How did you choose your username?

271 Replies
derk said

derk is a shortened nickname, all in good humor, related to my name and the movie Team America World Police. Lowercase because it’s an IRC handle where in the channels I frequented all communication is lower case. Tabula rasa is the only phrase that describes my choice of a grey avatar, something about Stoicism blahblah.

Hi, I’m derk!

Fun Fact, I have the phrase Tabula Rasa tattooed on my arm.

It was my first ever tattoo – after I moved out of my parents house/to a new city. Seemed fitting in terms of it being my “fresh start” – but I also liked the irony of my first ever tattoo literally saying meaning blank slate as, having now been tattooed, I was no longer a blank slate/canvas…

derk said

Oh the ire knee. That’s cool, though.

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Nearly everyone assumes my name is some BDSM thing, and I’ve been getting that for ages… and the truth is, everyone is actually wrong, to the point I’ve actually adopted that as a “joke” (hense using the “S&Ms” candies as my avatar). “Mastress” is a word I made up around the time I was 12 or so. I was really into Nintendo, and if folks don’t really remember what it was like to be a female that was really into Nintendo/video games in the 80s/90s, it was “not cool” (they were targetted/marketed pretty much entirely toward guys during that time). I really liked this TV show during my childhood called “Captain N: Nintendo Master” (which, looking back on now, wasn’t even that good and has aged terribly, but ya know, I was a kid!) and I wanted so bad to be like the main character, to get to go inside video games and be the Nintendo Master. I never really liked how the word “Master” was considered a “masculine” word but I hated how the feminine “Mistress” sounded old-fashioned and “school-marmy” to me, so I called myself the Nintendo Mastress in 12-year-old fantasy and play I had. When my family got the Internet, I started using the word as my handle because, as a “made-up” word, it was never “taken.” Of course it sounding like Master/Mistress, everyone always jumps to BDSM associations, but really… just a kid that loved video games. :-) The “Alita” part was my anime geekery, as the first two anime I collected (that were really available easily in America in manga form) were Ranma 1/2 and Battle Angel Alita and I collected both heavily, so the “Alita” comes from Battle Angel Alita (note this was from back in the 90s, waaaaaaaaay before that live action adaptation came out… and I refuse to watch it, because I’m sort of a purist and set in my ways about certain things that have special nostalgic significance for me). So, just a bunch of geekery all around. Video games and anime. With S&M candies as a bit of sarcasm on the side from the asexual who got so tired of people online that constantly poked BDSM jokes about the “mastress” bit (optionally, I get a lot of “mattress” misspellings, heh).

ashmanra said

I got the Mastress part right away, just assuming it was a master/mister/mistress variation. I thought Alita seemed reasonable as your real name since it is very similar to Anita, and as for the BDSM, it never occured to me because I thought those were regular candies! At my age, evem the glasses,don’t help me see the S&M that small!

Most people assume the BDSM bit since “Master” and “Mistress” are titles used in that community. I’m not part of that community but got so used to people assuming incorrectly from “Mastress” that I just started to make a joke from it, like, “if you are going to assume I’m a Dominatrix, I’ll just make some S&M candies my avatar!” The funny part is I’m the sort of personality that can’t stand up for myself and sort of disappears into the background, which makes it even more ridiculous and funny to me. But I agree, Steepster’s formatting of the avatar pictures doesn’t help much with my S&M candy picture. Full size (or pretty much any other website where the avatar image is larger than half a postage stamp) it’s much easier to tell. Here they really just look like normal M&Ms, sadly.

I think Alita is a fairly normal name… I think it is Spanish in origin? Just isn’t mine, since I coined the handle back when I joined the Internet when I was 12 or so and everyone said, “Don’t you dare tell anyone online your name!” I’m not so uptight about that these days. I even list my actual name on my Steepster profile page! (Which is Sara, and I’ve seen quite a few Sara/Sarah’s around Steepster). But that first Internet handle has stuck around for nostalgic purposes. On some sites I only use the “Mastress” bit though.

derk said

Haha, I’m so guilty. Then again, I come from a city known for such things.

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Arby said

I’ve used Arbutus online for a long time because it is my favourite tree (go look up Arbutus tree and you too will be in awe of its glory), and Arby is a nickname I got a decade ago based on Arbutus (it is pronounced Are-beau-tus, is anyone isn’t sure) and Arby stuck. I actually prefer Arby to my IRL name because I’m used to it and it feels like me.

derk said

I remember the first time I saw a madrone out here in central California. I have a picture of me standing beside one all giddy and such.

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AJ said

I actually had to go check what my display name was.

Nope, that’s just me. I’m AJ. Stands for Al J, Al Jo, or Ally Jo if you prefer. Usually I’ll take a rock-name like Greywacke or Arkose.

ashmanra said

:)

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Ok, so this one is both a Nickname and a Fandom

I have a horrible memory. As such, I tend to use the same basic Username for everything. Ever since about the turn of the millennium, I have been going by “Shaneomaniac” – In reference to my obsessive adoration of one Shane O Mac (He’s a WWE Superstar/Owner). In time, people on various boards and chat rooms started calling me “Shanie” as a shortened form of that. So, my name over time changed to “Shanie O Maniac” as a more personalized version of the name. Fun fact: If I’m in public, and someone askes me my name that I don’t want to know it, I usually tell them “Shanie”. Nifty, huh?

derk said

Haha, my go to fake name is Julie. I have several alter ego characters, one being Poochie Gommorah (I wrote a review about her once, see White2Tea Repave) but nobody would believe a mid-30s woman of my attitude would be named Poochie, so Julie it is.

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