30 Days of Actually Posting

[extrapenguin]

(Comment replies to the previous one Soon(TM); I took on a surprise pinch hit and have spent my typing time writing furiously.)

04. What are the origins of your penname/username?
Lost to the mists of time, mostly! I'm pretty sure the penguin bit is a Linux reference, and the extra bit is ... probably due to me feeling like a surplus human, the extra no-one wanted, in all my peer groups back then. Or it might be that I'm retroactively psychoanalyzing myself and have forgotten the actual reason! IDK. Anyway, it's not a reference to song lyrics or a canon or indeed anything at all, so I won't have to change it if I sour on a ship or whatever. I'm still part of the internet generation for whom usernames are forever rather than to be changed every Tuesday.

Comments

[trobadora]

I'm still part of the internet generation for whom usernames are forever rather than to be changed every Tuesday.

I'm glad for every person who keeps their names, so I'll know who they are! *g*

[krait]

Hey, you know it's a good name if you've had it so long you forgot why you picked it! :D

I'm still part of the internet generation for whom usernames are forever rather than to be changed every Tuesday.

Oooh, same. Name changes are received by my subconscious as "emergency reaction," not "mild entertainment," so I always have this instinctive 'are they okay??' moment when somebody switches names - because it used to be that you only changed usernames if your account had been discovered by your parents/boss/spouse, or similarly dire and IRL-releated reasons.

[extrapenguin]

That too! I am on a Discord server with people who frequently change display names and I have given up on recognizing anyone based on anything but content. There's the mod, the person who stans X, and a bunch of people with an ever-changing rotation of usernames and icons.

[extrapenguin]

Name changes are received by my subconscious as "emergency reaction," not "mild entertainment," so I always have this instinctive 'are they okay??' moment when somebody switches names - because it used to be that you only changed usernames if your account had been discovered by your parents/boss/spouse, or similarly dire and IRL-releated reasons.
Yep! And yeah, it baffled me at the start on tumblr. Thankfully DW culture is still that people keep their usernames and I don't have to worry.

[tinny]

Interesting! Thank you!

Usernames are forever indeed. Fandom grannies ftw. :D