If there’s something bothering me, it are nicknames, screen names or how you want to call it. In contrast to what Wikipedia would tell you, I describe it as:

Nickname (-s) ['nikneim] A name used to conceil the true identity of an user.

Names like MarkGreen, ralphje, Ronnie etc. don’t are beyond the reach of nicknames, in my opinion, because many forums don’t allow the use of, for example, Ralph Broenink. And many family names are difficult to type. In this case, it would be smart to put your full name at the profile page.

Names I do mind are Ilnair, Baron, karoth, unnown etc. They conceil the true identity of the user. Why I’m against it? Let’s start with a citation of someone I met some time ago:

A nickname is an unusual practice of the so-called crackers. It conceils the true identity of them, which is, given their activiteis, not odd. To make things short: by using a nickname, you state yourself on the same level as a cracker.

The purpose of a nickname is hiding your true identity, which has as result:

The result of using nicknames is giving people the false idea of security. Due to this, they don’t watch their steps and become reckless. In the case of crackers, they’ll do more thoughtless actions, disturbing the network even more. In the case of forums and chat boxes, ‘nicknamed’ users will care less about their writing then when they use their real name. A discussion will be taken more serious when real names are used.

To make myself clear: while I’m sharing my friend’s opinion, I’ve not adopted this opinion. He gives users only two options: using your real name or using no name. In my opinion, you’re allowed to use a screen name – as long is clear who you really are. However, I won’t force anyone not to use his screename anymore. I’m must saying I won’t use TheInvisible or Ejhplar as name. Again: names that (partially) contain your real name are okay for me. I’m doing it myself too; this article was about fully censured names.

Don’t forget what ‘to nick’ means :-) .

The origin of ‘ralphje’

I have to admit that I was against names like ‘ralphje’ too, but the use of this name has its origins. More then six years ago, I wanted to register my own Hotmail-address. I wanted to claim ralphbroenink@hotmail.com, but this was already used. So, I tried ralphbroeninkje, which was still available. Three years ago I wanted to register the domain ralph.nl, but Ralph Lauren was too quick. So I added the suffix ‘je’ (‘ralphje’ is translated ‘little Ralph’) to my domain name. Ever since I’ve used ralphje as my screen name, since it isn’t a widely used name.

This post earlier appeard in Dutch on my previous blog.