Snowflake Challenge 2025: #3

[greerwatson]

Challenge #3: In your own space, talk about a fannish opinion you hold that has changed over time.

When I first went on line and subscribed to the Forever Knight mailing list, I should say that most of the members—certainly well over half—used their own names. As I did: it never occurred to me to dub myself anything else. It was not until three years later, when I first joined a LiveJournal community, that I found myself in the midst of usernames. When prompted to pick one for myself, I boggled. I also had no trouble deciding that my "username" would simply be my real name, albeit glommed together as a single word.

To appreciate my disinclination towards pseuds, I should go back a fair few decades to the days of my extreme youth. Back then, people were far less familiar with the broad variety of personal names that are the norm in any big city in Canada in this century. Immigration from myriad international sources had had the effect that, if one hears even a slightly unfamiliar sounding name, one takes it in stride: asks to have it repeated, perhaps, or how it is spelled. Back when I was a kid, though, this was not so.

Now my personal name is short, and spelled according to regular English rules. So teachers at school all addressed me accurately. Strange adults who heard me say my name were another matter. If I said my name was "Greer", they almost invariably heard something else. This is more or less how the conversation would go:

"What's your name, dear?"
"Greer."
"Oh, Leah! That's a pretty name."
"No, my name isn't 'Leah'. It's Greer."
"Oh, Rhea! That's a pretty name too."
No, my name is Greer: G R E E R."
      (astonished silence)
"Oh! Um … were you named after Greer Garson?"
"No."
"Oh, I'm sure you were."

(And no, I wasn't: it's a family name.)

Now, some people after the umpteenth go-through of this sort of thing wind up hating their own name; and, quite possibly, when they grow up they change it. My reaction was different: it's my name, dammit!!!! (Granted, at that age, I wouldn't have said "dammit".)

So, as I say, I had little appreciation for the reasons why other people would want to be known by any of the weird and wonderful usernames that I've seen over the years. However, in that time, I have heard quite a few people defend the practice, especially those who live in less enlightened parts of the world and fear consequences from family, employers, and state security should their fannish interests become public. I think one of the things that brought that home to me was the realization that the maryrenaultfics community had members from such countries as Russia and China.

And, of course, even leaving that sort of peril out of it, there's the simple fact that, if I feel strongly about my own name, so do you about yours. It is, after all, your name.

Comments

[stardust_rifle]

Your POV is so interesting to me! I'm not even from a place where I'd be in danger of anything besides judgement if my Internet activities became common knowledge, but I've always been very serious about separating my fannish and IRL identities.

It's interesting hearing about the culture of mailing lists not using usernames, especially as someone who's way too young to have ever participated in them.

[greerwatson]

"It's interesting hearing about the culture of mailing lists not using usernames"

Well, there were some people who did. If you ever encounter a username that starts "Knight-" or goes "Cousin ----", there's a fair chance it belongs to an old Forever Knight fan.

However, a lot of people used their own name. Also, there were others who used an pen name that looked just like a regular name. Maybe their close friends knew it was a pseud, but most people didn't.

[trepkos]

It's so annoying when people don't listen, isn't it? I can spell out my surname twice, and still have people write it down incorrectly. I originally used a pseud because, while I can make posts "friends only", I can't always know who those friends really are ... If they know my name, they could just track me down and show up on my doorstep! And what I write could come back to bite me on the ass, in certain circumstances.

[greerwatson]

People who don't listen have always been with us, unfortunately.

[switchbladeeyes]

I used to use my real name back on the lists. My recollection is that so many of us did. The internet was different, IDK, less easy to "find" someone if that makes sense. I had LiveJournal for a stretch and pseuds were common and I had one there though I think I was pretty open about my first name. I did become concerned that my ridic fic connected to my full name was going to be an issue with employers should it show up on Google (paranoia born out of graduating college into a recession then eventually going to professional school to graduate once again into a recession lol, I could pick 'em). Now my hang up is, what would my mom think?

I'm pretty open about my first name: Andrea. At least, I use it in messages and email. It just didn't occur to me when I signed up for AO3 and then this site to use my first name in the username. Honestly, the username was just a random choice.

In the world, people pronounce Andrea incorrectly all the time. But there are 4 ways to pronounce it sooo... shrug. I don't bother correcting people. But it's at least the same name! Just pronounced differently. (I will nip "Andie" in the bud though.)

[greerwatson]

The internet has changed a lot in the twenty-odd years since I went on line; and FORKNI-L was already an old list then.

Go back to 1992 or so, and there were very few people with an internet connection. Fans didn't consider potential job implications since the World Wide Web was in its infancy. Hard to believe now, but there was no Google. Also a lot of people got on the net through their university and, in that era, would automatically assume their parents would be out of all computer-related loops. Fans back in the mid-90s were just trying to find like-minded people for discussion and fic. And why not use your own name with friends, right?

Nowadays, the assumption that people one meets on line—even on fannish sites!—are automatically potential friends does seem incredibly naïve. Still, here we are, whatever our usernames, chatting about ourselves in the Snowflake Challenge.

[tsuki_no_bara]

oh, i hate when people do that - "were you named after greer garson?" "no." "oh i'm sure you were." i dunno, i'd think the person who, you know, lives with the name would know where it came from better than some random stranger. it's a really pretty name too. i can see why you'd want to use it online. :D

i picked a pseud when i joined my first mailing list mostly because i thought it was a fun idea. but it wasn't uncommon for people to use their real names and honestly? that made it so much easier when i met them in person.

[greerwatson]

"i dunno, i'd think the person who, you know, lives with the name would know where it came from"

I suppose they figured that, because they were grown-ups and I was only a kid, they knew better. (It was a pretty common attitude back then, I'm sorry to say.) However, my parents had told me long since that it was my mother's maiden name; so, in this case, I was definitely the one who knew better!