Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site unisoft.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!amdcad!lll-crg!lll-lcc!unisoft!tim From: tim@unisoft.UUCP (Tim Bessie) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: "pretend" names and aliases Message-ID: <33@unisoft.UUCP> Date: Mon, 17-Mar-86 17:42:29 EST Article-I.D.: unisoft.33 Posted: Mon Mar 17 17:42:29 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 19-Mar-86 04:09:49 EST References: <712@osiris.UUCP> Reply-To: tim@unisoft.UUCP (Tim Bessie) Distribution: net Organization: UniSoft Systems; Berkeley, CA Lines: 65 In article <712@osiris.UUCP> jcp@osiris.UUCP (Jody Patilla) writes: > > (I am posting this here for lack of any better idea about >whre it should go) > > I am interested in other people's opinions about something that >is pretty common among net people, and that is the use of famous names >from fiction or from D&D campaigns and the like. What brought it to >mind was one instance in particular of a person who uses a character's >name from a famous work of fiction aka where the second >name is also a fictional character. There are also all the Princess >Somebody of Someplace and the Lord SoandSo's. (This does not include >nicknames like Pooh or Snoopy, if you'll excuse my taking those names >in vain :-) > I guess the question is, what is the importance, if any, of using >hig-falutin' names ? Is the user in that much need of an ego-boost ? >My reaction would be to assume that the person would seem to be fairly >immature but maybe that's not so. Comments, anyone ? To tell you the truth, the kind if name-use you've described here has always made me *sick*! I was a BBS/Arpa/pick-one hacker way back (habits that I voluntarily gave up when I found my life revolving around computers), and got to see this kind of childishness every day. I most commonly saw this happening on BBS's, where the users didn't want their real names known, probably because of the questionable material floating around (how to break into systems, private phone #'s and passwords, etc.). This made sense at the time, though I still used my real name. As time went on, though, I started to get tired of it. People were so secretive, and you couldn't find out who they really were. In some extreme cases (eg. BBS's devoted specifically to gaming), people's code- names and their computer-personas matched, so they could play out their little fantasies to the expense of truthful communication (NOTE: I am not saying that their whole lives were fantasies, just their BBS ones). When I started using USENET, I thought I'd left all that behind. I didn't mind cutsey names like 'snoopy,' etc, because they weren't pretentious, and had little to do, seemingly, with the posters' actual personalities, real or imagined. Then, I suddenly started seeing more of the old-style handles ("Lord of the Nether Regions of the Fiery Realm," etc. (gag)), often corresponding with the school term (meaning lots of new students, still stuck in their adolescent D&D mindset, were discovering USENET). And it brings back old feelings to see this... I get images of greasy- haired, pimply kids, sitting in a darkened room scattered with D&D stuff, posters, old pizza, comix w/busty women on the covers, etc. They are hunched over a terminal, grunting, giggling, whining, etc... talking and thinking in an uncomfortable way, trying to cling to *some* kind of group identity composed of the floatsam in the room, trying desperately to hold on to some aspect of "WE." Evokes a little pity in me ol' heart *snif*, but also makes me want to leave. The kind of stuff I feel I "escaped," thank ye gods! ((-: sort of)). - Tim -- --- Life is like an onion; you keep peeling off the layers, and sometimes you weep. - Carl Sandburg --------------------------------------------------------------- ---> Tim Bessie ----- {ucbvax,dual}!unisoft!tim ---> Unisoft Systems; 739 Allston Way; Berkeley, CA 94710 ---> (415) 644-1230 TWX II 910 366-2145