Real names, please
 

As a long time addict of the ChiefDelphi forums, I sometimes jump up on my soapbox and preach a bit. Not all agree with me when I do this, which is understandable.

During the excellent FIRST Competition season, I got to meet many people who frequent these boards. There are many relationships that mutually benefit our teams and FIRST in general. These relationships are between students and adults alike.

Often, I would meet someone at a competition, and the other person would say "hi, my name is ____"..."you might know me as sdfsd^*$WL (or something like that) on the ChiefDelphi Forums"

Although I understand nicknames... communication would sure be easier if you all just put your name as your screen name. First names are good. First names with last initials are good... but some goofy screen name that does not identify you is barely useful.

All I am doing is trying to improve communications and relations between people in this community. I may sound like a nag, but I see this bettering our already great FIRST community on this fine website.

So... I challenge you all to change your screen name to your real name.

Andy B.

I do not think there is enough room to spell my last name. Anyway I agree with you I have seen this done in other forums also and it works fairly well.

Hi. My name is Joseph.

Horray for conformity! I've had my username like this (My real first and last name, and my team number) for a long time. I think that people who go by nicknames are just fine the way they are, but maybe the addition of their real name in their signature.

Re: Real names, please
 

Well, to do that we'd either have to:
a) Ask Brandon Martus to change our username
b) Sign up for a new account

I don't think BM wants 100 requests for a name change, nor 100 new users signing up whom already have an account.
I'll stick my name in my custom title though, just for you :)

my name's in my sig.........

I agree that I've spent time piecing together people's first names from their CD names when I go to competitions or tigerbolt, etc and it gets a little confusing sometimes. I may eventually change my user name but I think writing your name in your signature also works for the time being. This would definitely help so Brandon doesn't get inundated with hundreds of user name requests all at once.

edit: jake got to it right before me

Re: Re: Real names, please
 

A = Good. :)
B = Bad. :(

I don't mind changing usernames. It takes about 1/47th of a second to do. Although I don't mind realcoolFIRSTer3847 or something, I would like to see more real names. I am always happy, for some reason, when someone eventually changes from realcool.. to Pat Smith.

"FotoPlasma" is the pseudonym I use as consistently as possible. My real name is in my sig. I hope I'm not offending anyone...

maybe you could let people change their display names?

Andy's got a good point... it really takes me forever to learn names, and it's even harder to associate characters and avatars to the person (whose name, at that point, I can't remember in the first place).

Even though I've been 'amandabean' for years, I figured I might as well change. Being called amandabean at competitions is starting to get old. :)

I know a Pat Smith... he's not cool :P
</digress>

hm...

i'll stick it in my custom title :D

Well I decided to change my username before any other Kristina's with a K decided to steal it. Yup, I jumped in on the bandwagon.

What if we dont like our real name?

What about us fools that signed with our real name? Do we change ours to a custom name?

thats what i did. i needed to change my cd name, and Rob was still avalable. so now i just go by rob instead of rob colatutto. full name is too long

Pat could also be a girl :p


Oh, and Andy .. look what this thread did to my Private Message inbox, below.

j/k :p

/me tosses in with Andy

Wetzel=last name
Wetzel=what people call me in real life
Wetzel=board name

{edit}
I just realized something. Lots of people are going to have diffrent names now. Time to reassoicate names with posting behavior/picture.
{/edit}


Wetzel
~~~~~~~~
I am Wetzel

Ok. Done. :p

At least put your real name in the signature or custom title if anything...

My nickname is a lot more memorable, and describes me better than

Cheryl Miller

which is in my sig

but I have to admit I too get lost on the nicknames. Our team members have been letting me know "hey, I'm on Chief Delphi, watch for my nickname". Good thing cuz I wasn't always noticing.

BTW, our team watching nationals was rooting for Chief Delphi robot,

and increasingly more members are talking about being addicted to Chief Delphi,

talk about branding your name!

Some of you are almost more famous with your screen names, Gadget470 (Brandon) and Fotoplasma (Jim) for example. It may be better just to keep your names in tact.

Of course, that is up to you to decide (see below).

Other people, like oneangrydwarf (Josh), are just impossible to ignore and the world will know who you are soon enough. By they way, Josh, congrats on the mohawk award last night... that is so cool.

Other have seen the light and are changing your screen names... I feel like a proud father.

Of course, I don't want to squish individuality. Personally, I would much rather see "Big Mike" as opposed to just Mike. There is really only one Big Mike, while there are many Mikes. Heck, there are a handful of Mikes on team 47 alone!

Also... it's not like all of you guys and gals gotta agree to this. However, if you decide not to comply, I'm sure that we can find ways to make you "understand". /me has happy thoughts of tossing toilet paper rolls over the tops of trees and roofs... oh, the memories. :D

Brandon, sorry about the dramatic increase of your workload. I owe you one, payable at the IRI.

Andy B.

Hehe, I started out as FIRSTae2004 then I changed to Katie93 ... now Katie Reynolds will do just fine. :)

I hate it when, at competitions, I recognize someone by their CD picture/username, but have no idea what their real name is. I don't like going up to people and saying, "Hey aren't you |abcdefg| on Chief Delphi? What's your real name?" So usually, I won't talk to people whose real names I don't know.

Chelly and I had that problem at Midwest regional this year ...

Me: "Hey Chell - isn't that oneangrydwarf from CD?"

Chell: "Yeah, I think it is."

Me: "We should go say hi! What's his real name?"

Chell: "Uh ... ... ..."

Me: "Oh, well ... hmmm - I can't remember. Maybe Ricky will know."

Ricky: "I have no idea."

Me: "Oh. Well, maybe we can figure it out before nationals ..."

:yikes:

Now I know who Josh is, I can say hi at competitions next year! ;)

- Katie

i will take that as a compliment.. for right now :p but watch out i could bear hugg at any time

Well for now I'll put my name in the custom Title box, For Brandons Sake I'll wait a day or to before I send him a PM on the permanent name change.

It's not a problem... click/copy/paste/click/done :)

wysiswyg,
If mine fits, anybody's will. I like the suggestion but would like to add to it, if I may? There are so many of us attending competitions now, it would be a big help to have name tags. I know some of you by sight now but I am old and keep forgetting your names. And, I am already calling everyone on CD, Mike! (except for Joe, of course. He cured me of that already, but it took a really long time.)

That's what I like about you Andy, you're always thinking. Now you don't have to call me by my silly CD name anymore.

Sheesh.

If Andy asked y'all to stand on your head, would you do that, too? ;)

...it's nice to finally figure out who some of you are, though. Though, most of the people who've changed were people I knew anyway. Oh well.

Me? I'm special.

/me stands on his head

oh wait, go-err, andy, didn't tell us to yet...

as for changing names, i've had "Ian W." since i signed up, and i'm pretty sure my last name is fully spelt out in my signature (i have the coolest email address, no? :p).

Re: Real names, please
 

Tell David Fluck that....



I'm too lazy to change mine... my last name's in it anyways....

Though I have been quiet lately I think a few people still know who I am. I don't remember the name I originally signed up with but I do remember asking Brandon to change it at some point- it's been too long ago to commit to memory. At any rate, I was wearing a name tag at SVR, LA, and the Championships so anyone who wasn't sure if it was really me because my hair is long now, wasn't looking hard enough. For those of you complaining about my pic to me all I can say is that at least my hair was brown this year! :p

Re: Re: Real names, please
 

ouch. Thanks Jeremy... :p

Yeah just because D.J. isn't whats written on my birth certificate doesnt mean that it isnt my name ;)

Baaaaaaaaa-aaaaa-aaa
 

I promise I was going to do this a year ago, but I was really busy. It's kind of liberating not having to hide behind a name assigned to me by the Rose-Hulman computing center. I am who I am, and so is Popeye.

I just made my name,my name, so I wouldn't forget it when I log in at school. I think is is alot easier to talk to someone from these forums when you know there real name.


Some of at us MOE had solved this name problem at comp's with our pins

" Hi My Name Is Kyle(or any other name)
And I Build Robots

Hug ME"(patent pending).

I think anyone can guess what my name is...

and its not m.c. hammer

Well, ever since I have been on CD.com, i have used my nick name (Matt). It seems to work just fine... :D

My real name is Maher (Said with a strong 'A'. Not like Bill Maher)

If Andy asked, then yes I would. :D (and thus ends today's quota of sucking up)

-dave (soon to be "Dr. Autonomous")

OK... now you did it.

All of you - stand on your head, now!

Let's see red faces!

Count to 100, then stand back up.

Andy says

WoW! I didn't know what a big deal putting your FIRST name was...I have always liked sort of being under a different name, but if you want to know my real name, then my name is >>>.stephan1e.<<< I think that anyone who has ever met me knows that I love the color pink, and if they know what team I am on---they can find me very easily. I like reading everyone's reply, and I can agree with everyone on this subject. I relate to the girl who wanted to talk to the guy @ nationals but didn't know his name, I see why using the first name is important. But at the same time, I like using a different name because it gives a sense of individuality and adds personality to the person you are reading about (and on this site, since there isn't much personality TO put in so I think that the more you can add, the better...but thats just me and I like being different...:D ) So I think that you should be you and do what you gotta do! (wait, isn't that a commercial of some kind? :) ) Thank you and I don't want to sound as if I'm preaching....so please no one get offended to what I said...:D !

.stephan1e.

And, I always thought I was just being boring for using my real name... I remember I couldn't think of anything good to put in my name when I first signed up, so I just used my real name. Guess I was on the right track all along.

It really does help to have your real name up, especially if you have a "Who Am I" pic. It's so much nicer to be able to say hi to someone by name.

I can just see hundreds of people running up to Andy at IRI yelling, 'Look what I can do!' and standing on their heads... Jeez.

I agree... if your name is your trademark, keep it.
After all, who can ask FIRST's most famous mohawk to change?

Joshua David Hambright will always be Dwarf or 'the kid with the mohawk' to everyone else. :D

Hmmm.. I wonder what MY name could be? ;)

oh my what great nasa engineers we have in first, they just love to stand on their heads and have people watch them all day while they are at work...

Haha!

~Mike

Hahaha - for our team's driver tryouts this year, they played "Simon Says" to see who could best follow directions. Maybe next year we should change the name of the game. :p

- Katie

*stands on head* :yikes:

Sounds fun katie, now one question could they stand on their head while driving, that would be a fun game.

/me stands on head
/me falls over

~Mike

We have a NASA Technician on our team who is really good at handstands and such ... and coincidentally his name is Dave too! When we get to our next meeting, I'll see if he'll do a headstand for you Mr. Baker :D

Stephen

and once again, nasa to the recuse...

Nasa Space Center: Uh guys i think we got a problem!
Nasa Dave(s): Whats That?
NSC: your all upside-down on the screens here!
N.D.: oh we know Andy asked us to do headstands!
NSC: OK, Just Checking.

Imagine that, nasa guys doing weightless areobics.
HAHA!

~Dez

I don't think there's a way to say why I don't use my real name without sounding like a paranoid freak. It's a privacy issue. But I have to point out that these threads do end up on Google and I don't think everyone realizes how much personal information you reveal in these threads. I can honestly say I trust the people who are registered on Chief Delphi, I even have my real e-mail address in my profile (something I have never done for any other site, that's what yahoo accounts are for).

I only use my real name on the Internet for things connected with my writing and photography and that means it's only used on my own personal web site and 100 Words web site and DP Review.

MissInformation/Heidi

<==================>
one of my favorite writers once said that if you assign a fake name to your writing you must be ashamed of it

Wow. Such recognition from Andy Baker. I'm humbled. No sarcasm.

Dave Lavery already demonstrated the starting and ending positions for a handstand at LA, this season. It was quite amazing.

I think I'll just leave my nick alone...

[edit]
Slight oops on my behalf. I thought it was SVR.
[/edit]

Um, see if you can guess my name!

At least i have a cool name- Zach Powers.

Even though Ricky isn't my "official" name, it works...Ricky Q. I stay :p .....

I would also stand on my head for Andy Baker, he is the head ref at IRI :cool:

I am incapable of standing on my head. It would be a horrifying spectacle to behold

thats just too bad.

Well, it was very nice walking around nationals and have random people go "hey! you're Erin Rapacki from CD!!"

Needless to say, yes... that is my real name

However, I found it amusing that for the people I talk to on AIM, I was introducing myself as 'anetta', and asking other teams if they know people by their screen names because I forgot their real names

"hey, do you know where floozy is?"
'hi, i'm floozy... real name is ben"
"oh hey! I'm anetta, but you can call me erin"

anyone overhearing those conversations just start cracking up at how rediculus that sounds, haha

ByE

erin

I agree... I'd flop over. I don't know how Dave Verbrugge can do it!

I suspect that's how Mark Leon learn to roll around so well. After the 2000th try at standing upside down, he finally settle with other cool moves.

On a side now, this is why we need thread style forum so bad! We are way off topic!

bah!

Andy A. or Andy Alvarenga if you like Portuguese.

Now we just need Andy C. through X. and this forum will be complete.

-Andy A.

I won't change my screen name but I will tell you my real name. My sn is J2Kraatz and my real name is Jason Kraatz

Hey, I'm somewhat paranoid. But out of courtesy to everyone on the board, I decided(after pulling on my hair and holding my breath for two minutes) that I would use my real name when I signed up.

To give you an idea of how paranoid I am:

I look for escape routes to any place I go.
I minimize my ability to be targeted and run over by rogue bus drivers using barriers.
I mentally drill myself daily on what I would do if someone attacked me.

I have no reason whatsoever to be paranoid, I live in a town of 8000.

Any relation to Screech?

lol my friends at school said that i was a combination of Screech Powers and Zach Morris. (just namewise):D

but to answer you question no, but i think i do have a cousin somewhere nomed austin.

My CD name consists of my last name (Lucas) preceded by "The". I got the nickname "The Lucas" in my rookie year and I don't care if anyone calls me by it (most of my team does anyway). I sign with my real name, Brian Lucas, so I don't see any reason to change my CD handle.

I have always had nicknames that most of my friends used. I could always use "BLucas"(pronounced like "Blue-cuss") which all my UD floor mates call me.

If I had used "Biff" which all my HS friends call me I would consider changing my CD name. "Biff" is included in my AIM name: Biffus Meridus (with a Gladiator movie reference, Russel Crowe played General Maximus Decimus Meridus).

As Erin Rapacki mentioned, it would be really weird if everyone started calling me by my AIM name ("Hey Biffus Meridus!" :)) . CD names are a little different than AIM names. Usually you meet someone in person before adding them to your AIM Buddy List. On CD, you can read many people's posts before meeting them at competition. Also, if you will not back up your opinion with your name, you should not post that opinion.

I hope SME name badges make a come back. Maybe they could add a Chief Delphi Name line to them. It would make it easier to connect people from the CD boards to people at competition. I would also like to see more Who am I? photos in the gallery to recognize people. Maybe that needs to be a new thread.

Edit: The New Pictures Thread is Real Names, Real Faces

well...

My real name (the one on the birth certificate) is Andrew Schenk.

BUT... everyone at robotics calls me "Jack". I'm not jokeing either, some people don't know for 1/2 yr that i'm not really named jack, but andrew.

Also.. (would need to talk to brandon about this) but what about a profile field that was for your real name? Would that be a good soultion? It would be optional and then could appear under location in your posts. I guess the Sig thing works too, but this would be a special place for it.

Jack (see.. i even sign my posts jack, not andrew :))

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

My nickname is a combo of my first and last name: Julie P...I acquired it my freshman year during soccer since we had two Julie's and coach always called me Julie P., so as to not get us mixed up. When they said it really fast it kinda mushed together into "Jupee". I use it as my username for EVERYTHING so it's pretty much synonymous with me:) I liiike it.

You just watched the Princess's Bride, eh?


Andy- a noble idea.. My two cents-

Another thing that people associate with names is teams.. a name such like mine lets people know what team I am on right away.. I know there is a tab below with team numbers, info, etc.. However, I bet many people can recoginze Chief Delphi from their name, but not many know their team number..

It's also a matter of identity- I can tell you I like seeing 'oneangrydaisy' above my posts much more than my plain old name. Plus, it may or may not already be taken by someone else ;)

My real name is Daniel Brim :-) I use DanielBCR because its team pride, and plus it shows my team without looking at the side. I see no reason why to change my name to Daniel Brim, and I'm annonymous in picture (but if you stopped by the 294 pits at LA on Friday or Saturday, and saw a guy with orange hair, that was me :-)

Hey guys, I think we've been insulted:mad: ;)

I don't think I need to change my screen name, do I? What do y'all think? I've got my real (nick)name in my signature. I'm so used to typing gwross for all my user ids... And I'm easily confused when I get out of my rut.:( Pleeeese, can I keep it???

As long as we're posting full names to get better aquainted, I think we should also post credit card numbers and expiration dates, and social security numbers. Scans of signatures would let us bond more, too.

If I can keep mine, I'm sure you can keep yours.

;)

dont forget your mother's madien name.:)

I made my screename in my freshman year... but now it just didn't make much sense to some people, so I've changed it to my real name. :)

I use this username on other messageboards I frequent and I like it.
I think I'll stay as is, if you don't mind.
Total rebel, that's me.

If you were to go up to just about an member of 173/571 and ask for Jeff, you would get pointed in the wrong direction. There were always two Jeffs on the team when i was there, so i got called Ogre.
In fact, I IMed Joel once from a different SN and told him it was Jeff and he thought it was the other Jeff, not me.
I have always been know as Ogre, I have always been called Ogre, I shall stay Ogre.
There are too many Jeffs in FIRST (Wetzel, Waeglin, the one form team 73, and thats off the top of my head)
I will put my name in my sig.[edit] In my Title [/edit]
I don't mean to be cocky or defiant, but people don't know me as Jeff. It won't work.

well.. my last name is Weed....
umm, I have been known as weedie since I was 8 in school...
and most of my team knows me as weedie..
so, I only found it 'custom' to go by weedie on Delphi.

... if someone would really like me too, let me know... I would be happy to change it to my real name.. just ask!

hey - great meeting many of you at CE!

allright! the jig is up, they are coming for me!!...actually my name is Greg Perkins...its dull but it works. hey brandon u could change my name to that. thanks, '


Greg!

after you :)

CONFORMITY!!

i'm not about to change my username,
no one would care for my real name anyway,
but i like it better when people say
'hey, where's Firewolf?'
it brings a smile to my face
:D

Thanks andy. We really appreciate all of you coming...and yes i am impossible to ignore...and annoying...and tall...really tall..

If you only knew how many people came upto me in houston and were all 'hey your one angry dwarf aren't you....' it was kinda strange...i only got a few at regionals though. You shoulda said hi...it freaks me out more when i hear people whispering about me and pointing and i hear my screen name.... or when someone told one of my team members that they wanted to kick muh butt cuz i was annoying on here:)

You know whats even freakier when people would go up to you and go,"Hi Adam." and you would think,"What the #### how did he know my name." and then I realized my safety glasses were decorated with my name.:rolleyes:

:ahh:

aaaaH! we already HAVE a greg perkins!


we should take one of them back... :D

sure thing, my discover card is 6011...

hey! wait a minute :p

Yea i almost did the same thing, thats what happens during spring break and my mind just walks out to find smething to do.


any one wanna guss what my name is, I bet you get it wrong :)

Re: Real names, please
 

I could not agree more. While we are at it, could we take out the silly Team#000 thing. I hate it when people say they are on team 000, when they really are on a team, and are such cowards that they feel they must hide behind a screename and a fake team number.

BTW, I'm Ben Mitchell, (first name Ben, last name Mitchell) and I'm on Team 303.

Re: Re: Real names, please
 

But.. If that was taken out, what would people do who really aren't on a team?

Re: Re: Real names, please
 

Team #000 is what people put when they aren't directly associated with a particular team. There are many avid FIRST enthusiasts and volunteers on this board who aren't on a team, and Team #000 is for them. Besides, anyone who posts under Team #000 to hide their identity probably won't stay around too long, and if he causes any trouble, I'm sure Brandon can handle it.

Stephen

The team number is mainly used for the team list. There has to be a catch-all for those that aren't on a team, and 0000 is good because there probably will never be a #0 FIRST team.

Re: Re: Real names, please
 

i dont know who you are taliking aboput but everyone i know and talk to here have their real team numbers shown and if they arent on a team they use 000 to signify that. many refs and vlounteers that use this board that do have a team number other then 000 present is because thats just what they are, a volunteer for FIRST.

~Mike

i agree with every one else

By any chance, do you use America Online?

HAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHA!

Maddie if that was intended the way i read it as a joke, then it was just wrong, if it was a true question and he answers yes i feel bad for him...

~Mike

OMG!@!!!1 dat wuzsoooooo phunnie!!!!!!@!@!@!!1 i lovez you maddie!!!!@!!!!1

Ok. Enough of the retardedness from me...
Getting back to using your real name on CD. I'm all for it. I've been iritated for the past 3 years by all the pseudonyms here. I mean, it's weird replying to threads by saying
"cooldude257:
(insert text of message here)"
I'm glad that a lot of you have taken Andy's and others' words to heart and changed your usernames to at least your first name. Thanks.

-Bill Gold

PS - I was serious above. I thought Maddie's post was funny. And no, I usually don't write with all the mis-typings and extra exclamation points. I just felt like typing like some of the people I chat with on AIM.

Re: Re: Re: Real names, please
 

Look at the team listings.

There are over 320 people in the team #000

That averages out to 14 delphi-poster-volunteers per regional, assuming that no delphi-poster-volunteer volunteers at two or more regionals.

It's intended purpose was good, but it is now being used to create an aura of secrecy around people. It's not like these people are causing trouble, it's just irratating that there are people who post under a pseudonym, with a team #000, asking for info in say, a scouting thread.

It's might be just me, but I like knowing who I am "talking" to, particularly here. We should be a step above a video game forum or a chatroom, here. For the number of people actually on a team #000 that post here: why not either:

A) be an alumni of your old team
B) Be given an option to be put down as a regional volunteer, and there could be separate "teams" for each regional.

IE, instead of Team #303, I could be team number #chesapeake regional volunteer.

Follow me?

To be honest, the team 000 is irritating. There are NOT 326 volunteers that are registered for this forum. Do a simple search of 000 members, and their posts. You'll see 000 members asking about drivers, asking for info, adding their piece in discussions: members that are CLEARLY on a team, but pretend they are not, abusing a feature designed to help people not on a team.

Hell, if I wanted to be mean, I could start posting names right now.

If we are a FIRST community, why do these people want to hide themselves from the rest of us?

I can only speculate about the thought processes on that one.

Ok I think the real thing that everyone post is agreeing with put you name somewhere if not it the SN put it in your signature. Also for the team#000 there are probably the few out there that are on a team now and post under it but there are the ones who are trying to start a team, or actually volunteer.

I'm Mark Arrowsmith and I drink dangerous amounts of Mountain Dew.

(HI MARK!)

Most of them are on teams.