What's in a UserName?

[taredog]

Like the person who started this thread, I used the phonetic alphabet in my daily job for years over various radio or orderwire circuits. I was told by my trainers I had to use my last initial/first initial as an identifier. Hence Tango Delta.

Later on I found that to be taken on message boards etc, in a lot of cases, so remembering a conversation with my Dad about the phonetic alphabet during his WWII service...Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog...Sugar, Tare, Uncle...began using TareDog.

Unless they have a kitchen scale, most Americans never have seen the word tare. It was commonly painted on trucks and boxcars in past years. Way past years.

[The Atomic Ass]

Do I even really need to post in this thread?

Mine came from playing a certain video game by the name of Interstate '76, back when it was popular 'round the turn of the century. This was a sort've racing game, and the cars where exceptionally modifiable, by editing their configuration files. You could provide a flat image file, which the game would take and wrap into a car.

I did a little design work here and there, and was commissioned to build a car that had an Ass for a rear end. With central exhaust. And nitrous. And little did I know that if you programmed an excess of nitrous in, it would crash the game, and take everyone in that same map with you. Thus, I was born.

Nowadays, it just refers to my personality.

[Tango Charlie]

That made me laugh, AtomicAss. Thanks for sharing!

[JackMcCornack]

I've known suppliers in users' groups who used screen names to hide their identities, pretend to be their own customers and then wax eloquent about how wonderful they were--in one case, signing up under enough screen names to make a fan club--and since I grouse about such behavior, I need to keep my own nose clean. Thus in any forum where I have (or might have) a financial interest, I log in with what Vernor Vinge calls my True Name, and 'fess up my business involvement via a link in my sig. But back in the CB days...

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...I was originally going to use the 'handle' (CB-talk for nick-name) "OXY-MORON" <snip>

...my handle was (wait for it) Jackhandle.

[Mustang Dave]

I've always used my first and last name on other forums. BUT a few weeks after I bought my Mustang, I took it to the dealer for warranty service. On the way back to my workplace, the dealer's shuttle driver said, "So, how's Mustang Dave doin' today?"

[newhavenpatriot]

I'm from near New Haven, CT, and I like the New England Patriots. That's really all there is to it. These days, I'm more of a Red Sox and Bruins fan, but the old name stuck online.

[4more]

4more goes back to when i converted my first s10 to v8....no not for FE. so it was 4 more cyls, 4more power ect ect.
so now im 4more mpg

[rgathright]

Originally Posted by The Atomic Ass

...
I did a little design work here and there, and was commissioned to build a car that had an Ass for a rear end. With central exhaust. And nitrous. And little did I know that if you programmed an excess of nitrous in, it would crash the game, and take everyone in that same map with you. Thus, I was born.

Nowadays, it just refers to my personality.

Funny! I always felt that way about my friends in college who thought it was cool to burn off their nitrous.

I use my real name online because it is very unique and my early freelance programming career days benefited from it.

[RobertSmalls]

Mine's a plausible pseudonym that I pulled out of two different pages of the phone book. I've been using it around the internets for a while.

The internet has such a horrible privacy policy: information is retained indefinitely (possibly forever), is shared with anyone who requests it, etc. It's so easily searchable that anyone who is even a little interested in knowing what I think could google it.

In an ideal world, I'd sign my real name to each of my posts. Maybe I'm just not trusting enough to do that right now.

My name's Matt, but I'll answer to Robert, Bob, Mister Smalls, whatever.

[jkp1187]

Nothing more exciting than the userid suggested by the New York Times' registration website when the userid I initially entered was rejected b/c it was already taken. It occurred to me that I wouldn't have any problems remembering JKP1187 (JKP = my initials) while at the same time, it would be unlikely that it wouldn't be taken....

Pretty uncreative of me, unfortunately.