What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.
Before you read any of this stuff, go and see
the song I wrote about Metafilter! Plus, I run the
Metafilter Wiki - it's not as fun as the song, but probably more useful.
Former Oxford and Cambridge neuroscientist, former lead designer of
Perplex City, an alternate reality game. Currently Chief Creative Officer at
Six to Start and founder of the
Let's Change the Game charity.
I first started using the Internet a long while back before the days of graphical browers, probably when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Since then, I've been doing various interesting stuff, such as
Generation Mars,
New Mars,
Astrobiology: The Living Universe and others.
People have a tendency to view the past with rose-tinted spectacles. This is not surprising, but it should be understood. Consequently, Mefi's golden days are always in the past - I don't think that this is a healthy attitude. Nevertheless, I would agree with those who think that change can be made to Mefi to make it better, not only to accommodate increasing user numbers but also to recognise that Mefi has an astonishingly strong community and shared history.
Oh - and about my nickname: It's my real name. I can understand why it might be useful or necessary, but personally, I think it helps that people know who they're talking to. In any case anyone determined enough would be able to figure out who I 'really' was.
Some people have nicknames that reflect what they believe their own personalities are like, or perhaps they come from places or characters in their past. It's probably fun to do this but I wouldn't like others to judge me on my nickname. They can judge me on my real name (which, incidentally, is pretty damn rare. I can only find one other person with my name and he doesn't have much web presence anyway).
16th September 2002: Ack! There are two other people with my name on the web now.
