Forum curiosity- Why do so many register with such idiotic names ?

[Milacron]

My priorities are consistency and simplicity, not placating a small set of dissatisfied/grumpy members on one forum who are complaining about someone else's choice of a nickname on the internet.

FWIW, just because a small set are voicing a negative opinion over doofus or robotic forum names doesn't mean it's a small set that have that opinion.

But it's water over the dam now. As I said in the original post, the main issue was that it makes seperating the wheat from the chaff more difficult at registraion time. Since you're already here and settled in, I propose a "toast" to your "life" here, as "death" will come all too soon for most of us

[toastydeath]

A toast indeed!

[Motomoron]

1. It's my primary personal email account login, so it's easy to remember.

2. To anyone who knows me, at all, it's self explanatory.

[beobe]

Bob is usually taken so I spell Bob out.

be o be = b o b

[joecr]

I always assume Joker is taken

[CypherNinja]

When I was in middle school I was REALLY into encryption. Middle school + cyphers (ciphers) = CypherNinja. :rolleyes:

After a year or two I realized how dumb the name was, but it kinda stuck to me. I still use it because its sort of like my 'second name'. :shrugs:


Its not that bad, is it? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Rod Frey]

I'm late to the party on this discussion, but that's only because I'm a slow thinker.

My take is that people choose handles because it seems like everyone uses handles -- it's the "culture" of the internet, insofar as there is a single culture. Since they're picking a pseudonym, some try to have it evocative of their personality, others just make it cryptic and "mysterious".

Which begs the question of why it's the "culture" to use a handle instead of a real name. Security issues are non-existent: a name doesn't get you anything if you're into identity theft. I think it's because the precursor to Internet forums were BBS systems; as I recall from my days power-dialing my favourite bbs's trying to connect, "game-nerds" who were heavily into stuff like fantasy role-playing, either in person on on computers, were heavily over-represented on BBS systems. Taking a pseudonym on a board was as natural as breathing for folks who practically lived in a fantasy world anyhow.

As BBS's grew into forums, those customs persisted, and it became self-perpetuating: new members noted that existing members all had handles, and figured they better think of one too. And so it goes: the width of the Space Shuttle is determined by the spacing of Roman chariot wheels.

[Milacron]

I think it's because the precursor to Internet forums were BBS systems; as I recall from my days power-dialing my favourite bbs's trying to connect, "game-nerds" who were heavily into stuff like fantasy role-playing, either in person on on computers, were heavily over-represented on BBS systems. Taking a pseudonym on a board was as natural as breathing for folks who practically lived in a fantasy world anyhow.

Interesting...I'll bet that's the origins of it really, game nerds and their fantasy BS...makes perfect sense to me.

Re the space shuttle and charriot wheels...you might want to read this on Snopes.com

It evolved out of the CBer culture of the 70's.

Actually, I got confused when filling out the registration form for this forum, and then it wouldn't let me correct it.

[flutedchamber]

"flutedchamber" is the name that I have used since I have been on the net (except for a time on Ethief).

Why flutedchamber?? Well, that goes back to Governor Florio's ban on assault weapons in the early 90's and the crap that I had to go thru to keep my "weapon of mass destruction" which just happened to have a fluted chamber.

Why not my real name? Well, I have me a great bunch of people online...and some idjits to go along with them...but very few idjits by comparison.

I don't know you, and you don't know me. Someone can say that they are a pharmacist or teacher, when in fact they are a child molester or thief. I don't give out trust, from me that must be earned. I don't dislike strangers, I just don't trust them off the bat.

The reason for this goes back to the early seventies and a guy who had a garage to die for. Hydraulic lift, all the tools you could imagine, air conditioning in the garage along with heat. Need to work on your car?? sure, just give a call and I'll open my garage for you to use.

How was this man repaid for his generosity?? Some lowlife that was later found to be a person who used his garage on a regular basis talked to his "friends" that talked to their "friends" who thought this guy didn't deserve to have all the tools that he had and they helped themselves, trashing his garage in the process.

This is why my garage has NO windows or skylights of any type and an alarm system. I can count the number of people who come into my garage on less than one hand, including family. My garage is divided into rooms..for cars, front end loader, tools, machine shop, and motorcycles. The rooms with the tools, motorcycles and machine shop have locking doors with a separate alarm system. The building is situated so all doors face my house across an open field, 100 yards from the street.

I'm not paranoid, I'm careful.

[bcstractor]

I chose mine because the machine exemplifies my idea of what is right. There are many people with my real name and I have met several of them. I haven't met ANYBODY called bcstractor.

Plus my political views are almost 180 degrees from most of the people on this forum. I like reliable Japanese cars, think guns are old fashioned inventions that I have no use for......

Plus I don't want to make it too easy for employers to search for everything I have written on the net.

Chris P

[james robert]

I chose My name because I read this thread before I joined the forum. Actually I am using my first and middle name but there are a few that know my full name by now.

Interesting to see this thread pop back up again

Thank you.

James

[WestCoastFranky]

It's my Mafia name.

Some forums I belong to require real names. The moderators think it makes us more civilized toward each other in our posts. It seems to work for everything but posts of a political nature.

[reggie_obe]

Never use (or give) your real name, when an alias will do.

[biometrics]

"biometrics" because for about 10 years of my secondary career (computer and network system security) I was on the bleeding edge of that technology and spent that time testing, designing, selling and maintaining biometric identification (fingerprints, facial recognition, hand geometry, iris and retina scans, speech recognition, and keyboard dynamics) access control systems to both the commercial world and the federal government.

When SPAM first came to be a popular pastime, that encouraged anonimity on the internet, and I still recommend it. I use GMAIL for most personal correspondence since they have the best spam filter that is available without paying big dollars for it. I haven't had more than 4 or 5 spam emails get through their filter in a year or two.

Being a computer security professional by trade makes me wary of public display of personal information on a forum such as this...identity theft is REAL and every piece of information that you reveal publicly can eventually come back to bite you hard.

... I am a hobby machinist with a gunsmithing background. I have moderated one gun forum for over ten years under my real name... and it is the only forum of about ten that I frequent where my real name is used..."biometrics" serves me for all other internet situations. Search my postings here and you will find the name of the forum if you are so inclined.

D. --

One way that my other forum weeds out the spam bot registrations is that reading the terms and conditions for use is mandatory... a genuine email address must be submitted along with a real name for registration. Registration must be acknowledged from the email address submitted and once banned from the forum, that email address is barred from future registrations. ONLY the forum moderators have access to a person's last name and email address. The real first name is displayed publicly if someone looks at your profile. We have found that this method has discouraged all but the worst spammers, and any moderator has the authority to ban a user who steps out of bounds with the terms of service. The terms of service also include a warning that re-registering as a user on this forum by changing your email address after being banned will cause you to be indebted to the owner of the forum by the amount of $5000.00 for any legal fees caused by your reentry. New users must agree to this in the validation email.

It won't work for every forum, but in 10 years we have only had to ban about 10 people out of 7000 users. Flame wars are practically unheard of and short lived because the perpetrators know they can be contacted by the moderator staff.

I like the idea of asking the simple question about a displayed image during the registration process that must be answered correctly. Another spambot tool that should provide some relief.

You guys have a great forum here... Keep up the great work D. !

I learn at least one something new and intelligent every day that makes me a better engineer/designer/machinist.

-another John S. (with apologies to Mr. Stevenson!)

[true temper]

My company does underground construction, trenching and roadboring. My favorite shovel is a true temper. I thought that would be a cool handle, no pun intended.

[Steve in SoCal]

This thread in long in the tooth. I agree with the idea that most want to retain some privacy and not use their full name in a forum. That said some of the "handles" I see on the forums, not just here are really odd. One thing I like is knowing someones name when responding in a post. I always sign my posts and on a couple of groups it is frowned on if you don't sign a post. This is where some of these names or handles get weird. How do you address a poster with a handle like "dickwizz 123?

Why not use your given name as a part of you nickname or handle; as you guess I am named Steve and I live in Southern California, I also use my company name and my given name on some forums. So dickwizz123 could be John at dickwizz123. Or at least sign your post a name.

My pet peeve for the month!!!

Steve

[Hdpg]

Originally Posted by Steve in SoCal

.... How do you address a poster with a handle like "dickwizz 123? .....

My pet peeve for the month!!!

Steve

You can be polite and use Mr 123.

And I suppose now I have added to your months's accumulation of peevishness by having a non-name handle and not signing my posts.

[wonderer]

I belong to many forums with all kinds of subjects, almost all are under my nickname I had underground + the same password..

I'm not starting a book to keep track of all the super secret names or passwords on each forum, thats

Sorry it bothers some.....I do feel with identie theft as bad as it is putting to much information out there can be dangerous..

With work having different names & passwords (which have to change every couple of months) + some sites requiring letters & numbers of a certain length.

I'm getting senile in my old age, lets kill a few more brain cells

wonderer = Steve

[Koala]

Koala ..... Australia (soft and cuddly; nothing like me).

Used to make surfboards in New Zealand under the name of Hedgehog Surfboards (cute little critters that got splattered on the road... sort of reminded me of me; I ride pushbikes).

Cheers guys (and girls)
Ross Cuneo in Brisbane