My name is…

Free Software, Jonathan, Music Add comments

There’s been a discussion in the local blogosphere about nicknames versus given/birth names, and how it should be used. Here’s some links to recent entries from Bubulle, Martin, and Daniel. I’ve called people from my LUG by their IRC names before, with mixed reactions. For me, it’s completely natural to call people by their IRC nicks in meatspace, since that’s usually how I got to know them. I’m probably different to many people since I spend a huge amount of time on IRC, and it’s been my main medium of communication for a while now.

Last year in Spain, I had a discussion with a Debian/Ubuntu/LTSP developer who works exclusively by an alias, and nearly no one knows his real name. We had a long discussion about it one evening. The discussion turned into a discussion about how “real” the name is, and of course, turned into a conversation about what “real” means. In the end, the conclusion was that his alias is pretty much as real as any other name he has ever had.

I’m fine with people calling me highvoltage (my IRC nick), especially in places like my LUG where we have 5 Jonathans, and I get a bit annoyed with namespace clashes. Some of my friends and colleges at work also call me Jono, which I’m ok with. “Jon” annoys me, don’t call me that :)

I also feel that ‘highvoltage’ is as real as any other name I have. Many people who I communicate with on a daily basis calls me that where we communicate. What I’ve also found is that people have a real high resistance to nick change. I’ve tried to change my nick to something more mature (like jcc, my initials (which could also refer to a future Jonathanian C compiler (hey, we have our own verson of emacs))), but people didn’t like any of the new nick names I tried. ‘highvoltage’ comes from a song I used to listen to a lot from the Linkin Park Reanimation album shortly after it was released. I quickly had to choose a username when signing up with an ISP at that stage and used highvoltage, and it kind of stuck.

4 Responses to “My name is…”

  1. floodis Says:

    Haha, I have often thought about this issue. My conclusion is also that a nickname is a real name. Its a unique term identifying me especially on the internet (not only on irc). Just like a real name in the real world. Also people on the internet don’t know my real name. They all know me by my nickname. Så to me nicknames are as real as real names. But I know alot of people have problem accepting this. Myself, I don’t even react when someone in the real world call me by my nickname. But on the other side I feel really uncomfortable when I get called by my real name on the internet. Weird huh?

  2. Hobbsee Says:

    For my part, I introduced myself as Hobbsee all the time in Sevilla, Spain, for the UDS. Only once did I slip up, and introduce by my first name - the response was very amusing - the guy didn’t recognise me by my first name, but clearly did by my nick!

  3. Maxo Says:

    Isn’t it more fun to be called something cool like, “High Voltage”? I mean Jonathon, or most any other real name, is just so normal. “Hi High Voltage.” now that’s cool. Maybe I should change my online nick to “Lothar, Master of Dragons.” So when I meet online people they will sayd, “Hi, Lothat Master of Dragons.”

    Also, it’s meetspace, not meatspace. Meatspace is for sausage-fests.

  4. Jonathan Carter Says:

    @Maxo: First of all, http://jonathancarter.co.za/how-to-spell-jonathan :)

    “meatspace” is a term I stole from Jeremy Thurgood, I think it means the space where we are all pieces of physical flesh talking to each other, as apposed to on-line entities. I’m quite sure it should be meatspace :)

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