Ask HN: How did you choose your Internet handle? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How did you choose your Internet handle?

7 pointscrocowhile8 comments

I don't have just one screen name. The screen name I use here I use on the basis of "entities should not be multiplied without necessity." I was already using the screen name "tokenadult" on a site where it was mandatory to use screen names rather than real names, and where I was one of the few adults on a site where most participants are high school students. I then continued to use this screen name on another site with a similar population. On both of those sites I am a volunteer community moderator. My screen name is more jarring here, where most participants are adults, but I wanted to carry over a discernible connection with my identity on those sites. I am well above the median age of HN participants, it appears, so the screen name still makes a little bit of sense here.

On most email lists and Web sites I simply use my real name, which was the rule in several of the places where I first participated in online discussion in the early 1990s.

I also use mainly my real name but I like the idea to have a screen name too. I don't care if those two are connected to each other, I don't need anonymity. I normally go by "gg" which are my initials but that is too short and too common to be used in the internet.

Barton Fink was the most recent movie I watched when I signed up here. Other handles have been puns on places I've worked, old nicknames, etc. I use a different handle for every site I use.

I mentioned in a similar thread earlier this week that I don't feel that my handle has any ties to my identity - it's just the barrier to entry for posting here. I wouldn't mind one bit if PG decided not to display usernames with posts, and I think it might be an interesting experiment because it would completely eliminate the perceived problem of long-standing users getting celebrity votes and drowning out other, equally valid points of view.

“ESWAT stands for “Extra Special Weapons And Tactics”. They are a fictional paramilitary group from the manga Appleseed. They also wore 4-meter tall exoskeleton armour, stuck to their ethos and got shit done. If you’re trying to come up with a personal moniker you might as well name yourself after a team of badasses.”

This is the reasoning behind my nickname I have on my site, but it actually runs a bit deeper than that. I also keep some of the mannerisms of the lead characters in ESWAT and the organization’s methods in the back of my mind, whether they work in the real world or something I should scrutinize: Deunan’s knowledge and curiosity of multiple languages, ESWAT’s belief that specialization breeds weakness, the protagonists’ realizing they’ve become trapped in their current occupation because that’s what they are best at, etc. It made perfect sense to me to name my online-self after something from the series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation:_Mindcrime

As you have probably gathered, Queensrÿche are one of my favorite bands, and O:M is one of my all-time favorite albums.

I wanted something that is

-similar to my real name

-available on as much websites as possible (signing up early for a service and getting your first name as a handle is nice, but it's unlikely you get it everywhere)

-Easy to have a similar one in case it's unavailable

-short

In legend and lore, a "hedge mage" is a magic user who learned hands on by trial and error, as opposed to the ivory tower education of "proper" wizards. As most of my techy "magic" is self taught, it seemed to fit.

The one I have here on HN is named as it is because I kept forgetting my username here.

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