| Vertumnus: (Roman god) The Roman divinity of seasons, changes and ripening of plant life. He is the patron of gardens and fruit trees. He has the power to change himself into various forms, and used this to gain the favor of the goddess Pomona. Vertumnus' cult was introduced in Rome around 300 BC and a temple was built on the Aventine Hill in 264 BC. The Vertumnalias, observed on August 13, is his festival. A statue of Vertumnus stood at the Vicus Tuscus. AKA: Vortumnus, Vertimnus. Etymology: "vertere, changing". In the Dragon Lance series of books he is a druidic/deific character, also referred to as Lord Wilderness, that looks like a "green man". He is, apparently, unkillable as one of the heroes of the series, Sturm Brightblade, runs him through with his sword but he gets back up and smacks Sturm to the ground. He then takes him and offers him the chance to leave the warfaring way and join him. Sadly, Sturm is fated to go another direction and declines. These two aliases were mostly used on multi-line BBSes in special chat situations and online games as well as chat rooms on the Internet. I favored them because of my religious beliefs which had changed from that of my family's Christian outlook to a more "eclectic" viewpoint and included far more respect for nature than the Christian church (and, indeed, most religions) have ever displayed despite what their holy books say. |
| Visionnaire: (French) meaning: visionary, fanciful, seer, dreamer. This was my first French alias (I am part French hence the choice) and allowed me to keep my favorite alias and provide it with mystique and flair. |
| Reveur: (French) male, meaning dreamer, also: dreaming; pensive, dreamy, musing, muser, dreamily. I thought, perhaps, that Visionnaire might be female so I switched to this name. Plus, a friend of mine started to use Visionnaire. |
| ReveurGAM: Reveur plus my initials. Too simple, eh? 8^) When I started to get involved in BBSes that were sporting users from other countries and especially on the Internet I found I had competition for Reveur so I used this when I had to. |
| My Aliases |
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| Hormone: This was my first alias created during the halcyon days of single-line BBSes. Around 1998 I had decided to become involved on Milwaukee Apple II BBSes and I needed a good alias. This one is fairly obvious in that it referred to the torrent of hormones washing through my body when I was 21 and the results: libido, depression, etc.. Sadly, this nickname had unintended repercussions. When combined with my normally large volume of public messages and the fact that going online was my way of blowing off steam, some people thought I was a teenager and made some disparaging remarks. I suppose, in a way, they weren't far off the mark, but when someone said that when I was 24 I took offense and corrected them straightaway. |
| GammaAlphaMega!!: This was my secret pirating alias. Back in the 80's and 90's I was friends with some pirates and, although my role in the group was mostly that of distributor, when my meager wages allowed I'd buy a piece of software and let them borrow it to crack it. On one occasion I was instrumental in cracking an old submarine game called "Silent Service". I picked this name to provide me with anonymity although, considering it was formed with my initials, it probably wasn't the best choice, eh? |
| Caracal/The Ocelot: These two aliases served to provide me with anonymity on my BBS as well as to express my love of wildlife as these two creatures of feline predators. One of the downsides of being the SysOp of a BBS is people ascribe demigod status to you and tend to avoid contradicting you in newsgroup debates - probably because SysOps have the ablility to edit anything you say, delete it or even delete your account. I didn't want this but I couldn't change the perception so I snuck around it by using these unknown aliases so I could pose as a regular user to encourage debates that I could participate in. I suspect some people who knew me well figured it out but it was nice to be on the same level with my users. |
| VisionMAN: Back around 1997, after I'd moved to Denver, Colorado, I decided to check out IRC. Visionnaire was already taken so I chose this. It turned out someone else used it, as well, so I had to lock it to prevent confusion. I used it until I became disillusioned with the people there and, indeed, with chat situations in general. It, of course, originates from Visionnaire. |
| SpandexMan: Before I took down my BBS I had attended the Bristol Renaissance Faire and been convinced by a charming and witty (and pretty) shopkeeper to try on her wares: spandex pants. Not the ordinary kind, mind you, that resemble very clingy blue jeans or something. I mean the kind with wild patterns and colors that definitely stand out in the crowd. She took me out in front of her shop and kept yelling out "Man with a nice bum, here!" while she pointed at it with an enormous feather. A crowd developed, of course (which was easy since the Faire was quite busy) and there was some laughter. I was embarrassed but I also found I liked both the attention and the smooth feel of the spandex. I bought that pair of black-and-white checkered ones on the spot and several more over the next few years as well as some spandex "shoes" that had bells attached. Sounds a bit odd, I know, but there was method to my madness. I had, since childhood, suffered from feelings of being an outsider in groups - even if they were friends or family. The experience in front of the "Fair Pair" shop showed my subconscious mind a way to fix that neurosis. Thereafter when I went to major BBS events (usually sponsored by ODS BBS in Milwaukee) I would wear my spandex. Reactions were, of course, mixed. Some people liked it or found it amusing. Some women liked to pinch my butt. And some people, mostly men, assumed I was gay because of my outlandish attire. I often wore odd hats, like a jester's hat, and the spandex shoes with the pants. I found that when I was dressed this way (which I knew looked quite silly) I didn't really care what people thought so I was free to wander about the parties, hugging all the women, and relax and have fun. It was like wearing an alias! Eventually my neurosis was squashed by this rampant behaviour and I no longer needed the spandex but I still use them for Halloween and other special occasions...sometimes. This alias was more of an offline one than online, but it appeared sporadically on some BBSes. |
| The Dreamer: I chose this around 1990 to give myself a more mature alias. This became important as I started my own one-line BBS, first on my Franklin ACE 500 and then migrated it to an Apple IIe, called The Tower of Babble (ToB). Yes, this name was a play on the Biblical Tower of Babel, but my BBS was not religiously oriented despite what some visitors thought. This was my alias of choice on the BBSes I frequented for the next several years, including the recently emerging multi-line BBSes like ODS and Metropolis. After I took down ToB in 1996 I started to prefer the French versions of this nickname. |
| In the old days, before the general public had access to the Internet, most people used aliases. This was usually to protect their privacy but, for some people, it was also to protect them from legal repercussions. Groups of hackers, pirates, crackers and phreakers covered their identities to keep the law enforcement agencies from knowing who they were. Of course, the vast majority of users of single-line & multi-line BBSes were not involved in anything illegal and the same held true when the Internet was opened to the public. However, many people preferred to mask their identities with various colorful aliases, which allowed them a wider freedom than they might have (maybe just in their minds since having no real name frees you of some of your personal restrictions) otherwise. I started going online around the end of 1988 and I subscribed to the belief that it was important to have an alias. SOME people that you would meet online weren't very nice and if they knew your name they'd use it to cause trouble for you - mostly harmless, like getting your phone service turned off. Sadly, there are still many people out there that do things to other people and some of the things they do are far from harmless. Here, then, is a fairly comprehensive list of the aliases I've used and why. |