An off-topic rant about aliases

[LuaWeaver]

Hi. It's been a while. I wonder how many of you I remember and how many of you remember me, but that's a different topic.

I've been think about aliases/usernames/whatever. I've recently been getting urges to change aliases, but it's not so easy for me with this alias anymore. It used to be I used a new username everywhere I went, and this one just stuck. It's the only one that represented me- I'm a Lua programmer. It was my first language, it is my favorite language, and it is my go-to language for quick "get 'er done" tasks and fun toys. As such, you can see a lot of development by searching LuaWeaver. I started with this alias when I was 11; it has been more than 4 years now, and it's just so amazing to look at where I started (and horribly embarrassing...).

Thinking about it, it's just so daunting to me to leave a username or alias behind, especially as a programmer at 15; I've had the internet my entire life, so it's been a part of me in a sense. Leaving a username, especially one I've had for this long, just feels like leaving behind me. It feels as hard as legally changing my name. Everything I have done to mark me has been under the name ---. I can't just abandon it. The same goes for LuaWeaver; it is one of the few things that truly points to me and would be hard to abandon. From my first posts here as LuaWeaver to [redacted], me. And to trash that feels like trashing ---.

The worst part is that everything I'd done, if I wanted to truly separate myself from LuaWeaver, would have to be abandoned; from my first code to this post, it would all be gone. I've made connections with people online; sometimes it feels like I can be more honest and trust people online more. I've found great friends and inspiration online, and the best part is I get to choose and it's so easy to find people. I don't want to abandon them, but if I want to fully and truly separate myself from LuaWeaver, I would have to. [redacted].

I figured I'd post this here just because this is the first community I was LuaWeaver. This is the community that helped shape and guide LuaWeaver (teenagers change a lot in 3-4 years). This is where my alias began, and my path to what I am today began. It feels weird posting this, but I figured I should write these thoughts down and see what other people think, and this was the best place for talking to people who've seen me before (unlike something like Reddit, for example) and are mature (a lot of the communities I am LuaWeaver in are educational platforms, resulting in lots of younger children... yeah, no.) enough for an intelligent and thoughtful discussion on this. What are your thoughts on your alias?

Edit: Well, it's time. A new year's coming up, a new alias. Figured I'd edit this post and remove anything that too easily links me to the new me.

[OttoRobba]

Sure, go ahead and make me feel old at 26.
My alias is my nom de guerre from when I was an illustrator but in all honesty, does it really matter? As long as it is socially acceptable and makes sense within the scope of your work, it is fine. I mean, I have a bunch of different aliases at different places and... I'm still me. A name changes nothing. You can call a rose by any other name and the smell would be the same (though our perception of it might vary).

[LuaWeaver]

Sure, go ahead and make me feel old at 26.
My alias is my nom de guerre from when I was an illustrator but in all honesty, does it really matter? As long as it is socially acceptable and makes sense within the scope of your work, it is fine. I mean, I have a bunch of different aliases at different places and... I'm still me. A name changes nothing. You can call a rose by any other name and the smell would be the same (though our perception of it might vary).

I'm making you feel old? All of my comments were about how young I was, and how I'm still developing. :s

The thing I've been contemplating isn't just changing a name, it's more of abandoning it. Leaving it entirely. Part of it is because of the history that I do have (a lot of it is embarrassing, and it's hard to delete this stuff from whatever; it's even harder to delete it from the memory of others). As I mentioned in my post, I've had the internet for my entire life, so you can see clear development in me, from my first PMs I found on a website filled with the ":3" emoticon ( ) to my first forum posts that sound like an 11 year old wrote them (oh wait). This becomes especially true if I want to tie more of my good history to myself and show it off to people; all they have to do is just a little, little,tiny amount of research to see me asking stupid questions and a LOT of bad code.

The issue isn't the alias itself, but the associations people can make with it. Associations I'd rather not have made.

[Robin]

Interesting. I've never thought about aliases like that, because I'm always Robin. At one point I did want to take on an alias, I forget why. I randomly generated a butt-load of names with a small Python script lost to time, and I selected a few of them, dropping a few I didn't like quite enough until I ended up with Gyvox. I liked it because it looked so alien, but at the same time it was quite like my real name: consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel, consonant. It didn't last long. Pretty soon* I dropped the vowels. Nowadays I only use it in places where my preferred nick is taken: on Reddit and IRC I'm robin-gvx, on GitHub I'm gvx (with my real name visible on my profile).

I can relate in another way, though. My avatar is something I have linked pretty strongly to my online (and offline, but we'll get to that) identity. I have the mono-coloured hair-and-glasses for almost four years now. And I have it almost everywhere (other places don't include the "obey", though). The only exceptions are those places that fuck up transparent pngs, like Facebook, so I have another one there. Anyway, I've had these glasses for even longer than this avatar, and I need new ones. Thing is, I feel quite hesitant because it's such a large part of my identity and how I present myself to the world. And would I refresh my avatar as well when I get new glasses? Would I forever want to have a stylised representation of my 18-year-old self? Or should it grow and age along with me?

Names are hard.

* I joined GitHub as gvx on 2008-09-19, and I'm pretty sure I chose Gyvox in the summer of 2008. I didn't retire the vowels completely until some time after, though.

EDIT:

This becomes especially true if I want to tie more of my good history to myself and show it off to people; all they have to do is just a little, little,tiny amount of research to see me asking stupid questions and a LOT of bad code.

I think it isn't so bad, for two reasons:

1. Our generation, and people of your age specifically, all have our history on the internet, and everyone does silly stuff. And if you can find dirt on everyone, no-ones going to care you were once ELEVEN ZOMG!!!111!1!!one!!
2. The StackOverflow effect! Asking questions on the internet isn't a bad thing, because it shows that you're willing to learn things you don't know. If someone sees your terrible code from 2010 and your superawesome code from 2014 side by side, they will think: "Hey, this kid has grown a lot in four years, and hopefully if I hire them now, I probably will get some of that growth too." Getting better is good, because it means you haven't plateaued yet.

Also, I remember you, LuaWeaver.

[LuaWeaver]

Thing is, I feel quite hesitant because it's such a large part of my identity and how I present myself to the world. And would I refresh my avatar as well when I get new glasses? Would I forever want to have a stylised representation of my 18-year-old self? Or should it grow and age along with me?

LuaWeaver is currently a representation of the entirety of my past several years, and I'm not sure I want to brandish my 11-year-old self to the world. "Hey guys, look at me, I'm this cool game developer. I make websites and games and stuff. Also, googling my name will find you a forum post filled with 15 usages of the emoticon. Yeah, I'm cool."

I'll also probably regret everything I do now in 4 years, but such is life.

[Robin]

In the mean time, I made an edit to my post (I'm super smart that way) that you might want to read.

[LuaWeaver]

EDIT:

This becomes especially true if I want to tie more of my good history to myself and show it off to people; all they have to do is just a little, little,tiny amount of research to see me asking stupid questions and a LOT of bad code.

I think it isn't so bad, for two reasons:

1. Our generation, and people of your age specifically, all have our history on the internet, and everyone does silly stuff. And if you can find dirt on everyone, no-ones going to care you were once ELEVEN ZOMG!!!111!1!!one!!
2. The StackOverflow effect! Asking questions on the internet isn't a bad thing, because it shows that you're willing to learn things you don't know. If someone sees your terrible code from 2010 and your superawesome code from 2014 side by side, they will think: "Hey, this kid has grown a lot in four years, and hopefully if I hire them now, I probably will get some of that growth too." Getting better is good, because it means you haven't plateaued yet.

Also, I remember you, LuaWeaver.

I haven't thought of it this way very much. Also, <3.

[mongrol]

CHange it, don't change it. It doesn't matter. Soon or later you will be tagged by the "BigData" crowd (Corporates/Gov) and linked back to every alias you've ever used. This information will find it's way to future employers, insurance companies, Walmart etc. If you're on the internet. There is no hiding unless you go to extreme lengths.

(Source: I work for a major finance sector company. Business Intelligence (tracking, Bigdata, social graphs) is the future.

[Jasoco]

Yeah, I need to change mine too. I don't use this name anymore so it doesn't make sense, but I always think people know me best as Jasoco.

I only recently changed my Twitter name from @Jasoco. I was so afraid it would cause people to be confused, but it seems to have worked fine. I kept my avatar and display name the same so it helps. It just breaks all my previous interaction threads but that's no big deal.

Maybe one day I'll change it here.

[OttoRobba]

It made me feel old because I started programming less than a year ago so I feel I'm quite late to the party. Then again, people change jobs all the time so what the hell.

Anyway, it could be a lot worse. I used to go by "BlindShooter" from my Counter-Strike days heh.
Honestly, I'd rather have something that shows my progress than a name that makes it seem like I popped out of the aether into existence.

There is nothing wrong with starting with shitty code, there is no harm is asking stupid questions, there is no foul in not knowing something yet. A part of the learning process is accepting that we are going to change without discarding the foundations from which we departed.

If you feel you must change then simply do.