Rejecting anything so banal as "scott" as a login name, I was assigned "scrottie". External chronometer reading 27 years, I just missed the period where where computers were an extremely serious thing, and my first "real" job found me in the hands of people holing up and holding out against The Powers That Be. For the first time, the dream of running a timeshare system not under draconian control was within reach of the common University department.

Earlier on, I was secretative about my name, for I fanced myself some kind of cracker, and whiled away the time doing my utmost to annoy BBS sysops. It was a long dry spell before satire or even humour was accepted "on line". Next came a period where my Internet access was via an annonymous "port" on a DEC terminal server, and my only login name of any sort was what I used on a Multi User Dungeon - Phaedrus. No one uses their real name on MUD - MUD is fantasy. Of course, I had no idea that that book was popular or I would have made an attempt at creativity. Since MUD stuck with me, so did that name, for one compartment of my life, atleast. Next came a phase where I had login accounts, and they were derived from real names - just not *my* real name.

Point being, it was instilled in me over and over again that login names aren't permement, and using your real name is a luxoury unaffordable. With high contention for the @yahoo.com and @hotmail.com namespaces, and preasure to change addresses due to spam and the adolescent search for identity (netters are younger and younger), for many people, my plight exists amplified.

I've always had respect for people that used their real names online. It implies that that you can finger them, take a bus downtown, walk into an office building, down a hall, and shake their hand over a messy desk and a large monitor attached to an expensive Unix workstation. It implies position and power, and the intelligence and dedication associated with it. I've always wanted an office and a nice workstation...