Username convention

Mundane & Pointless Stuff I Must Share: The Off Topic Forum

Moderator: Moderators

User avatar
momothefiddler
Knight-Baron
Posts: 883
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 10:55 am
Location: United States

Username convention

Post by momothefiddler »

How do you deal with usernames that start with a lowercase? Personally, I tend to be very mildly pleased when someone starts a sentence with "momothefiddler", very mildly irked when someone uses "Momothefiddler" in the middle of a sentence, and pretty much neutral in other cases.

On one hand, I like using capitalization as provided. On the other, I find that too much lack of capitals makes sentences hard to separate visually. In those cases I generally reword it so the username doesn't come at the beginning of the sentence.

What do you do? How important do you think it is? For those of you with lowercase-beginning usernames, how do you prefer people handle it and how important is that to you?
TiaC
Knight-Baron
Posts: 968
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2013 7:09 am

Post by TiaC »

!momothefiddler so as to still show emphasis.

It's nice when capitalization is preserved, but I don't really mind.
Last edited by TiaC on Mon Jul 14, 2014 6:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Maj
Prince
Posts: 4705
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Shelton, Washington, USA

Post by Maj »

How do I deal with it? I agonize over whether or not to use capital letters. And then, paralyzed by the thought of getting it wrong, I just close my eyes and if I happen to hit the CapsLock while typing, just stick with it.

---

I'm feeling rather snarky tonight. I usually preserve it unless it's the beginning of a sentence. Once I get to know a poster well enough, I usually have an abbreviated name that they haven't told is wrong that I use. But I'll roll with what I'm told - it's not my name, after all. :)
My son makes me laugh. Maybe he'll make you laugh, too.
darkmaster
Knight-Baron
Posts: 913
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:24 am

Post by darkmaster »

Is it being used as a name? Good then it's a proper noun and you capitalize it. I know a couple people who say they specifically chose to use a lowercase as the first letter of their name, but most people won't actually pay attention to that.

Then later you just have a cute diminutive name for them because their handle is probably too long to keep using over and over.
Kaelik wrote:
darkmaster wrote:Tgdmb.moe, like the gaming den, but we all yell at eachother about wich lucky star character is the cutest.
Fuck you Haruhi is clearly the best moe anime, and we will argue about how Haruhi and Nagato are OP and um... that girl with blond hair? is for shitters.

If you like Lucky Star then I will explain in great detail why Lucky Star is the a shitty shitty anime for shitty shitty people, and how the characters have no interesting abilities at all, and everything is poorly designed especially the skill challenges.
User avatar
Kaelik
ArchDemon of Rage
Posts: 14958
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Kaelik »

darkmaster wrote:Then later you just have a cute diminutive name for them because their handle is probably too long to keep using over and over.
Yes, cause like, Maj is way too long. So I like to call her "Evil Queen Picture Lady" to save time.
DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.

That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
User avatar
Maj
Prince
Posts: 4705
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Shelton, Washington, USA

Post by Maj »

:lmao: :lmao: :maj:
My son makes me laugh. Maybe he'll make you laugh, too.
darkmaster
Knight-Baron
Posts: 913
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:24 am

Post by darkmaster »

Fuck off Kaelik very few internet handles are three characters long, or even six characters long and that you don't type out FrankTrollman every fucking time you want to address Frank directly is proof enough that you usually shorten internet handles to make them more manageable.
Kaelik wrote:
darkmaster wrote:Tgdmb.moe, like the gaming den, but we all yell at eachother about wich lucky star character is the cutest.
Fuck you Haruhi is clearly the best moe anime, and we will argue about how Haruhi and Nagato are OP and um... that girl with blond hair? is for shitters.

If you like Lucky Star then I will explain in great detail why Lucky Star is the a shitty shitty anime for shitty shitty people, and how the characters have no interesting abilities at all, and everything is poorly designed especially the skill challenges.
radthemad4
Duke
Posts: 2073
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:20 pm

Post by radthemad4 »

I believe Kaelik was making a joke there. Maj's reaction corroborates this. I asked this question a while back and the responses indicated that people were fine with referring to their names as is, or capitalizing them. I just use lowercase, and I don't feel weird about it though I don't know why, even when I shorten a name (I'd call momothefiddler 'momo' if I shorten it). I'm guessing many people picked lowercase names because they did so for their email addresses and picking a username felt like a similar activity. The numbers some people have might also be an artifact of that.
Last edited by radthemad4 on Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:03 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Kaelik
ArchDemon of Rage
Posts: 14958
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Kaelik »

darkmaster wrote:Fuck off Kaelik very few internet handles are three characters long, or even six characters long and that you don't type out FrankTrollman every fucking time you want to address Frank directly is proof enough that you usually shorten internet handles to make them more manageable.
As was correctly pointed out below, I was making a joke. I choose to quote you because you stated the issue best.

I am not disagreeing that people use shorthand names, to do so would be absurd, because I think literally when DSM has 4 posts I started calling him DSM. I am more apt to shorten names then most people.
DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.

That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
Laertes
Duke
Posts: 1021
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2014 4:09 pm
Location: The Mother of Cities

Post by Laertes »

In real life, names which begin with lowercase letters like the poet e e cummings, the rapper mc chris or the traditional Welsh surname ffolkes are not capitalised when they are used as the first part of a sentence. On the other hand, name prefixes (von, van, de, du) are capitalised when they are used as the first word in a sentence.

Since momothefiddler is an all-lower-case name, I think it would count under the rules for those, so just as e e cummings's name is not capitalised, neither is yours.

EDIT: We could compromise between legibility and correctness by using the medieval method of colouring the first letter in a different colour, usually red. So instead of having momothefiddler or Momothefiddler, it would be momothefiddler to start sentences.

(Yes, obviously I'm joking. :P)
Last edited by Laertes on Mon Jul 14, 2014 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
darkmaster
Knight-Baron
Posts: 913
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:24 am

Post by darkmaster »

Kaelik wrote:
darkmaster wrote:Fuck off Kaelik very few internet handles are three characters long, or even six characters long and that you don't type out FrankTrollman every fucking time you want to address Frank directly is proof enough that you usually shorten internet handles to make them more manageable.
As was correctly pointed out below, I was making a joke. I choose to quote you because you stated the issue best.

I am not disagreeing that people use shorthand names, to do so would be absurd, because I think literally when DSM has 4 posts I started calling him DSM. I am more apt to shorten names then most people.
Alright, I admit that I over reacted and flew off the handle. I'm sorry, that was wrong of me. I'm moving out of the house and going into a job training program tomorrow so I guess I'm feeling stressed out and hypersensitive about stuff. I'll try to take things less seriously in the future.
Kaelik wrote:
darkmaster wrote:Tgdmb.moe, like the gaming den, but we all yell at eachother about wich lucky star character is the cutest.
Fuck you Haruhi is clearly the best moe anime, and we will argue about how Haruhi and Nagato are OP and um... that girl with blond hair? is for shitters.

If you like Lucky Star then I will explain in great detail why Lucky Star is the a shitty shitty anime for shitty shitty people, and how the characters have no interesting abilities at all, and everything is poorly designed especially the skill challenges.
User avatar
momothefiddler
Knight-Baron
Posts: 883
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 10:55 am
Location: United States

Post by momothefiddler »

Sounds about how I expected (basically nobody cares except Darkmaster) and a note that, unlike e e cummings, usernames are often made lowercase without it necessarily being a conscious choice from the user.
TiaC wrote:!momothefiddler so as to still show emphasis.
Except this. This is unacceptable. This definitely doesn't refer to me. You'd need to use !Kaelik or something.
User avatar
fbmf
The Great Fence Builder
Posts: 2590
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by fbmf »

I prefer lowercase, except to begin a sentence, and in the right order.

Game On,
fbmf
User avatar
momothefiddler
Knight-Baron
Posts: 883
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 10:55 am
Location: United States

Post by momothefiddler »

Do you prefer it be capitalized at the beginning of a sentence?
fbmf wrote:and in the right order.
I don't know what this means
violence in the media
Duke
Posts: 1727
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 7:18 pm

Post by violence in the media »

What fbmf means is he wants his name spelled correctly. ;)
User avatar
fbmf
The Great Fence Builder
Posts: 2590
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by fbmf »

violence in the media wrote:What fbmf means is he wants his name spelled correctly. ;)
This.

If, at the beginning of a sentence, it needs to be capitalized, then I'd prefer all the letters capitalized.

Game On,
fbmf
User avatar
momothefiddler
Knight-Baron
Posts: 883
Joined: Sat Feb 22, 2014 10:55 am
Location: United States

Post by momothefiddler »

fbmf wrote:
violence in the media wrote:What fbmf means is he wants his name spelled correctly. ;)
This.

If, at the beginning of a sentence, it needs to be capitalized, then I'd prefer all the letters capitalized.

Game On,
fbmf
Huh. Alright. Good to know.
User avatar
Maj
Prince
Posts: 4705
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Shelton, Washington, USA

Post by Maj »

That is good to know. It's been interesting to me how the Internet has changed my typing style.

My paragraphs don't start tabbed. I've also gotten used to putting spaces around the inner content of parentheses when I post a link ( http://likethis.com ). Or adding a space after a link in a sentence before I put a period down. There are a bunch of little things... It's evolution in progress!
My son makes me laugh. Maybe he'll make you laugh, too.
User avatar
Kaelik
ArchDemon of Rage
Posts: 14958
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Kaelik »

Yeah, violence beat me to it, but for reasons that completely confuse me, I just instinctively call him fbmf instead of fbmf.

I have no idea why.
DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.

That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
User avatar
Cynic
Prince
Posts: 2776
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Cynic »

darkmaster wrote:Fuck off Kaelik very few internet handles are three characters long, or even six characters long
I'm just going off hte top of my head.

K
Kaelik
Maj
Koumei
Maxus
fbmf
zherog
Crissa
tzor
Virgil
and Cynic :-P.

I"m pretty sure that most of hte list are still active to a degree (well not tzor or Crissa.) and probably have contributed quite sa bit to the Den discussion. I'm not one of those major contributors but I have my rare moments.
Ancient History wrote:We were working on Street Magic, and Frank asked me if a houngan had run over my dog.
User avatar
Maj
Prince
Posts: 4705
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
Location: Shelton, Washington, USA

Post by Maj »

That was awesome. :) :maj:
My son makes me laugh. Maybe he'll make you laugh, too.
User avatar
Kaelik
ArchDemon of Rage
Posts: 14958
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by Kaelik »

I wish you had misspelled fbmf's name in that list.
DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.

That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
User avatar
Stahlseele
King
Posts: 5988
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:51 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Post by Stahlseele »

Kaelik wrote:Yeah, violence beat me to it, but for reasons that completely confuse me, I just instinctively call him fbmf instead of fbmf.

I have no idea why.
err . .
Welcome, to IronHell.
Shrapnel wrote:
TFwiki wrote:Soon is the name of the region in the time-domain (familiar to all marketing departments, and to the moderators and staff of Fun Publications) which sees release of all BotCon news, club exclusives, and other fan desirables. Soon is when then will become now.

Peculiar properties of spacetime ensure that the perception of the magnitude of Soon is fluid and dependent, not on an individual's time-reference, but on spatial and cultural location. A marketer generally perceives Soon as a finite, known, yet unspeakable time-interval; to a fan, the interval appears greater, and may in fact approach the infinite, becoming Never. Once the interval has passed, however, a certain time-lensing effect seems to occur, and the time-interval becomes vanishingly small. We therefore see the strange result that the same fragment of spacetime may be observed, in quick succession, as Soon, Never, and All Too Quickly.
User avatar
erik
King
Posts: 5868
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm

Post by erik »

Stahlseele wrote:
Kaelik wrote:Yeah, violence beat me to it, but for reasons that completely confuse me, I just instinctively call him fbmf instead of fbmf.

I have no idea why.
err . .
You "err" but my mind totally transposed m and b in the first one. Unless ffmb did a stealth edit. HrmmmmmMMmMm?
User avatar
Stahlseele
King
Posts: 5988
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:51 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Post by Stahlseele »

the way i remember how that one is spelled:
fence
builder
main
fence
Welcome, to IronHell.
Shrapnel wrote:
TFwiki wrote:Soon is the name of the region in the time-domain (familiar to all marketing departments, and to the moderators and staff of Fun Publications) which sees release of all BotCon news, club exclusives, and other fan desirables. Soon is when then will become now.

Peculiar properties of spacetime ensure that the perception of the magnitude of Soon is fluid and dependent, not on an individual's time-reference, but on spatial and cultural location. A marketer generally perceives Soon as a finite, known, yet unspeakable time-interval; to a fan, the interval appears greater, and may in fact approach the infinite, becoming Never. Once the interval has passed, however, a certain time-lensing effect seems to occur, and the time-interval becomes vanishingly small. We therefore see the strange result that the same fragment of spacetime may be observed, in quick succession, as Soon, Never, and All Too Quickly.
Post Reply