What’s in a handle?
I've gone by the online "handle" of "Raven" for I don't know how many years... I've been raven@phoenyx.net since the domain was registered in 1996, and I was probably raven@phoenyx.wichita.ks.us before that. (Long ago, I was "da Fuzz" because of a high school nickname... I have naturally curly hair.)
But "Raven" is like one of the most popular names on the Internet. So, despite being on the net back when the Internet wasn't cool, "Raven" is already taken on every service I'd imagine subscribing to. And I like using the same userid everywhere, so I don't have to remember that I'm RagnarToprock on WoW and BuzzyBeeKeeper on beesource.com. (I'll let you guess which of those I actually have an account on.) So I thought, in some kind of raver moment, "RavenX" sounded pretty cool.
But RavenX is taken across 99% of the sites on the net, so in an AOL moment, I added a "99". I mean, who in their right mind is going to use ravenx99 as a userid, right? The name is awkward sometimes... I sound like some punk kid when I sign up to talk about, say, knitting with a name like "ravenx99". But it's the one I use everywhere, so I try to stick with it just to make it easy to remember how to log in... it's hard enough switching between "raven" and home and "ccravens" (or "cdc6543") at work.
Well, that has worked for the most part... but every once in awhile, I encounter a service in which that name is already taken. Which first results in, "Did I register for this service already?" and a request for a password reset mailed to my registered email. Then after a million attempts, I finally give up and decide that someone else registered this ID... especially because the profile says they live in Canada or something. Who are these people that are taking my name.
But then the dilemma... what name to use? "ccravens" is often taken. Many places won't take my full email address (I so wish they would). Sometimes "CarlCravens" is too long. (Note that "ravenx99" is intentionally eight characters.) I don't want to just add another digit (so AOL, eh?)
Pffft. All services should just take email addresses as usernames. Email is guaranteed unique, and users are unlikely to forget them.