

*It is not surprising that say someone who was good at remembering full names and putting them with faces might continue this behaviour. There would be a distinct social advantage in doing so especially if they met a lot of people for short periods of time. The reason why some of these people get wound up about usernames I think is that it is the antithesis of what I've written and they know it. Real life usernames often suggest knowing something about a person in a context whereas full name + face looks so, but actually doesn't in this era. So you get different expressions 'I know of xxx' might be said by someone who didn't think like that and 'I know xxx' by someone who does think like that.

 

[Glow worm]

Well my real first name is Giles so you can understand why I prefer glow worm! Anyway, glow worms are amazing whereas Giles' are usually t###s!

 

[summerdays]

I like the anonymity of usernames, my gender isn't automatically known (doesn't take long given it's on my profile and I admit to being female anyway). I feel freer to talk to complete strangers about a range of subjects though I think my personality is similar - but not so shy online.

I'm not keen on when people change their names or avatars' as I have to learn them again. Though I do like the way Potsy changes his along a theme. I have a couple of different usernames on different forums ... not sure why ... just happened and for some reason they all start with 'S' though my name doesn't

 

[Night Train]

I like the anonymity of usernames, my gender isn't automatically known (doesn't take long given it's on my profile and I admit to being female anyway).

For the same reasons I tend not to put my gender and age on the form. Age and gender shouldn't matter when chatting to folks about a common interest anyway (though finding out Arch was a girl of a similar age was a real moment).

 

[Arch]