h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think the subject says it all

Sorry - only just saw this new thread... c'est la vie.

certainly - but let me just check what your username is - is it 'thanatos' - or is that just the username you're wearing for the halloween party?
And have you got any other usernames?

Thanatos is just the username I'm wearing for the party. My regular name (which is on my homepage along with some RL PGGB recipes) is "some bloke who tried to think of a short, catchy, pithy name and spent five sleepless nights trying but couldn't think of one"

"some bloke who tried to think of a short, catchy, pithy name and spent five sleepless nights trying but couldn't think of one"

Hmm. This is interesting...

ok - clearly this is somebody who sees a 'short, catchy, pithy name' as a highly desirable attribute - or more likely an attribute which he feels that most online people think is highly desirable - the name that was chosen in the end is kind of implies that the user himself disagrees with this evaluation.

Calling himself 'some bloke' implies a sense of modesty - not somebody who wants to stand up and shout to the world - just some bloke, who happens to be on h2g2. Isn't famous, doesn't want to be famous, just wants to relax and have fun.
Modesty is also implied by the claim (probably a lie ) that after five days he still couldn't think of a name. And he's not afraid to admit it quite openly and publically.

The only other thing that comes to mind is that names like this which are self-referential (other examples are 'unnamed' or 'I'm a number, not a name', etc) - which implies a certain sense of humour and quirkiness.

But I can't get much else out of the name except that, I'm afraid. Oh well...

Death....? is that Greek?...seen it somewhere, i know..........oh, right! my original purpose in posting! can you analyze my username?

Hi there

ok - Minesweep Goddess - first impressions - female (of course ) - a comparatively long name - but not hugely long one - a nice balance, I feel. Capitalisation is standard, too. The choice of letters also reveals a fairly down-the-line personality - both in terms of rarity, and number of ascenders and descenders. So far, so normal...

Minesweep - does this refer to mines that go boom? mines that dig up coal? or minesweeper the game that comes with windows? It's got to be the last one, really - neither of the others are things I can imagine people advertising through their names...

I think it's interesting that the name is 'Minesweep Goddess' rather than the perhaps more obvious 'Minesweeper Goddess' - I think the name chosen is nicer, since it has a more pleasing balance - two syllables in each word. Somebody with a fine rhythmical ear - perhaps one who writes poetry or enjoys reading it? Perhaps someone destined to become one of those noble sub-eds...

Somebody who's an expert in minesweeper - so somebody who's spent far too much time on it - can you solve the basic layout in ten seconds or less? An expert at minesweeper implies somebody in a boring job with access to a computer - but nowadays that doesn't exactly narrow it down, does it? Alternatively, someone who likes to do something while waiting for a slow modem to download parts of h2g2...

The name is a curious mixture of humility and pride - on the one hand, a Goddess is someone who is meant to be worshipped and adored - on the other hand, someone who is a Goddess only of Minesweeper is someone who is quite humble - not someone who wants to publicise their many other talents, preferring instead to focus on one of the talents which are somehow more 'acceptable' to have.

This entire analysis is way offline if the user turns out to sweep coalmines for a living... but them's the risks...

neat...thanks! actually, i thought saying Goddess was kind of a joke thing, you know just a silly wossname...um...can't think of the word.....youknow...um...oh well. no caps could also say "user is not a very fast typer and does not want to waste the time using caps" i normally only use caps when i'm typing a name(someone else's) or similar, but i don't ever have to type in my username. and yes i did mean the Windows game

a pleasure...

Magnolia reckoned that no-caps could be a web-adept thing - someone who types their name often enough that the extra time to put in caps is noticeable - so perhaps it's both things - a web-adept who doesn't type particularly fast?

I'm not really a web-adept and I can type reasonably fast. I can't really remember why I didn't bother capitalising my name. Probably because of it not really being a name, but a description.

my other username. (not for h2g2, i only have one username for h2g2)

Ahh - I never like to analyse the same person twice for differing names... - it just doesn't feel right, somehow... *shrug*

I was going to make a bad pun here, but I thought better of it...

oh bye the bye - when you finish your 'dream interpretation' page, perhaps we should pester TPTB to put up a virtual gypsie stall or somesuch - Magnolia mentioned the idea a while back - and it sounds fun...

no! PLEASE make the pun! i like puns!(see title) and, maybe you could analyse the fact that i have 2 usernames, but for diferent things? that must mean something...

and, "when i finish" is probably going to be in the far future. i have to get books from the library on the subject, then read them all, then reserve a study room for several hours and write up my first draft, then type it up, then revise it, then transfer it to what there is of my 'article'. did not realize it would take so long to do when i started(i had just read a book on the subject and thought it would be a neat idea to use as no one else had writen on it). have step 1 finished, now just have to do everything else. *thinks about enormouse amount of work ahead and has to go lie down* but i guess it isn't work since i plan to have fun with it and no one is making me do it.

BTW, who is TPTB?

Oh - one of *those* entries, huh?
Well - if you do decide that a virtual stall would be fun, gimme (and magnolia) a shout...

I was just going to say that "Bubblegum Goddess" probably meant that you were good at blowing(oo-er)... you see - that wasn't worth waiting for, was it?

I think this could be interesting. My H2G2 name is above. My other online names are

kmpurplepen (e-mail)
lightchick (nearly everything else)
unicorn (art department computer lab)
museum freak (im)

Kathy (Katherine Elizabeth Mancuso)

Hi Kathy, etc...

Well, starting with the blindingly obvious - curator and museum - curators are the people in charge of museums, I seem to recall, so there's got to be a reasonably strong connection, somehow...

Chick twice, and 'unicorn', which is always a very feminine name. Clearly a female - as if 'Katherine' wasn't enough of a hint... but someone who's going slightly out of her way to emphasise the fact. Someone looking for a little attention/adoration, perhaps? Or just someone who feels their gender is an important part of who they are?

Normally 'chick', 'babe', 'freak', etc are used most by teenagers - though 'galaxy babe' is one exception to the rule, and I wonder if this is another. Certainly museums are not a traditional point of enthusiasm for teenagers... more likely to be a uni person, I think, but it could be older. If it is older, then this is someone who's 'young at heart'...

Strange how the h2g2 name is conventionally capitalised, while the other names are left fully uncapitalised. Generally it seems that almost everyone on h2g2 does conventional capitalisation - I wonder why. Just one of those things, perhaps. The uncapitalised names elsewhere imply some amount of proficiency with the web, as does, for that matter, the variety of names used.

'museum freak'... is this someone who's freakishly obsessed with museums, or a freak who should be put in a museum? Nicely ambiguous, I think. Again, this is someone who's happy to stand up and admit to being a little freakish - not someone who sees the word as an insult, rather as a backhanded compliment. Individuality as a plus, not a minus. I've always thought of names like this as rather like 'superman' - 'museum freak! ever alert for the call to action!' - hmm - maybe not...

'kmpurplepen' - well, I'm guessing the km s for Katherine Mancuso - while purplepen is an addition. Odd mix there of formality and informality - perhaps the same email address used for both formal and informal occasions? Someone who happily mixes RL and VL? That *would* be a rarity. Purple is a delightful colour, which always seems to draw more fervent advocates than, for example, red... it's meant to be a sign of sexual frustration, too - but so's everything if you talk to the right people... there's nice alliteration in 'purplepen' too... all those 'p's

What else? Well two of the names have spaces, two are multiple words pressed together with out any space between. The former is more conventional, the latter is more webbie (like uncapitalised), in general, but I think in this case is just a consequence of e-mail and some other systems not allowing spaces. So can't read anything into that...

lightchick... and unicorns are meant to be creatures of the light... someone who's 'good' - or sees themselves as good... or is that light as in light humour? or low fat?

Lot of 'K's around. I wonder if this has anything to do with the first letter of Kathy *ponders her own names in comparison* well it's true for me too - so maybe there is something in that. Perhaps people feel more comfortable with a name that has that connection with their own... hey, it's a theory... but not a terribly good one.

Interesting contrast again, between names like 'museum' or 'unicorn' - which are very smooth, no ascenders or descenders - with names like 'freak', 'chick', or 'light', with lots of jagged ascenders. No descenders, except in the email name - perhaps this is showing that the email persona is the only one which is 'well-rooted', and has the strongest link to her RL life. The rest, with those ascenders, and, again, 'light' implying levity and floatiness, and the fantasy animal that is the unicorn - well they all imply a sort of freedom to imagine and play away from the harsh universe.

So what do we get when we put all of this together? *pauses, allegedly for dramatic effect, but in practice because she doesn't have a clue what to say next* well...
I'm picturing a uni girl - in purple, of course - who, by day is a mildmannered historian (curator, museum - gotta be historian), working reasonably and staying out of trouble - and by night escapes for fun and frolics, and a chance to let the 'lighter' side of her personality shine through...

did I get anything right?

Thank you so much! That was cool!

Uni? What is that? Okay, I'm eighteen, a freshman in college, but my actual age in terms of behavior, etc., is really ambiguous. I have been taken for everything from ninth grader to graduate student in the past two years--usually people make the assumption that I'm older--I can't count the number of people who have thought that I could legally drink.

I do work at a museum: I'm an education intern and Special events staff. I'm not a curator YET although I hope to be. Perhaps the overly feminine names are because I'm a militant feminist femme lesbian who always has very unfeminine interests--technical theatre, curatorial work, mathematics/analytical stuff, computers, etc. I've also been through a lot in my life, and I have an odd balance of resilience and overemotionality that keeps me (barely) in what little is left of my right and/or left mind, which may or may not be a "feminine" characteristic.

Nobody ever figures out why I call myself lightchick. I used to be a theatre lighting designer, although I do like the general sound of the name. It is REALLY unusual for a lighting designer to be female, and my lack of strength and inability to win men to do hard labor for nothing was part of the problem that prompted me to switch my ambition. I used to be on the LightNetwork under this handle, but I changed it because I got too much harassment from some of the males there. so lightchick.

Museum Freak . . . well, I thought of the first meaning, and then I realized the second later

unicorn--actually derived from the e-mail address (mbsunicorn) of the first girl I had a crush on--she also gave me the idea for the format of kmpurplepen. As for that name, I like some of the sounds there, I like the fact that people don't forget it, and I happen to love purple--plus I'm a feminist lesbian so it's sort of obligatory

Anyway, I've gone on long enough, so e-mail me.

P.S.: L. I would love to hear more about dicing sometime.

uni=university... place for degrees and suchlike... I always forget that the american name is different...

See you in email-land...

... if I knew what the rest of your email address was...