And the nominees are... December 14, 2010 6:36 PM Subscribe
Best New Usernames of 2010?
We did something similar last year. My favorite new username has to be little cow make small moo. What's your favorite username from the 2010 crowd?
We did something similar last year. My favorite new username has to be little cow make small moo. What's your favorite username from the 2010 crowd?
I'm now imagining the rest of the MetaFilter 2010 Awards Night; or as the glitterati call it, The "Meffies."
posted by Miko at 7:01 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by Miko at 7:01 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
I've noticed
Its Never Lurgi
Dismantled King
santaslittlehelper
Mister Fabulous
Just off the top of my head.
cause they come on my favorited list and I go "oh wait who is that-oh they are new."
posted by The Whelk at 7:02 PM on December 14, 2010
Its Never Lurgi
Dismantled King
santaslittlehelper
Mister Fabulous
Just off the top of my head.
cause they come on my favorited list and I go "oh wait who is that-oh they are new."
posted by The Whelk at 7:02 PM on December 14, 2010
The one I've noticed this year is Tooty McTootsalot. I will never stop loving that name.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:14 PM on December 14, 2010 [11 favorites]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:14 PM on December 14, 2010 [11 favorites]
or as the glitterati call it, The "Meffies." Meh FF's ies.
FTFY.
posted by special-k at 7:17 PM on December 14, 2010
FTFY.
posted by special-k at 7:17 PM on December 14, 2010
Is this something I'd have to maintain eye contact for?
I like I love you more when I eat paint chips, because who can't relate to that? Also, I reinstalled Windows a few nights ago and registered the installation as Fiasco De Gama, because I'm an envious person.
posted by empyrean at 7:26 PM on December 14, 2010
I like I love you more when I eat paint chips, because who can't relate to that? Also, I reinstalled Windows a few nights ago and registered the installation as Fiasco De Gama, because I'm an envious person.
posted by empyrean at 7:26 PM on December 14, 2010
Is there any place to view a list of recent members? In the meantime, here are some good ones from my Recent Favorites page:
Throw away your common sense and get an afro!
The Captain and Ten Eels
posted by Rhaomi at 7:31 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
Throw away your common sense and get an afro!
The Captain and Ten Eels
posted by Rhaomi at 7:31 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
I nominate me!
posted by Gin and Comics at 7:33 PM on December 14, 2010 [5 favorites]
posted by Gin and Comics at 7:33 PM on December 14, 2010 [5 favorites]
Wait, nobody registered BOURBON MCKEEBLER? There's still time, people.
posted by carsonb at 7:35 PM on December 14, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by carsonb at 7:35 PM on December 14, 2010 [3 favorites]
compared to everyone else's mine is kind of plain I guess...
posted by patheral at 7:38 PM on December 14, 2010
posted by patheral at 7:38 PM on December 14, 2010
Is there any place to view a list of recent members?
Here you go.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 7:51 PM on December 14, 2010 [6 favorites]
Here you go.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 7:51 PM on December 14, 2010 [6 favorites]
I used to work for a game company where everyone went by their gamer nicknames. It was honestly hard to keep track of people at the beginning, because everyone had two names, like Bill was also "Dipper," and Dave was "Fargo."
The nickname thing became a tradition. As we added people who were not hardcore gamers, they had to either give themselves a nickname by the time of the first monthly company meeting, or face the "Naminator," which was this automated Web script that would spit out an imaginary nickname that sounded like something a gamer would use. Imagine a nerd-fueled Sorting Hat ceremony.
One guy was with the company for only a week, and the myth was that he quit because, in front of 50 cheering people, when he faced the Naminator, he got...
MOUTHFUL OF GRANDMA
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:53 PM on December 14, 2010 [60 favorites]
The nickname thing became a tradition. As we added people who were not hardcore gamers, they had to either give themselves a nickname by the time of the first monthly company meeting, or face the "Naminator," which was this automated Web script that would spit out an imaginary nickname that sounded like something a gamer would use. Imagine a nerd-fueled Sorting Hat ceremony.
One guy was with the company for only a week, and the myth was that he quit because, in front of 50 cheering people, when he faced the Naminator, he got...
MOUTHFUL OF GRANDMA
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:53 PM on December 14, 2010 [60 favorites]
I cannot believe that bourbon.mckeebler@gmail.com is taken.
posted by slogger at 7:54 PM on December 14, 2010
posted by slogger at 7:54 PM on December 14, 2010
patheral writes "compared to everyone else's mine is kind of plain I guess..."
I noticed and I think it's a very fine handle; especially the last couple of syllables.
Metafilter : "a nerd-fueled Sorting Hat ceremony"
posted by Mitheral at 7:56 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
I noticed and I think it's a very fine handle; especially the last couple of syllables.
Metafilter : "a nerd-fueled Sorting Hat ceremony"
posted by Mitheral at 7:56 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
Is there any place to view a list of recent members?
Start here and add 1 each time, but there are a lot of aborted attempts.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:04 PM on December 14, 2010
Start here and add 1 each time, but there are a lot of aborted attempts.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:04 PM on December 14, 2010
I like Short Attention Sp.
posted by that girl at 8:07 PM on December 14, 2010 [20 favorites]
posted by that girl at 8:07 PM on December 14, 2010 [20 favorites]
also clicking the 'Post Comment' button
posted by that girl at 8:10 PM on December 14, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by that girl at 8:10 PM on December 14, 2010 [3 favorites]
Combustible Edison Lighthouse: "Is there any place to view a list of recent members?
Here you go."
Thanks! Based on that, and working from the assumption that longer usernames are usually more interesting, here are some fun ones taken from the top of a length-sorted list:
Odin's Missing Eyeball
TheAlarminglySwollenFinger
french films about trains
I eated the purple one
this *is* my happy face
Chagall's Neglected Dog
Caligula's Idiot Cousin
couch fort dinner party
Dances with sock puppets
Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy
Several Unnamed Sources
los pantalones del muerte
A Special Kind of Weird
One-quarter Full of Awesome
TheOceanRefusesNoRiver
ScrappleFlavoredSnapple
allthegoodnamesweretaken
pickinganameismuchharderthanihadanticipated
This name is exactly forty-eight characters long
posted by Rhaomi at 8:16 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
Here you go."
Thanks! Based on that, and working from the assumption that longer usernames are usually more interesting, here are some fun ones taken from the top of a length-sorted list:
Odin's Missing Eyeball
TheAlarminglySwollenFinger
french films about trains
I eated the purple one
this *is* my happy face
Chagall's Neglected Dog
Caligula's Idiot Cousin
couch fort dinner party
Dances with sock puppets
Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy
Several Unnamed Sources
los pantalones del muerte
A Special Kind of Weird
One-quarter Full of Awesome
TheOceanRefusesNoRiver
ScrappleFlavoredSnapple
allthegoodnamesweretaken
pickinganameismuchharderthanihadanticipated
This name is exactly forty-eight characters long
posted by Rhaomi at 8:16 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
i'm partial to Blorg, frnzks.a, crushthemall (because it reads two ways) and of course giftuser111898. i expect good things from Roni Deutchbag.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 8:21 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 8:21 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Of the sock puppets:
your mom's a sock puppet.
Sockpuppet Liberation Front
sockpuppetnumber9
SockyMcPuppet
sockymcpuppeterson
sockysocksock
sheena is a sock puppet
Other:
wondershrew with a helping of potato salad
whyareyouatriangle
thesecagesarenotgoodenough
TheProudAardvark
The Discredited Ape
The Imp of the Perverse
The Ladies and Gentlemen of Walter Mondale
That's Numberwang!*
swaffles
Seahorse, rode hard and put away wet
Plod Don't Run
people? I ain't people!
Parade of Horribles
nurdblossom
New England Cultist
Okay, Imma stop there... but a brief observation, that could be investigated more deeply: Do people named Micheal disproportionately use their first name for the accounts? Or are there just so many more of them?
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 8:44 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
your mom's a sock puppet.
Sockpuppet Liberation Front
sockpuppetnumber9
SockyMcPuppet
sockymcpuppeterson
sockysocksock
sheena is a sock puppet
Other:
wondershrew with a helping of potato salad
whyareyouatriangle
thesecagesarenotgoodenough
TheProudAardvark
The Discredited Ape
The Imp of the Perverse
The Ladies and Gentlemen of Walter Mondale
That's Numberwang!*
swaffles
Seahorse, rode hard and put away wet
Plod Don't Run
people? I ain't people!
Parade of Horribles
nurdblossom
New England Cultist
Okay, Imma stop there... but a brief observation, that could be investigated more deeply: Do people named Micheal disproportionately use their first name for the accounts? Or are there just so many more of them?
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 8:44 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
And I'll take the comment that most people named so spell it Michael off the air thank you.
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 8:46 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 8:46 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
Do people named Micheal disproportionately use their first name for the accounts?
Well, it's certainly a very common name. Answering your question would probably be a matter of grabbing some name frequency data and running the names in that against a substring search of the usernames file and seeing how the distribution plays out. Would need to adjust for shortened names as well, I suppose; Mike, Bill, Jim, etc.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:53 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Well, it's certainly a very common name. Answering your question would probably be a matter of grabbing some name frequency data and running the names in that against a substring search of the usernames file and seeing how the distribution plays out. Would need to adjust for shortened names as well, I suppose; Mike, Bill, Jim, etc.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:53 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
If only I'd known I was supposed to be clever when picking names! Can I take it back and be Really Cool People now?
posted by gracedissolved at 8:54 PM on December 14, 2010 [5 favorites]
posted by gracedissolved at 8:54 PM on December 14, 2010 [5 favorites]
I nominate me!
As a lover of comics and spirits, I also came in to nominate Gin and Comics but he or she beat me to it. It seems that in addition to having a great username, he or she's also very fast.
posted by jaybeans at 8:56 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
As a lover of comics and spirits, I also came in to nominate Gin and Comics but he or she beat me to it. It seems that in addition to having a great username, he or she's also very fast.
posted by jaybeans at 8:56 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon
Thats my favourite this year.
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:57 PM on December 14, 2010 [8 favorites]
Thats my favourite this year.
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:57 PM on December 14, 2010 [8 favorites]
Mefi is somewhat rare in allowing spaces, punctuation, and long length in usernames, so I have a completely unsubstantiated theory that people that make these long sentence/phrase usernames with spaces and proper punctuation/capitalization tend to be existing users making second accounts to ask or answer semianonymously (or newcomers that have lurked for a long time, either way) since it's not common to do that at a lot of other places where names tend to be more of the "^&^sparklllmama9347^&^" variety.
posted by Rhomboid at 9:18 PM on December 14, 2010
posted by Rhomboid at 9:18 PM on December 14, 2010
Okay, so from the U.S. census 1990:
name freq cum.freq rank
JAMES 3.318 3.318 1
JOHN 3.271 6.589 2
ROBERT 3.143 9.732 3
MICHAEL 2.629 12.361 4
WILLIAM 2.451 14.812 5
DAVID 2.363 17.176 6
RICHARD 1.703 18.878 7
CHARLES 1.523 20.401 8
JOSEPH 1.404 21.805 9
THOMAS 1.380 23.185 10
stupid format don't paste so good, but michael is not the most frequent name... that much I can tell. Also, I don't really know what cumulative frequency (cum.freq) is, but it's not tops there either.
Further fascination, atlhough not real numbers per se, is that with the baby name voyager, Michael has maintained the number one or two position in percentage over decades despite steadily dropping absolute numbers... I think this is suggesting that boys names are getting more diverse underneath that curve.
What a fun/boring questio: is the frequency of metafilter usernames that use a real first name more or less reflective of their occurrence in the population as a whole... how much sleep do you have to not get in order to answer that one cortex?
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 9:19 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
name freq cum.freq rank
JAMES 3.318 3.318 1
JOHN 3.271 6.589 2
ROBERT 3.143 9.732 3
MICHAEL 2.629 12.361 4
WILLIAM 2.451 14.812 5
DAVID 2.363 17.176 6
RICHARD 1.703 18.878 7
CHARLES 1.523 20.401 8
JOSEPH 1.404 21.805 9
THOMAS 1.380 23.185 10
stupid format don't paste so good, but michael is not the most frequent name... that much I can tell. Also, I don't really know what cumulative frequency (cum.freq) is, but it's not tops there either.
Further fascination, atlhough not real numbers per se, is that with the baby name voyager, Michael has maintained the number one or two position in percentage over decades despite steadily dropping absolute numbers... I think this is suggesting that boys names are getting more diverse underneath that curve.
What a fun/boring questio: is the frequency of metafilter usernames that use a real first name more or less reflective of their occurrence in the population as a whole... how much sleep do you have to not get in order to answer that one cortex?
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 9:19 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
This makes me want to get another account so I can try to be more clever in picking a name.
In other words, I feel like I fail at screen names.
posted by MultiFaceted at 9:21 PM on December 14, 2010
In other words, I feel like I fail at screen names.
posted by MultiFaceted at 9:21 PM on December 14, 2010
funny:
Umami Dearest
sinusoidal.tendencies
renegadetaxidermist
unintelligentlydesigned
WaitingForGodiva
whimsical or bizarre:
wondershrew with a helping of potato salad
photoboothsupermodel
with the singing green stars as our guide
gross-out:
ScrappleFlavoredSnapple
posted by Hardcore Poser at 9:31 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
Umami Dearest
sinusoidal.tendencies
renegadetaxidermist
unintelligentlydesigned
WaitingForGodiva
whimsical or bizarre:
wondershrew with a helping of potato salad
photoboothsupermodel
with the singing green stars as our guide
gross-out:
ScrappleFlavoredSnapple
posted by Hardcore Poser at 9:31 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
thusspakeparanoia: "Of the sock puppets:"
I like Dances with sock puppets, Lord Socky McPuppeton and IKnittedThisSockPuppetMyself
Also,
Guernsey Halleck
little cow make small moo
Seahorse, rode hard and put away wet
I love you more when I eat paint chips
Odin's Missing Eyeball
L'Estrange Fruit
two lights above the sea
L'oeuvre Child
posted by zarq at 9:33 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
I like Dances with sock puppets, Lord Socky McPuppeton and IKnittedThisSockPuppetMyself
Also,
Guernsey Halleck
little cow make small moo
Seahorse, rode hard and put away wet
I love you more when I eat paint chips
Odin's Missing Eyeball
L'Estrange Fruit
two lights above the sea
L'oeuvre Child
posted by zarq at 9:33 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]
I hadn't actually seen that particular version of Numberwang before. Thanks, thusspakeparanoia!
/dashes off to rotate the board
posted by That's Numberwang! at 9:59 PM on December 14, 2010
/dashes off to rotate the board
posted by That's Numberwang! at 9:59 PM on December 14, 2010
Also, I don't really know what cumulative frequency (cum.freq) is
cum.freqconcerns the refractory period is just the running total of frequency values going through that file: freqJAMES + freqJOHN + freqROBERT = 3.318 + 3.271 + 3.143 = 9.732, for example. Quick way to answer at a glance the question of "how many distinct names does it take to account for 25% of all male given names", for example.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:09 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
cum.freq
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:09 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Oh wait, with the singing green stars as our guide, I liked that one too.
posted by The Whelk at 10:14 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by The Whelk at 10:14 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Ah yes, that would explain their ever increasing frequency as you go down the table.
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 10:14 PM on December 14, 2010
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 10:14 PM on December 14, 2010
These two were next to each other in the list.
existential hobo
ExitPursuedByBear
I also like New England Cultist as a name.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:16 PM on December 14, 2010
existential hobo
ExitPursuedByBear
I also like New England Cultist as a name.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:16 PM on December 14, 2010
Also MighstAllCruckingFighty and overeducated_alligator
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:19 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:19 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
I nominate me!
As a lover of comics and spirits, I also came in to nominate Gin and Comics but he or she beat me to it. It seems that in addition to having a great username, he or she's also very fast.
posted by jaybeans at 8:56 PM on December 14
It's true. The beans family certainly loves gin and comics.
posted by special-k at 10:22 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
As a lover of comics and spirits, I also came in to nominate Gin and Comics but he or she beat me to it. It seems that in addition to having a great username, he or she's also very fast.
posted by jaybeans at 8:56 PM on December 14
It's true. The beans family certainly loves gin and comics.
posted by special-k at 10:22 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]
Wow, I had no idea of how many people joined per year until I saw that list.
I only made it as far as k, but on a brief skim through the first part, I liked:
A BIG SCARY EMU
Cpt. The Mango
existential hobo
Eyebrows McGee
fluffysocksarenice
forkisbetter
helloknitty
Hey nonny nonny mouse
Hot buttered sockpuppets
I eated the purple one
itmightbecheese
And a special "kindly giving fair warning" prize should go to:
devious truculent and unreliable
and
embarrassing personal problems
PS: Why is bardophile in there twice?
posted by lollusc at 10:56 PM on December 14, 2010
I only made it as far as k, but on a brief skim through the first part, I liked:
A BIG SCARY EMU
Cpt. The Mango
existential hobo
Eyebrows McGee
fluffysocksarenice
forkisbetter
helloknitty
Hey nonny nonny mouse
Hot buttered sockpuppets
I eated the purple one
itmightbecheese
And a special "kindly giving fair warning" prize should go to:
devious truculent and unreliable
and
embarrassing personal problems
PS: Why is bardophile in there twice?
posted by lollusc at 10:56 PM on December 14, 2010
I stopped at the first name on the list... (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates rule! Or rules. Whatever.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:18 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:18 PM on December 14, 2010 [4 favorites]
My fibre crafty self is partial to helloknitty and yarnivore.
And also, Make Way For Ducklings!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:45 PM on December 14, 2010
And also, Make Way For Ducklings!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:45 PM on December 14, 2010
Sorry, what was the question?
posted by aa ee gg ll milne-cummings-allin-cool-j at 1:22 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by aa ee gg ll milne-cummings-allin-cool-j at 1:22 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Seahorse, rode hard and put away wet wins the Name I'm Most Jealous Of award.
posted by darksasami at 1:26 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by darksasami at 1:26 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
bessel functions seem unnecessarily complicated FTW
It's funny because it's true
posted by Decani at 2:14 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
It's funny because it's true
posted by Decani at 2:14 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon
Hell yes, that makes me snerk every time I see it.
I also enjoy:
couch fort dinner party
embarrassing personal problems
erstwhile ungulate
faux fabric entertainment device
I eated the purple one
los pantalones del muerte
No Shmoobles
Parade of Horribles
potential lunch winner
Several Unnamed Sources
Shit Mittens
Short Attention Sp
Smartloaf
That's Numberwang!
The Ladies and Gentlemen of Walter Mondale
the moanliest funk
TheAlarminglySwollenFinger
Trivia Newton John
Umami Dearest
Wuggie Norple
Were it a thing, I would very much look forward to attending this music festival.
posted by louche mustachio at 3:30 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Hell yes, that makes me snerk every time I see it.
I also enjoy:
couch fort dinner party
embarrassing personal problems
erstwhile ungulate
faux fabric entertainment device
I eated the purple one
los pantalones del muerte
No Shmoobles
Parade of Horribles
potential lunch winner
Several Unnamed Sources
Shit Mittens
Short Attention Sp
Smartloaf
That's Numberwang!
The Ladies and Gentlemen of Walter Mondale
the moanliest funk
TheAlarminglySwollenFinger
Trivia Newton John
Umami Dearest
Wuggie Norple
Were it a thing, I would very much look forward to attending this music festival.
posted by louche mustachio at 3:30 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
My, there's a lot of new people. Welcome!
posted by arcticseal at 4:01 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by arcticseal at 4:01 AM on December 15, 2010
This thread reads like a list of Culture ships.
posted by salmacis at 4:01 AM on December 15, 2010 [16 favorites]
posted by salmacis at 4:01 AM on December 15, 2010 [16 favorites]
clicking the 'Post Comment' button
I like that one too. Reminds me of how at the end of each episode of The Sound of Young America, Jesse says "the show is produced by speaking into microphones." Makes me smile everytime.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:54 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I like that one too. Reminds me of how at the end of each episode of The Sound of Young America, Jesse says "the show is produced by speaking into microphones." Makes me smile everytime.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:54 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
The one I've noticed this year is Tooty McTootsalot. I will never stop loving that name
Sure. But you wouldn't want to stand next to them.
posted by MuffinMan at 5:06 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
Sure. But you wouldn't want to stand next to them.
posted by MuffinMan at 5:06 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
Do people named Micheal disproportionately use their first name for the accounts?
I really hope not, because those people had parents who couldn't spell.
posted by The Michael The at 5:52 AM on December 15, 2010
I really hope not, because those people had parents who couldn't spell.
posted by The Michael The at 5:52 AM on December 15, 2010
I am pretty surprised no one has made a FILTH WIZARD sockpuppet yet.
posted by elizardbits at 5:57 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by elizardbits at 5:57 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
This thread reads like a list of Culture ships.
It's been done.
Banks really oughta write in a GSV I Love You More When I Eat Paint Chips, though.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:07 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
It's been done.
Banks really oughta write in a GSV I Love You More When I Eat Paint Chips, though.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:07 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
working from the assumption that longer usernames are usually more interesting
In the spirit of avoiding the work before me on my desk, I just wanted to note that one of my favorite usernames is Pants!
It's the exclamation point that really gets me. So enthusiastic.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 6:26 AM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
In the spirit of avoiding the work before me on my desk, I just wanted to note that one of my favorite usernames is Pants!
It's the exclamation point that really gets me. So enthusiastic.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 6:26 AM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
I'm really getting worried about what the hell usernames are going to look like in ten years. A hundred years?
But then I see that 'cow' went unclaimed 'til now, so I guess there's still gems out there to be had.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:29 AM on December 15, 2010
But then I see that 'cow' went unclaimed 'til now, so I guess there's still gems out there to be had.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:29 AM on December 15, 2010
Yeah, the namespace so far is about as crowded as the ionosophere. People aren't taking long names because all the good short names are taken; they're taking long names because they want long names.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:33 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:33 AM on December 15, 2010
Yeah I totally just did a double-fist-pump "YESSSS" at my work desk after clicking on this
posted by little cow make small moo at 6:46 AM on December 15, 2010 [14 favorites]
posted by little cow make small moo at 6:46 AM on December 15, 2010 [14 favorites]
Banks really oughta write in a GSV I Love You More When I Eat Paint Chips, though.
Surely that would be a GCU.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:53 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
Surely that would be a GCU.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:53 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam and It's Raining Florence Henderson were favorites of mine, but they're gone now.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:58 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:58 AM on December 15, 2010
Umami Dearest
That's hilarious.
Can we get a Sack Blabbath to go along with Pastor Of Muppets?
posted by mintcake! at 7:19 AM on December 15, 2010
That's hilarious.
Can we get a Sack Blabbath to go along with Pastor Of Muppets?
posted by mintcake! at 7:19 AM on December 15, 2010
What's surprising me is how many of these new people I look at and think, "They're new?"
posted by ocherdraco at 7:34 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by ocherdraco at 7:34 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
I assume that many of these new names are likely as not to be sockpuppets.
posted by Caligula's Idiot Cousin at 7:41 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by Caligula's Idiot Cousin at 7:41 AM on December 15, 2010
I assume that many of these new names are likely as not to be sockpuppets.
The large majority of new accounts are not obviously socks; that goes for the longer names as much as for shorter ones, for what it's worth. I haven't run any specific numbers, but that's definitely the general trend regardless of what the specific percentage comes down to.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:44 AM on December 15, 2010
The large majority of new accounts are not obviously socks; that goes for the longer names as much as for shorter ones, for what it's worth. I haven't run any specific numbers, but that's definitely the general trend regardless of what the specific percentage comes down to.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:44 AM on December 15, 2010
Aw, someone likes mine!
I like "Ellemeno." Among many others! But that one makes me smile and think of muppets and hasn't been mentioned yet.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:49 AM on December 15, 2010
I like "Ellemeno." Among many others! But that one makes me smile and think of muppets and hasn't been mentioned yet.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:49 AM on December 15, 2010
I like pipoquinha; it's got my name in it and it sounds like something Leeloo from The Fifth Element would say.
posted by quin at 7:52 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by quin at 7:52 AM on December 15, 2010
namespace ionosophere is totally my next sockpuppet.
posted by The Whelk at 8:01 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 8:01 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
The large majority of new accounts are not obviously socks. . .
posted by cortex at 10:44 AM on December 15 [+] [!]
Is "not obviously socks" taken?
posted by The Bellman at 8:09 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by cortex at 10:44 AM on December 15 [+] [!]
Is "not obviously socks" taken?
posted by The Bellman at 8:09 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
(Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates has been one of my favorites. Didn't even realize it was just created this year.
Even though I've been here for years I still feel like a newbie, stumbling along and not figuring everything out. I mean, look at my paltry favorites count.
I blame people who have been lurking here for years and years, since 2000 even, biding their time, only to create an account this year or last and make everyone who's been spouting off look bad. Please, won't someone think of the logorrheans?
posted by Deathalicious at 8:10 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Even though I've been here for years I still feel like a newbie, stumbling along and not figuring everything out. I mean, look at my paltry favorites count.
I blame people who have been lurking here for years and years, since 2000 even, biding their time, only to create an account this year or last and make everyone who's been spouting off look bad. Please, won't someone think of the logorrheans?
posted by Deathalicious at 8:10 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Mefi is somewhat rare in allowing spaces, punctuation, and long length in usernames, so I have a completely unsubstantiated theory that people that make these long sentence/phrase usernames with spaces and proper punctuation/capitalization tend to be existing users making second accounts to ask or answer semianonymously (or newcomers that have lurked for a long time, either way) since it's not common to do that at a lot of other places where names tend to be more of the "^&^sparklllmama9347^&^" variety.
Just going from how frequently people comment on having a long period of lurking here before creating an account, it's also possible that the whole "long user names with spaces and special characters are allowed" thing is pretty well-known to a lot of people by the time they sign up.
posted by FishBike at 8:51 AM on December 15, 2010
Just going from how frequently people comment on having a long period of lurking here before creating an account, it's also possible that the whole "long user names with spaces and special characters are allowed" thing is pretty well-known to a lot of people by the time they sign up.
posted by FishBike at 8:51 AM on December 15, 2010
It's also been something of a pop culture trend, over the last decade or maybe a little longer, for works like movies, albums, and books to have longer, less title-y, and more sentence-like titles. I think the experimentation with the username format reflects that general trend.
posted by Miko at 9:14 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by Miko at 9:14 AM on December 15, 2010
I am big fans of the following new usernames:
Eyebrows McGee
kittenplease
my name is irl
"My name is..." just tickles my funny bone. "Eyebrows McGee" is just a no-nonsense, hash-slingin' name for a chick and reminds me of another Bodypart McGee from another board. The Kitten one is probably "May I have a kitten please?" but I always read it as "Kitten, please..." in that "girlfriend, please..." tone of voice. Complete with the hand stop, in fact.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:58 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
Eyebrows McGee
kittenplease
my name is irl
"My name is..." just tickles my funny bone. "Eyebrows McGee" is just a no-nonsense, hash-slingin' name for a chick and reminds me of another Bodypart McGee from another board. The Kitten one is probably "May I have a kitten please?" but I always read it as "Kitten, please..." in that "girlfriend, please..." tone of voice. Complete with the hand stop, in fact.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:58 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
I didn't realize special characters were allowed in user names until I signed up. So... Yeah.
posted by that's candlepin at 10:05 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by that's candlepin at 10:05 AM on December 15, 2010
Do people named Micheal disproportionately use their first name for the accounts?
Okay, I've revisited a generalized version of this question this morning, and produced two data files:
Frequency of male names in usernames
Frequency of female names in usernames
After a couple of header lines, each file is a series of tab-separated lines listing three values: a relatively common first name (what I'll refer to herein as a "census name"), the frequency of that name according to the 1990 US Census, and the frequency of that name as a component of all metafilter usernames.
So, for example, the name michael shows up in the male list like so:
But! Oh, my, but. There are lots and lots of caveats here. Let me tell you all the things wrong with my methodology!
1. These files make no attempt to reconcile distinct census names that are in many cases variations of one logical "name".
So michael and mike are treated as distinct entries. And, notably, "mike" has a much higher username frequency than "michael", at 0.32%, which is substantially higher in username frequency than most names in the file. But then, Michael is very common in census names, so this might just be an unremarkable correlation between common census names and common usernames.
2. More than one variant on a census name may match a given username, so the cumulative username frequency may be inflated when adding up the frequencies of all variants.
Consider "james": if you look at the common census name variants "jim", "jimmy", and "jimmie", you've got username frequencies of .2573, .0534, and .0040 respectively. It's tempting to add those up and say, okay, .3147 or .31% of all usernames. But that's too high, because the script generating this is looking for substring matches of a given census name and will find "jim" in any username that also contains "jimmy" or "jimmie", effectively counting twice.
3. Multiple apparently unrelated census names may match a given username, so the overall cumulative username frequency of the file may be further inflated in reality.
As an extension of the above, census names that aren't nickname variants of each other may also match the same username because they share common substrings. So "vanna" and "ava" both match any username that contains the string "savanna".
Some very short census names are heavily overrepresented because of this substring approach. From the female list, "ai" has a census frequency of just 0.001% but a username frequency of over 2%; this is clearly the result of "ai" being a short, common string of letters in English words, not an indication that women named Ai wildly disproportionately love hanging out at metafilter.
4. A given username may have multiple legitimate census names contained within it.
This is partially restating and generalizing on the warnings above. While the census names are all mutually exclusive in the Census' methodology (you have one name: you are michael OR james OR ted OR lucy, and you get counted exactly once), the usernames we allow mefites to have can contain multiple words, which could include multiple distinct census names even aside from the substring-related count inflation issues mentioned above.
So, for example, John Kenneth Fisher will get counted as a match for both "john" and "kenneth", not because of substring matches but because his username takes the form of a full first-middle-last name while the census names are all single first names. (Though he'll also, per point (2), be counted for "ken", but not for "kenny" since that exact string doesn't occur.)
5. Having a census name in your username doesn't mean it's actually your name.
There's no rule that the one requires the other, so using this as a metric for "how many people named Michael/Mike are..." is problematic. It would in principle be possible to try and correlate username substrings with recorded full name fields behind the scenes, but that'd be very spotty at best and there's nothing to say that is their real name either anyway so it's turtles all the way down.
All that said, there's some interesting data here. Keeping the above in mind, you may be able to draw some interesting data out of this stuff.
Some further notes:
- the files used for the census names are "dist.male.first" and "dist.female.first" from this census.gov page, which provides a detailed methodology for their name collection process. The data is twenty years old now, so some shifts in name distribution have occurred in the meantime as older folks with out-of-fashion names have died and babies have been born with newly-fashionable names, but the overall distribution has likely not radically shifted.
- the file used for usernames is usernames.txt from the Infodump; as of the creation of the frequency files up top, it contained 50,523 usernames, so if you want to translate username frequency from those files to a number of accounts, that's your multiplying factor, e.g. census name "jim" at username frequency .2573% = .002573 * 50523 = about 129 usernames that contain the string "jim" in them somewhere.
- the census files list names in descending order by commonality, listing for both male and female versions all those names that collectively account for about 90% of all US first names. For males, that list contains 1,219 entries; for females, 4,275. So female names show a great deal more variety than male names in overall distribution.
- of those listed names, 963 of the 1,219 male census names appear somewhere in a mefi username; 2,094 of the 4,275 female census names appear somewhere in a mefi username.
- the substring matching criteria of the script is very simple: the census name is compared to each username, ignoring case of or surrounding characters in the username. So "mike" would match usernames including "mike", "Mikey", "mY nAmE iS mIkE tYsOn", "ULTRAMIKEMANIFESTO", "Amikeble Duhvorce", etc.
- census names are listed in lower case in the file because I find that shit a lot more readable than the UPPERCASE that the census files use, and I was too lazy to Title Case them.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:05 AM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
Okay, I've revisited a generalized version of this question this morning, and produced two data files:
Frequency of male names in usernames
Frequency of female names in usernames
After a couple of header lines, each file is a series of tab-separated lines listing three values: a relatively common first name (what I'll refer to herein as a "census name"), the frequency of that name according to the 1990 US Census, and the frequency of that name as a component of all metafilter usernames.
So, for example, the name michael shows up in the male list like so:
michael 2.629 0.0891What this says is that 2.6% of American males (in 1990) were named Michael, and that .08% of metafilter usernames contain the string "michael" in them somewhere. At a glance, 0.08% is not a remarkable large or small figure, so the short answer is "no, it doesn't seem like people named Michael disproportionately use their first name for their username."
But! Oh, my, but. There are lots and lots of caveats here. Let me tell you all the things wrong with my methodology!
1. These files make no attempt to reconcile distinct census names that are in many cases variations of one logical "name".
So michael and mike are treated as distinct entries. And, notably, "mike" has a much higher username frequency than "michael", at 0.32%, which is substantially higher in username frequency than most names in the file. But then, Michael is very common in census names, so this might just be an unremarkable correlation between common census names and common usernames.
2. More than one variant on a census name may match a given username, so the cumulative username frequency may be inflated when adding up the frequencies of all variants.
Consider "james": if you look at the common census name variants "jim", "jimmy", and "jimmie", you've got username frequencies of .2573, .0534, and .0040 respectively. It's tempting to add those up and say, okay, .3147 or .31% of all usernames. But that's too high, because the script generating this is looking for substring matches of a given census name and will find "jim" in any username that also contains "jimmy" or "jimmie", effectively counting twice.
3. Multiple apparently unrelated census names may match a given username, so the overall cumulative username frequency of the file may be further inflated in reality.
As an extension of the above, census names that aren't nickname variants of each other may also match the same username because they share common substrings. So "vanna" and "ava" both match any username that contains the string "savanna".
Some very short census names are heavily overrepresented because of this substring approach. From the female list, "ai" has a census frequency of just 0.001% but a username frequency of over 2%; this is clearly the result of "ai" being a short, common string of letters in English words, not an indication that women named Ai wildly disproportionately love hanging out at metafilter.
4. A given username may have multiple legitimate census names contained within it.
This is partially restating and generalizing on the warnings above. While the census names are all mutually exclusive in the Census' methodology (you have one name: you are michael OR james OR ted OR lucy, and you get counted exactly once), the usernames we allow mefites to have can contain multiple words, which could include multiple distinct census names even aside from the substring-related count inflation issues mentioned above.
So, for example, John Kenneth Fisher will get counted as a match for both "john" and "kenneth", not because of substring matches but because his username takes the form of a full first-middle-last name while the census names are all single first names. (Though he'll also, per point (2), be counted for "ken", but not for "kenny" since that exact string doesn't occur.)
5. Having a census name in your username doesn't mean it's actually your name.
There's no rule that the one requires the other, so using this as a metric for "how many people named Michael/Mike are..." is problematic. It would in principle be possible to try and correlate username substrings with recorded full name fields behind the scenes, but that'd be very spotty at best and there's nothing to say that is their real name either anyway so it's turtles all the way down.
All that said, there's some interesting data here. Keeping the above in mind, you may be able to draw some interesting data out of this stuff.
Some further notes:
- the files used for the census names are "dist.male.first" and "dist.female.first" from this census.gov page, which provides a detailed methodology for their name collection process. The data is twenty years old now, so some shifts in name distribution have occurred in the meantime as older folks with out-of-fashion names have died and babies have been born with newly-fashionable names, but the overall distribution has likely not radically shifted.
- the file used for usernames is usernames.txt from the Infodump; as of the creation of the frequency files up top, it contained 50,523 usernames, so if you want to translate username frequency from those files to a number of accounts, that's your multiplying factor, e.g. census name "jim" at username frequency .2573% = .002573 * 50523 = about 129 usernames that contain the string "jim" in them somewhere.
- the census files list names in descending order by commonality, listing for both male and female versions all those names that collectively account for about 90% of all US first names. For males, that list contains 1,219 entries; for females, 4,275. So female names show a great deal more variety than male names in overall distribution.
- of those listed names, 963 of the 1,219 male census names appear somewhere in a mefi username; 2,094 of the 4,275 female census names appear somewhere in a mefi username.
- the substring matching criteria of the script is very simple: the census name is compared to each username, ignoring case of or surrounding characters in the username. So "mike" would match usernames including "mike", "Mikey", "mY nAmE iS mIkE tYsOn", "ULTRAMIKEMANIFESTO", "Amikeble Duhvorce", etc.
- census names are listed in lower case in the file because I find that shit a lot more readable than the UPPERCASE that the census files use, and I was too lazy to Title Case them.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:05 AM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
It's hard out here for a sockpuppet.
posted by Seahorse, rode hard and put away wet at 10:07 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Seahorse, rode hard and put away wet at 10:07 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Oh, Seahorse, rode hard and put away wet, don't fret, I will never stop laughing at you. Or Hot buttered sockpuppets. Or cronholio.
posted by clavicle at 10:38 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by clavicle at 10:38 AM on December 15, 2010
I'm just pissed that I forgot to put an apostrophe in my name when I registered (I could claim that I didn't know that you could have punctuation, but that would be a lie).
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:11 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:11 AM on December 15, 2010
This is a rich trove of names for my next punk band. "Parade of Horribles" is a gem.
posted by DWRoelands at 11:41 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by DWRoelands at 11:41 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
My username appeared in this thread rather early. It makes sense, because I am awesome.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 11:45 AM on December 15, 2010
posted by Mister Fabulous at 11:45 AM on December 15, 2010
I sent this advice-seeking email shortly before registering:
which of these is best?
little cow; small moo
little cow makes small moo
little cow make small moo
little cow: small moo
little cow, small moo
little cow small moo
posted by little cow make small moo at 11:45 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
which of these is best?
little cow; small moo
little cow makes small moo
little cow make small moo
little cow: small moo
little cow, small moo
little cow small moo
posted by little cow make small moo at 11:45 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]
A recent edition (and an I-registered-to-respond-to-an-anon-question user), but I thought about memailing to offer cold hard cash to buy anonymous sockpuppet for Jesus.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 12:31 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 12:31 PM on December 15, 2010
I like Old'n'Busted's username when considered with Old'n'Busted's references to an SO, Young'n'StillGood.
posted by Zed at 12:45 PM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Zed at 12:45 PM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Clearly the user named badgerbadgerbadger and I need to get together to form an early-flash cover band.
Unless that was just one of my registration false-starts. Then I'm going to be annoyed at myself for being so internally consistent.
posted by badgermushroomSNAKE at 2:38 PM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
Unless that was just one of my registration false-starts. Then I'm going to be annoyed at myself for being so internally consistent.
posted by badgermushroomSNAKE at 2:38 PM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
I like FAMOUS MONSTER, it's a new username but I don't think it's a new user. Other than that I tend to like the longer phrases. I fail at usernames and keep wanting to change it but I can't seem to committ to anything else, so I'm just leaving it alone for now.
posted by thankyouforyourconsideration at 2:40 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by thankyouforyourconsideration at 2:40 PM on December 15, 2010
I'm just pissed that I forgot to put an apostrophe in my name when I registered...
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 1:11 PM on December 15 [+] [!]
But... But...
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 2:47 PM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 1:11 PM on December 15 [+] [!]
But... But...
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 2:47 PM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
Unless that was just one of my registration false-starts.
Nah, false starts don't show up in the usernames list. That's only accounts that completed the process.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:49 PM on December 15, 2010
Nah, false starts don't show up in the usernames list. That's only accounts that completed the process.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:49 PM on December 15, 2010
But... But...
Jessamyn!
*clenches fist, glowers at horizon*
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:50 PM on December 15, 2010
Jessamyn!
*clenches fist, glowers at horizon*
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:50 PM on December 15, 2010
cortex: "Nah, false starts don't show up in the usernames list. That's only accounts that completed the process."
You actually can view unregistered names if you change the user number on a favorites list. For instance, there's no profile for user #25000, but http://www.metafilter.com/favorites/25000 shows it would have been registered to user "Inkman," had they finished the sign-up process. (h/t to Cold Lurkey for discovering this)
posted by Rhaomi at 2:59 PM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
You actually can view unregistered names if you change the user number on a favorites list. For instance, there's no profile for user #25000, but http://www.metafilter.com/favorites/25000 shows it would have been registered to user "Inkman," had they finished the sign-up process. (h/t to Cold Lurkey for discovering this)
posted by Rhaomi at 2:59 PM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
I like this one, which I didn't see mentioned yet:
The Lurkers Support Me in Email
posted by misha at 3:15 PM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
The Lurkers Support Me in Email
posted by misha at 3:15 PM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
But... But...
Yeah, I guess I have nothing to complain about now.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:47 PM on December 15, 2010
Yeah, I guess I have nothing to complain about now.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:47 PM on December 15, 2010
Well I got down to the Gs before I got bored. "GnomeChompsky" is my fave of that list.
posted by chairface at 4:15 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by chairface at 4:15 PM on December 15, 2010
How I just saw His thoughts were red thoughts, which I went "oh nice username"
posted by The Whelk at 5:37 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by The Whelk at 5:37 PM on December 15, 2010
I read down as far as the mid-Is before I ran out of steam.
My favourites of those were (in alphabetical order)
a humble nudibranch
airing nerdy laundry
AllMyLittleWords
alwaysflowers
alwayslaterthanuthink
amerrydance
AngryLlama
AnOceanAboveMe
AnOrigamiLife
Back to you, Jim.
bessel functions seem unnecessarily complicated
Bioluminescent
bloodandglitter
bluishred
boyseptember
bright and shiny
brightghost
Bumptious Wallflower
Caligula's Idiot Cousin
ceaselessbecoming
Ceci n'est pas un sockpuppet
chromasapien
clever anonymous username
clicking the 'Post Comment' button
curiocabinet
Curious Artificer
cynicalidealist
Dances with sock puppets
Deja Stu
dendritejungle
devious truculent and unreliable
DisreputableDog
earlofrochester
easy, lucky, free
elsewhen
embarrassing personal problems
EsotericAlgorithm
Existential Dread
ExitPursuedByBear
FAMOUS MONSTER
Faraday Cage
FormerMermaid
french films about trains
gatsby died
GentleReader
Gin and Comics
glass origami robot
GnomeChompsky
Goblinmerchant
I love you more when I eat paint chips
IKnittedThisSockPuppetMyself
posted by with the singing green stars as our guide at 5:51 PM on December 15, 2010
My favourites of those were (in alphabetical order)
a humble nudibranch
airing nerdy laundry
AllMyLittleWords
alwaysflowers
alwayslaterthanuthink
amerrydance
AngryLlama
AnOceanAboveMe
AnOrigamiLife
Back to you, Jim.
bessel functions seem unnecessarily complicated
Bioluminescent
bloodandglitter
bluishred
boyseptember
bright and shiny
brightghost
Bumptious Wallflower
Caligula's Idiot Cousin
ceaselessbecoming
Ceci n'est pas un sockpuppet
chromasapien
clever anonymous username
clicking the 'Post Comment' button
curiocabinet
Curious Artificer
cynicalidealist
Dances with sock puppets
Deja Stu
dendritejungle
devious truculent and unreliable
DisreputableDog
earlofrochester
easy, lucky, free
elsewhen
embarrassing personal problems
EsotericAlgorithm
Existential Dread
ExitPursuedByBear
FAMOUS MONSTER
Faraday Cage
FormerMermaid
french films about trains
gatsby died
GentleReader
Gin and Comics
glass origami robot
GnomeChompsky
Goblinmerchant
I love you more when I eat paint chips
IKnittedThisSockPuppetMyself
posted by with the singing green stars as our guide at 5:51 PM on December 15, 2010
It's very cool that Jessamyn fixed the apostrophe problem.
posted by lover at 6:15 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by lover at 6:15 PM on December 15, 2010
Thanks for reminding me for checking something I haven't checked in quite a while...I have two new muses this year. Welcome, mmmelpomene! Welcome, Polyhymnia!
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:18 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:18 PM on December 15, 2010
*clenches fist, glowers at horizon*
SOMETIMES I WANT TO BE THE GOOD GUY!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:22 PM on December 15, 2010 [6 favorites]
SOMETIMES I WANT TO BE THE GOOD GUY!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:22 PM on December 15, 2010 [6 favorites]
Jumping to the T to Z section, I really liked:
technocrat
TellMeAboutToronto
That's Numberwang!
The Captain and Ten Eels
The Discredited Ape
The Lady is a designer
The Landscaper of Dorian Gray
thelastenglishmajor
TheLonelyLlama
TheOceanRefusesNoRiver
TheProudAardvark
thesecagesarenotgoodenough
thewildgreen
this *is* my happy face
This name is exactly forty-eight characters long
three bear minimum
Throw away your common sense and get an afro!
thusspakeparanoia
to recite so charmingly
torisaur
Trapped Vector
triceryclops
Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Trivia Newton John
tsocktsarina
two lights above the sea
Umami Dearest
underflow
vivid postcard
Wabisabi
WaitingForGodiva
waterunderground
wavetothearctic
whirlingnerdish
whyareyouatriangle
wintermind
wittysobriquet
wondershrew with a helping of potato salad
xeriscaped
yarnivore
your mom's a sock puppet
Zthulu
posted by with the singing green stars as our guide at 6:24 PM on December 15, 2010
technocrat
TellMeAboutToronto
That's Numberwang!
The Captain and Ten Eels
The Discredited Ape
The Lady is a designer
The Landscaper of Dorian Gray
thelastenglishmajor
TheLonelyLlama
TheOceanRefusesNoRiver
TheProudAardvark
thesecagesarenotgoodenough
thewildgreen
this *is* my happy face
This name is exactly forty-eight characters long
three bear minimum
Throw away your common sense and get an afro!
thusspakeparanoia
to recite so charmingly
torisaur
Trapped Vector
triceryclops
Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Trivia Newton John
tsocktsarina
two lights above the sea
Umami Dearest
underflow
vivid postcard
Wabisabi
WaitingForGodiva
waterunderground
wavetothearctic
whirlingnerdish
whyareyouatriangle
wintermind
wittysobriquet
wondershrew with a helping of potato salad
xeriscaped
yarnivore
your mom's a sock puppet
Zthulu
posted by with the singing green stars as our guide at 6:24 PM on December 15, 2010
I also like year of meteors whose username inspired a post of mine [I made the post before I read the "about my username" part of her profile].
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:32 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:32 PM on December 15, 2010
> I like this one, which I didn't see mentioned yet:
posted by misha at 5:15 PM on December 15
Thanks. I signed up in 2009, though. (Wow, has it been a year already?)
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 7:18 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by misha at 5:15 PM on December 15
Thanks. I signed up in 2009, though. (Wow, has it been a year already?)
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 7:18 PM on December 15, 2010
As for the Michael/Mike frequency issue, I think you could make a reasonable stab at it if you limited yourself to its frequency within the other top ten names (not the mefi proper name population as a whole. Such that now you're comparing the relative frequency of michael/mike to the james/jim, will/bill, john/jack/jon, josh, robert/bob, david, dave, rich/dick, charles/chuck, joseph/joe, thomas/tom.
(all the pet names and alternates I've suggested are exclusive so they should be additive).
With a more limited set, you could do manual filtering of obvious non-matches, as well as users like Michael Pemulis or JackthaStripper who of course is named Mark. Then simply ask if the frequency from the 1990 census is different than the frequency of mefi, but in terms of rank. i.e. james/jim is 6th while bob/robert is 2nd.
This is imperfect from many standpoints, but seems more feasible.
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 7:38 PM on December 15, 2010
(all the pet names and alternates I've suggested are exclusive so they should be additive).
With a more limited set, you could do manual filtering of obvious non-matches, as well as users like Michael Pemulis or JackthaStripper who of course is named Mark. Then simply ask if the frequency from the 1990 census is different than the frequency of mefi, but in terms of rank. i.e. james/jim is 6th while bob/robert is 2nd.
This is imperfect from many standpoints, but seems more feasible.
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 7:38 PM on December 15, 2010
Also, this went past me at first glance:
cum.freq concerns the refractory period
And that sir, is a dirty joke indeed, although it reminded me of a awkward incident that's kind of funny in hindsight. So, for whatever reason, i'd been essentially innocent of the use of "refractory" in terms of ejaculation, and knew it only from neurobiology wherein a given cell is inured to further stimulus and will not respond. YES, now I see the connection, but that's what I associated it with exclusively up until earlier this year. As my boss went through a period for three months this year of not responding to phonecalls/emails and not showing up mostly I was getting a lot of questions about him and his whereabouts and why-abouts. Trapped on a elevator ride with the department chair and asked why my boss wasn't responding to anything, I told him that he seems to be in a bit of a refractory period... and got a really weird look. Like made-me-feel-dirty look. Come/cum to find out, there's more to that word than I'd imagined.
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 7:49 PM on December 15, 2010
cum.freq concerns the refractory period
And that sir, is a dirty joke indeed, although it reminded me of a awkward incident that's kind of funny in hindsight. So, for whatever reason, i'd been essentially innocent of the use of "refractory" in terms of ejaculation, and knew it only from neurobiology wherein a given cell is inured to further stimulus and will not respond. YES, now I see the connection, but that's what I associated it with exclusively up until earlier this year. As my boss went through a period for three months this year of not responding to phonecalls/emails and not showing up mostly I was getting a lot of questions about him and his whereabouts and why-abouts. Trapped on a elevator ride with the department chair and asked why my boss wasn't responding to anything, I told him that he seems to be in a bit of a refractory period... and got a really weird look. Like made-me-feel-dirty look. Come/cum to find out, there's more to that word than I'd imagined.
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 7:49 PM on December 15, 2010
SOMETIMES I WANT TO BE THE GOOD GUY!
YOU'RE MEDDLING WITH FORCES YOU CAN'T BEGIN TO COMPREHEND!
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:52 PM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
YOU'RE MEDDLING WITH FORCES YOU CAN'T BEGIN TO COMPREHEND!
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:52 PM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]
Well, Galaxor Nebulon should be contented at least.
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 7:57 PM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by thusspakeparanoia at 7:57 PM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]
Heh. So Galaxor and I were housemates for a little while in college, and there are definitely stories about that house that I'll still tell just to watch people do a double-take over the name.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:15 PM on December 15, 2010
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:15 PM on December 15, 2010
Such that now you're comparing the relative frequency of michael/mike to the james/jim, will/bill, john/jack/jon, josh, robert/bob, david, dave, rich/dick, charles/chuck, joseph/joe, thomas/tom.
This might be skewed by names that contain both "tom" and "dick", and their less common variants "junior" and "mints".
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 3:42 AM on December 16, 2010
This might be skewed by names that contain both "tom" and "dick", and their less common variants "junior" and "mints".
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 3:42 AM on December 16, 2010
YOU'RE MEDDLING WITH FORCES YOU CAN'T BEGIN TO COMPREHEND!
Now I'm picturing this on Jessamyn's resumé:
Now I'm picturing this on Jessamyn's resumé:
Responsibilities included:posted by FishBike at 5:29 AM on December 16, 2010 [9 favorites]
- Moderated comments and answers
- Responded to and managed problematic behavior on the site
- Provided users with guidance regarding site policies and guidelines
- Meddled with forces I did not begin to comprehend
- Updated the wiki
I like FAMOUS MONSTER, it's a new username but I don't think it's a new user.
Thank you!
I am a new user.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 7:27 AM on December 16, 2010
Thank you!
I am a new user.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 7:27 AM on December 16, 2010
Well, you know, you've hurt me Metafilter. And if you don't know how then I'm not going to tell you.
Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go over to fark and cry a little...
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 8:56 AM on December 16, 2010
Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go over to fark and cry a little...
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 8:56 AM on December 16, 2010
I signed up the day after last year's thread, but it was too early to count for 2010's list. Guess I don't qualify.
I'm still a winner though. I can't lose!
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:06 AM on December 16, 2010 [2 favorites]
I'm still a winner though. I can't lose!
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:06 AM on December 16, 2010 [2 favorites]
I listen and I listen but I don't hear Ben Stein calling your name.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:17 AM on December 16, 2010
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:17 AM on December 16, 2010
Least favorite new username: Roachbeard. *shudder* Downright unsettling.
posted by maryr at 4:25 PM on December 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by maryr at 4:25 PM on December 16, 2010 [1 favorite]
I just want to register the complaint that I finally signed up after years of lurking, but my new job won't let me sign in at work and after I get home I'm too tired to contribute meaningfully. Which is probably good for my continued employment but bad for my engagement here. But I love you guyz.
posted by Existential Dread at 7:29 PM on December 16, 2010
posted by Existential Dread at 7:29 PM on December 16, 2010
MetaEnemy: it takes a team of six to hold us back
posted by shothotbot at 8:45 PM on December 16, 2010
posted by shothotbot at 8:45 PM on December 16, 2010
Not sure who is old or new but "Faint of Butt" just makes me laugh every time.
And I dig Harryconnickjrmints
I should have had mine as 'butt juice'. Seems to be a favorite saying of mine.
'ball gag' would have been good too. Who doesn't snicker at the term ball gag?
posted by stormpooper at 12:04 PM on December 17, 2010
And I dig Harryconnickjrmints
I should have had mine as 'butt juice'. Seems to be a favorite saying of mine.
'ball gag' would have been good too. Who doesn't snicker at the term ball gag?
posted by stormpooper at 12:04 PM on December 17, 2010
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
sheesh... not gonna happen...
posted by HuronBob at 6:50 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]