this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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Asklemmy

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Do you have a single username you feel attached to?
Or do you like to use different names for different occasions?


Edit two and a half days later:
Thank you all for answering my question! It was so interesting and fun to read all of your responses.
I really appreciate you for taking the time to write.

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[–] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 45 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Deeply attached. If anything ever happened to it I'd be completely devastated.

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[–] aaaa@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd rather not have a recognizable persona online

This name is just the fewest a's i was allowed to register with

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

The "Take On Me" strategy of choosing a name I see.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 19 points 1 year ago

By the ankle.

[–] Nemo@midwest.social 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] yoo@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

That’s so cool!

[–] blindbunny@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago

I have been this user name for seventeen years. I'm ADHD and forget friend on platforms. This makes it easy to find me.

[–] Fleur__@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm more attached to it then my real name

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[–] sploosh@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can take it from my cold, slippery hands.

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[–] dreadpirateroberts@aussie.zone 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I inherited my name from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts...

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 9 points 1 year ago

Not anymore, since it's really valuable to not have fixed identity on the net.

[–] mojo@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Mine is a work of art

[–] Spliffman1@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] chemicalprophet@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

I just use my username to express myself until people who don't like me ban me and then choose another to continue being myself.

[–] Bill@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

Pretty attached. My parents picked it.

If I could just be "Bill" everywhere I would but it really only works on the fediverse.

[–] nachtigall@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not at all. These days I just use random words when I sign up for new services.

I used to have a 'consistent' online identity, but at some point I decided I didn't want others to be able to make connections between them.

[–] Knusper@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, one of the advantages of password managers that's not often mentioned. Aside from your password, it can remember what username, e-mail address, phone number, fake name or whatever else you used during signup.

[–] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 7 points 1 year ago

I have a couple of usernames that I have used - or, more often, used variations of - for quite some time over a range of sites. However, it is not so much that I am attached to them as such. It is more that I can't be arsed to come up with something new each time.

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Anamana@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

But why is it cursive? Must have a deeper meaning πŸ€”

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[–] lemmyBeHere@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I used to be attached to my username, it was unique enough to be used everywhere. I used it in the mindset of creating an online presence, so my friends recognize me in other games and such, but then slowly realized it makes you very DOXable and vulnerable in general.

Nowadays I use one username per hobby, except gaming. I want you to be able to find other stuff I created in that specific space, but I don't want you to find out everything about me.

EDIT: Also, my username was too unique, if you googled it, you would get hundreds of results, and almost all of them were me... Random accounts on sites, forum posts, etc.

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Teenage me used the same or a similar username everywhere, but avoided ever mentioning his full real name.

Adult me realizes that this is stupid. Either I want people to recognize me from one place to the next, then I use my real name because why would I not want people from real life to find me too? Or I want to be anonymous, then I use a username no one from anywhere else will recognize, like I do here.

[–] JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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I use a new username for every account I sign up to.

[–] danhab99@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

I use it everywhere. Google me. I don't care

My username has pretty much become a nickname even with IRL friends at this point, I don't think it would have settled as solidly if I kept switching it tbh. I am not too worried about doxxing but that is definitely a concern if you're using a single username everywhere.

[–] thelsim@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

I've grown very attached to my username and see it as part of myself. I like to be recognized by my name, and try to keep it unique. Partly because it's a part of me that I don't get to express often in daily life.
However, I do keep my personas strictly separated from each other. I have one for professional use to ask questions that can be too easily identified with who I am offline, several for throwaway names and this one for social interactions. I don't care too much about the others, but do like to see myself as Thelsim as much as my other self.

[–] 0_0j@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Well, shite

[–] natecox@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago
[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Enough to have been using it for 15~20 years. I only use it in a few sites though, where I feel like I want some sort of "identity" - otherwise I'll pick something random.

[–] Komplekx@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah pretty attached. It's just a thing I like using as a synonym for myself

I'm not too keen on chosing names so I'm happy that I could

[–] slurpeesoforion@startrek.website 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not very since I had to shorten it from slurpees off the shoulder of Orion.

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[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Not attached much. I misspelt this username for Yahoo Chat almost 2 decades ago and stuck with it.

[–] ansik@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Very much so! There’s this other person who uses the same name online and whenever I sign up for a new service there’s a chance he’s been there first and I have to resort to an alternative. In my head we have a friendly feud about this but I’m not sure he’s noticed yet

And just like others mentioned, it’s very much become synonymous with my own identity, friends refer to me with it and at times I identify more with the nick than my actual name

[–] betwixthewires@lemmy.basedcount.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I drop usernames without a second thought if it suits me. I use different ones I think up on the fly most of the time. The only one that matters to me is one attached to my development activities in the FOSS community, and I might share opinions using it but primarily I use it to engage in discussion related to development so that people who know me in those circles know who they're talking to.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] thelsim@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

:) No trap. Just curious to see how people deal with online identities. Feel free to not answer anything or to be as vague as you want.
The last thing I want is to intrude on anyone's privacy.

[–] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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Not at all, use random usernames on every service.

[–] cyclohexane@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

I learned to enjoy multiple usernames. It's just more fun. Cyclohexane is cool also!

[–] Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

I try to vary usernames on high anonymous community. While on some other communities, I go by the same which is more or less attached to my real life persona.

[–] zerbey@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Been using this online handle for 30 years now, I'd say pretty attached!

[–] Sarazil@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

It's part of my identity. At one point I flipped it, and now a whole load of people in real life call me Liz.

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