Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks
Perl: the Markov chain saw
 
PerlMonks  

jdporter's place in the name space

by jdporter (Paladin)
on Oct 25, 2002 at 19:44 UTC ( [id://208115]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Name Space

I've been an Internaut for -- lessee... 1, 2, 3... 21 years.

Back then, it was rather unusual for someone to use anything other than their real name for their online account, I think mostly because most people had no actual say in the matter; their accounts were assigned to them by The Powers.
So I got used to people knowing me by my real name.

Now that I'm "older", I find the whole idea of being known online as something other than your Real-Life identity to be pretty stupid. No offense to the rest of you, of course.... :-)

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: Name Space
by Anonymous Monk on Mar 08, 2003 at 13:38 UTC
    Rejecting anything so banal as "scott" as a login name, I was assigned "scrottie". External chronometer reading 27 years, I just missed the period where where computers were an extremely serious thing, and my first "real" job found me in the hands of people holing up and holding out against The Powers That Be. For the first time, the dream of running a timeshare system not under draconian control was within reach of the common University department.

    Earlier on, I was secretative about my name, for I fanced myself some kind of cracker, and whiled away the time doing my utmost to annoy BBS sysops. It was a long dry spell before satire or even humour was accepted "on line". Next came a period where my Internet access was via an annonymous "port" on a DEC terminal server, and my only login name of any sort was what I used on a Multi User Dungeon - Phaedrus. No one uses their real name on MUD - MUD is fantasy. Of course, I had no idea that that book was popular or I would have made an attempt at creativity. Since MUD stuck with me, so did that name, for one compartment of my life, atleast. Next came a phase where I had login accounts, and they were derived from real names - just not *my* real name.

    Point being, it was instilled in me over and over again that login names aren't permement, and using your real name is a luxoury unaffordable. With high contention for the @yahoo.com and @hotmail.com namespaces, and preasure to change addresses due to spam and the adolescent search for identity (netters are younger and younger), for many people, my plight exists amplified.

    I've always had respect for people that used their real names online. It implies that that you can finger them, take a bus downtown, walk into an office building, down a hall, and shake their hand over a messy desk and a large monitor attached to an expensive Unix workstation. It implies position and power, and the intelligence and dedication associated with it. I've always wanted an office and a nice workstation...
      Nice - a point, contrary to mine, powerfully and eloquently argued!
      It implies that that you can ... shake their hand over a messy desk and a large monitor attached to an expensive Unix workstation. It implies position and power...
      Heheh! Well, not really. In my case (which is probably all too typical), we drones get stuck with 200-MHz Wintel boxes running Windows 98 or something, on corporate Windows network domains with login ID's derived directly from the payroll database. And internet access through some creaky old Frame Relay cloud, bouncing through a X.25 gateway on the opposite coast. :-)

      jdporter
      The 6th Rule of Perl Club is -- There is no Rule #6.

Re: Re: Name Space
by jdporter (Paladin) on Nov 12, 2002 at 21:24 UTC
    And I'm pleased to discover that esr seems to agree with me:
    The problem with screen names or handles deserves some amplification. Concealing your identity behind a handle is a juvenile and silly behavior characteristic of crackers, warez d00dz, and other lower life forms. Hackers don't do this; they're proud of what they do and want it associated with their real names. So if you have a handle, drop it. In the hacker culture it will only mark you as a loser.

    jdporter
    ...porque es dificil estar guapo y blanco.

Re: Re: Name Space
by nothingmuch (Priest) on Dec 11, 2003 at 17:46 UTC
    What if you don't like your real name, and moreover, people keep mispronouncing it and asking what it means in your mother tongue?

    -nuffin
    zz zZ Z Z #!perl
Re: Re: Name Space
by logan (Curate) on Dec 06, 2002 at 23:16 UTC
    I'm with you. I still use some online psuedonyms that I established in the early 90s, and I refuse to have anything as lame as logan_2342 as a screen name. Wherever possible, I use my real name online. Besides, Logan is a pretty distinctive name. I've never met another (Fictional Characters notwithstanding).

    -Logan
    "What do I want? I'm an American. I want more."

Re: jdporter's place in the name space
by jdporter (Paladin) on Dec 06, 2023 at 22:31 UTC

    and it has now been 21 years since I posted the above. 42 years slinging bits. >-#

    Insert pithy aphorism about the impermanence of transience or sommat

Log In?
Username:
Password:

What's my password?
Create A New User
Domain Nodelet?
Node Status?
node history
Node Type: note [id://208115]
help
Chatterbox?
and the web crawler heard nothing...

How do I use this?Last hourOther CB clients
Other Users?
Others scrutinizing the Monastery: (4)
As of 2024-03-28 20:23 GMT
Sections?
Information?
Find Nodes?
Leftovers?
    Voting Booth?

    No recent polls found