I now pretty much only use my real name on most platforms and have for a few years now.
I used to use Hawkwind as my username most everywhere and did so since around 1986. Hawkwind, the Seer Of Souls, is a character that was first introduced in my favorite game of all time, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar back in 1986. While it's also a band, it's not associated with the band in any way.
I also used DecryptedGamer for several years when I was streaming. It came from my Destiny 2 clan name that was The Decrypted Guardians. I wanted something similar to retain the DG, but wanted it more for a personalized gaming account on social media and for streaming. I changed Decrypted Guardians to DecryptedGamer. Used it up until about 2 1/2 years ago when I retired from streaming and being a partnered streamer.
@Ink Mainly just the name itself, Hawkwind, Seer of Souls. Just drew me in from the moment I stumbled across the character in the game, which played a pretty big part.
Not only did I use Hawkwind for so many years, but I also used Seer of Souls(SoS) as a website name and a very large Mandrake/Mandriva Linux 3rd party RPM repository for several years.
The name Hawkwind is also used for my email address.
@cliffwade Mine, which I've been using since I was 18 or so, comes from a melding: the fact that I write on my hands with the pen I always have at the ready when I have no paper, and my love for Nick Cave (dropping the "King" from his song "King Ink").
@cliffwade Box 464 is the mailbox number I had growing up in a very rural area of the U.S., and was my first "internet" - where I received all kinds of information from outside my little farming district.
Among them, magazines for Commodore 64 that just had code you typed in directly, which I would take to school and type in on the PETs there. And now I code for a living.
@cliffwade Missed this, but mine is pretty basic. It's my initials and the initials of the state I live in. I used to be on Twitter for a long time & needed a smaller handle. In those days, account names went toward character counts before the age of boosts / RTs. So, I shrunk it down to 5 characters - MDMRN. And it's stuck since. I think like...2009ish. Use this same handle all over.
@mike@mdmrn I already run my own instance actually. When I created it, I didn't think before hand and made it what I had been using, CliffWade instead of Cliff.
I could just make a new account on this instance, but then I'd have to start all over with my posts and everyone would have to follow me again. Not really ideal.
@cliffwade For social stuff I use asjmcguire - which is actually my name. Andrew Simon Jones-McGuire.
For stuff that I want a bit more seperation, I use wkd2639 (eg for my fetish instagram profile) - which is because when I was 18 and setting up my Yahoo account I was drinking a bottle of Blue WKD (it's an vodka based drink in the UK). 2639 is Andy when using T9 predictive text on pre smartphones.
@cliffwade
I grew up in a wide range multicultural environment - I constantly had to code switch in order to blend into the crowd, similar to a chameleon - just to survive. Most near me were living on the edge as some form of extremist. Poverty, larger than life personalities (grandpa was a boxer), my teenage dad rebelled into a fundamental nationalist church lifestyle where he was the token Hispanic. I'm a writer. Chameleon, as a term, seems to capture that complexity.
@cliffwade I have a background of being a Network Engineer and my username is word play on the OSI model which explains 7 layers computers use to communicate with each other over a network. These are:
Physical
Data Link
Network
Transport
Session
Presentation
Application
Layer 8 is assumed to be the person using the computer, hence EighthLayer. 🤓
@cliffwade The tl;dr is I was playing a furry chat game and needed an avatar, so I came up with a name and basic characterization that I refined throughout the years. I dropped it for a little while as I developed a more professional brand, but now I'm embracing it wholeheartedly.
@cliffwade In the late 1990s it was supposed to be a throwaway email account. How did that work out? I remember the first time someone called me Nebbie in RL.
@cliffwade I've been a DJ for many many years, I was raised in the ghetto and I also worked farms and ranches most my life. Also, I run a country music dance club. DJ - GHETTO - REDNECK
For over a decade, I was known as #FeedingTubePaul because I first started tweeting & creating feeding tube awareness & how-to videos on YouTube after getting mine, absent medical advancement, forever on April 16, 2012.
My social life & purpose evolved so here I am with just my real name, @paul, an à la carte version, posting unlimited topics of various quality instead of primarily feeding tube and health topics.
@cliffwade Some of my user names have made reference to famous almost mythical women in history, some made up but in the same vein and some referencing somewhere I lived and when.
@cliffwade Thankyou....I've also used ancient place names or ones that are practically mythology and 'feminized' them. Eg: Derventio would become Dearventia.
@og That's pretty neat. I would assume it's likely pretty difficult to get the name "OG" on most platforms today though. So I'd guess you likely have to add other stuff to OG at times?
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