Re:Let’s talk about usernames
by always_good on Monday February 12, 2018 @09:39AM
(#16358804)
Dunno, what decade were people making fun of usernames? Starting back when I first downloaded MSN/AIM, people were having fun coming up with usernames and trading them. Everyone at school. Everyone.
People weren't just tapping random key combos either. They were coming up with their own identities because that's what people like to do.
I can't believe these comments that think people are itching to be assigned a #Reference ID on the internet. For example, you also think the mainstream used internet message boards.
In business I have mainly my mail address. It's forename.surname@company This is the most common identification uniform. Pretty easy, looks good on your card and can be remembered by the client who knows your name.
Everything else you've listed is part of a identification procedure that happens mostly between you and a machine. Not between two humans (taking out the call center semi-human who needs to type that into the machine first).
In business you have customer account numbers, bank account numbers, membership numbers, invoice numbers etc. There is no conflation with identity - you are not your account with your bank, gym or stationary supplier. It is only because of internet forums and login usernames that we have even gotten to this state of affairs in the first place.
Usernames (or internet aliases in general) were a routinely mocked part of internet culture by mainstream culture. People these days use services in spite of usernames rather than because of them. The president of the united states has 'real' in front of his name. Think about that. In no other medium do we have people asserting that they are the genuine person they are claiming to be. Its tautological.