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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by thelsim@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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

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

[-] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

zkfcfbzr more like.. dumb

[-] aaaa@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

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 6 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
[-] yoo@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

That’s so cool!

[-] PopcornPrincess@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago
[-] 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

I'm more attached to it then my real name

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[-] dreadpirateroberts@aussie.zone 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[-] sploosh@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

You can take it from my cold, slippery hands.

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[-] chemicalprophet@lemm.ee 9 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.

[-] mojo@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

Mine is a work of art

[-] Dirk@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago
[-] Anamana@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago

But why is it cursive? Must have a deeper meaning 🤔

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[-] nachtigall@feddit.de 7 points 1 year ago

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.

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[-] 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.

[-] Bill@lemm.ee 6 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.

[-] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 year ago

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.

I use a new username for every account I sign up to.

[-] JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 year ago
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[-] danhab99@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

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

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

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

Well, shite

[-] 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

[-] 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.

[-] natecox@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago
[-] ChickenAndRice@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah I love eating chicken and rice

Edit: just ate some chicken and rice

[-] Serinus@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
[-] 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.

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

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

[-] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

I flat out refuse to have alt accounts because of it.

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

[-] 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

[-] i_am_hungry@meganice.online 4 points 1 year ago

Not at all, use random usernames on every service.

[-] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago
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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.

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

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

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

[-] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Not particularly

[-] 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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this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
77 points (100.0% liked)

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