I don't even know your name

Boy, did this strike a chord with me! I have several friends who I originally met online, but later went on to meet IRL. And then there are the people I truly consider friends but have never (and most likely will never) actually meet. Invariably, when I meet someone in person for the first time we call each other by our screen names, because that's how we know one another. In one case, that continues to be true even though we've been to each other's houses and been hanging out in the real world for almost a decade.

What the news about Bazza reminded me of was Gary (G.T.), who I was proud to call "friend" both online and in real life. I was fortunate enough to have him offer to let me stay at his house for the weekend a year or so before he passed away, and I've always felt my life richer because of it. Yet that entire weekend I called him G.T. and he called me Sarge. LOL

A bit of introspection isn't necessarily a bad thing. It makes us value who and what we have.

Beth

 

LOL! The first online friend I met, I thought my mother was going to commit me! It was a friend from another tech site, and the timing was such that my life was going to hell in a handbasket and I needed a vacation. He and his wife lived on the Gulf coast, and offered to host me.

So I booked a flight, a rental car, and a hotel room and went. After about five days, I gave up the hotel and rental car and just moved in with them for the rest of the two weeks, and every time I went to visit afterward it was assumed I would just stay at their house. The funny thing, that I just now realized, is that I was coming back from their house (I started driving because it was easier) when I stopped by Gary's for the weekend. :-D

Thank you for making me think.

 

LoL, I always have a spare bedroom and bed for visitors, so you'd be very welcome, Laura, (bring the hubby too, if he thinks I'm a weirdo, LoL!) I'm a not so slightly eccentric intellectual, but pretty easy going. You would have a blast, so different from Pa., (My Mom was from Scranton, eh)
Yep, "Fred", (a.k.a. Eric, is in La.)
Yeah, Gary was something unique. Not just an intelligent man, a moral man and a great guy, he was almost like an older brother to me. We shared a lot in common, with our interests, our p.o.v.'s and a lot of the hardships. He said that if I ever emigrate back to the U.S., I could stay with him "for a few YEARS". And he meant it, too. You don't meet many, if any, folks of that caliber.

Apart from his first name being Barry, (hence the Bazza, bit), I don't know much of bigbazza's real name or details. (Everyone over here who is Barry, (including me, gets called "Bazza" or "Baz") He was a good guy and as said, loved this site. I'll miss his input.

Ya know, we all talk about "Real Life" as if our relationships on-line are surreal or something, but I always keep in mind that there is another person, who is just as 'real' as I am, on the other side of the network. I have had the extreme pleasure of being personal friends with a few of them. So it does really jilt me when we suddenly lose one of them. Guess the saying of "One door coses and another opens" applies here. The are many, many 'doors' we just walk on by and for better or for worse, we simply never explore. Such is life.


Regards,
Barry/Phantom.

 

Well i gotta say that the posts here have said what i've felt, or still feel about some of the people i've met online.

As you can see, i've been a member here for quite some time, but never really posted and never made any friends - and online or RL a freind is a friend IMO. I read the posting in the lounge daily, but don't really contribute in the tech threads cause my IT skills are coding for IBM boxes like the one that played on jeopardy, so my PC skills are lacking.

I've met in the flesh 4 people that started out as us exchanging 1's and 0's and talked on the phone with at least 20 more, and never regretted 1 of those encounters, as a matter of fact i look at each of those meetings with great fondness and feel a loss for those i don't, for what ever reason, have contact with any more.

My sympathies go out to Bazza family.

oh and it's really jimi

 

My father's favorite actor was John Wayne, so that's what he named me...

:wave

 

Back at ya, Laura - we''ll just keep the 'Wayne' part secret, ok?

 

Can't we just call you Marion?

 

HA!!! +1 for you - very few people know about that!

(I'll stick with John, thank you very much! )

 

Thank you Laura for starting this thread. I regret to say that I might not have noticed bigbazza being gone for some time. It saddens me to hear about him. I always enjoyed reading his posts.

I've been around here for a while but I guess I haven't really made any good friends here. Life gets me awfully busy sometimes so my time to visit here gets limited. I think I'll try to change that. I'll miss bazza.

IRL they call me Bruce and I really do live in Minnesota, Minneapolis area. If anyone's heading up this way, PM me, we'll meet somewhere for a cup of coffee.

 

Let's see if I have this right.
TimW = Jedi Malware Expert = Major Cake Licker = George = ?? Red Velvet??

Boy, my simple question yesterday certainly kicked up a ruckus.

You're right Laura about not getting to know people on the forum. There are very few people I've PM'ed here and even less gone the email route and zero in any other form of communication. My own personality has more to do with that than anything else - hermitish/loner I guess you'd characterize me. (You can always hide with the Log Out button.:-o)

But there is a nice sense of satisfaction in reading how people can help one another in the threads. The core group of techs here can be very proud of the fact that so many people have been helped.
The malware crew is outstanding in a thankless job and the "extraordinaires" have really done a thorough job of earning that title. bigbazza always had something informative to say and definitely will be missed for his insight into this mess we call the internet.

Well, I'll get back to my cave and you can ask DavidGP about my name.














(Oh alright, it's John.LOL)

 

This got me thinking about how right you are.
So, if anybody is interested, here's my contribution.
Herman=h
Ray=r
Harlow=low
Jr.=2


And I am indeed a West (by God) Virginia hillbilly.

 

Alien names. That was a thread I was going to start here years ago. That is, you take your last and first name and pronounce them phonetically backwards. Most names sound alien. Silly, I know. Then I realized that no one would participate because they would be publicising their names.

Anyway, my first name is Simon. Hated it in grade and middle school... you all know why, now I quite like it.

 

Very nice post Laura.
Any one coming to India, PM me. I'd love to have you stay over at my place for as long as you like.
Don't blame me if you put on weight and get a tad drunk every evening. :-D

Cheers..
Vikram.

 

Having been around several forums and quite intensely for a few years , I've enjoyed the anonymity MG's has offered. It has now become the only forum I take part in.
I have Facebook but check it once a month if that.
I met my girl online, moved from UK to Canada to be with her, it was on a tech forum similar to MG's but less class (in that anything goes pretty much).
We chatted for a few weeks, exchanged names etc, 3 years later I sold up and moved out, now over 6 years after that we are very happy.
Once I moved here I lost all interest in online chatting.
I felt free of the messages and feeling that I HAVE to check incase someone has messaged me. And having messages asking why I'm not replying.
I then started getting on here and posting.

As it stands now... You guys sitting there reading this are my only online friends.
I like it this way, I like the people I interact with, not one of you annoys or irritates me, I think every one of you is intelligent and logical and mature regardless of age.
This is the only place (that I know of) online where a group of posters can have a mature conversation about controversial topics without it instantly exploding into insults.

I respect and thank each and every one of you, for your part in creating this environment.

You guys are my online friends.

My name is Jon.

 

So is LauraR really named something else?

(I am still Bored, but have come out some what of entirely hiding my ident of late)

 

:-D Works for me

That's my half story, I usually tell the full story to the girls including the bit that goes "I sold almost I everything I ever owned and turned up at the airport wearing blue sunglasses, a leather jacket, carrying a bag, hopes an dreams and a guitar"

Which is 100% true, girls will then react with "Aww thats so sweet" or something similar.

The guys conversation goes like this.

Guy "Why did you move here?"
Me "Girl"
Guy "Ah"

:-D

 

What's funny for me is how little I've come to care if people know my name or not. I mean...I write for another tech site under my actual name, so why would I hide it?

Which is actually a fabulous example of knowing people online. I've known my managing editor and the site owner for 12-ish years...but have never met them. Never even spoke on the phone to them. But we are Facebook friends, I've virtually attended my editor's wedding via video, and I'm watching the owner's kid grow up in pictures and videos. Odds are good we'll never meet in person, but I do consider both of them actual friends.

 

Good post, LauraR. It really makes a person think about friends we make online. I have met a few of them in person, but not many. I'm usually pretty careful with what personal data I give openly online, also. A few here do know quite a bit about me.

For the record, my name actually is Tim W . . . :wave

 

We have a community here, some are better known than others and some of you are cyber friends whose knowledge i am in awe of.
I suppose the member i know best is Augie as we have exchanged addresses but others i still cherish as friends.
My name is Bill as in my posting name the McC is for my surname and the 66 is the number of a house we used to live in.
I remember Gary (GT) well. as i was a long time lurker before i first posted he was a gentlemen as well as being a knowledgeable techi and the same with BigBazza God rest his soul.
The time will come when we all have to pass off this mortal coil and meet our maker for some unfortunately it comes way too soon and they are sadly missed
I log in every day but do not post as much as i used to but i like to see all the regulars here as well as new members who bring their own character to the forum.

 

MG’s is like having a warm security blanket round my puter :wave

 

Wow, just read about BigBazza. RIP. :major

As far as meeting people who are online. I have met 2 people. One from a chat forum of mainly local people. He was very strange. I left that forum shortly after meeting said person.

The other person I met was a guy on a gun forum. We met at his house to shoot guns. Which was interesting. I am taking a small collection of guns to a person's house who has guns... And from his point, he was inviting someone to his house who he knew would have guns... It worked out great, we BS'd, shot a lot, had a good time and made some plans to shoot again in the future. Crossing the line from online to meeting in person can be interesting.

If this new job works out, I might be traveling to England, might be able to meet a few folks. Would love to see Bill in Belgium. Who knows.

And Laura, I am in Louisiana, you are more than welcome if you want to go shooting.

 

No, I would like to visit England, but would not live there. :-D Alternative job would be right down the road from my current one, just much more pay. If you are near where I live, if I have the cash, will travel a bit to meet you and do some shooting.

 

You're only saying that because they wouldn't let you keep any of your toys :-D

 

A name is just a label. I have three of them that off the top of my head come to mind, and that's just IRL. I have even more on the internet. And labels change, but the person they refer to hopefully remains the same. Who I am is a lot more important than what I call myself, since the latter can be changed in an instant and on a whim, but I am what I am to the end.

Those of you who know me on Facebook know one of my IRL names from there. Please don't use it here. It's an unusual name in this country, and MGs is one of the very few places I have left in this world where no one from my IRL world can follow me. This community is my sanctuary, my haven, my single safe place where I can hide from the people around me and be with friends who know me for me, and not for anything else, because that's all they've seen. To me, that's a large part of what makes this community so precious.

(It's also the only website left where I can vent about work and not have it traced back to me to the point where it might get me in serious trouble and possibly fired. Yet another reason I treasure the relative anonymity here. )

Just thought I'd try and present an alternative view point. Up to each and everyone if they agree or not.

Guy or girl, when I get that question, I simply raise my left and flash the two rings on the third finger. I value my privacy, and it stops prying follow-up questions. LOL

 

Meh.. I've met lots of my internet friends. Actually planning a meet to do so with even more I find that the people I know and love online are more precious to me than some of the 'friends' I have IRL.

When MG was new were used to have Geek n Greets and it was fantastic. Those nights with MA, CP, Kodo and others... fondest memories that don't include my clone army (kids) in my adult life. I miss you guys tremendously.

If anyone cared to know, my real name is Renate (Reh not ah) and you can call me "Your Highness" I am one of the original MG crew and even though I may have other things to do these days, people here have touched my heart truly and sincerely and I love them with every ounce of it. (Shriveled and frozen though it may be).

But don't tell anyone I was spouting this sentimental crap, it'll ruin my rep...

 

We wouldn't dare. :innocent

 

Well yeah, there was a revolution... and we have that 2A thingy. :-D Oh, and Castle Doctrine in my state...

 

@ Fred

You and any other members here would be welcome in my home.

 

Geez, a girl gets busy for a few weeks and all sorts of things happen Baz was a good man and I really enjoyed his postings. He will be missed!

When it comes to privacy, I am extremely, well, private LOL There are a few people here that I've spoke to outside of the realms of MG, through email or FB. I've shared a conversation and some texts with this one nerd -D) who, though he knows my real name, still sometimes calls me Dy, even in text and I respond to both even though my friends are like "who's Dy?" and then I have to explain to them and then they look at me like I am crazy. :-D

There are some I miss talking to and wish I could talk to more, but alas, life gets involved and something has to give. Although, I have never actually met anyone in person, I'd think I'd be open to it. As long as it was a wide open public space with many exits.. you never can be too careful. :-D


As for my actual name, there are a few of you who do know and it's because I feel I can trust you. I don't mind telling it in private conversation but I care not to expose it publicly. It's a terribly common name, so it's not like I'm afraid you'll scour the internet and attempt to stalk me :-D it's just a personal piece of myself and if you want to get to know me, I'll share that piece with you.

 

I'm not that private. If they want my negative money and my terrible credit, they can go for it. Then I have someone else to blame it on and it all works out.

 

No one would believe us anyway . . .

 

Yes, there is, but I would argue that it is a matter of safety and not privacy. I don't like giving out my name because it is so rare in the US that it could make it possible for someone willing to try hard enough, to find my house and my workplace. That would be very bad, on multiple levels.

As an example... last year, one of my co-workers was concerned her daughter was too careless on what she posted on Facebook. With the help of what she posted on her (stupidly) public profile, and Google, we were able to get the girl's cell number and school from doing creative web searches. For obvious reasons, my co-worker was deeply concerned by this, and I was happy to print my google search for her so she could show them to the girl when sitting her down for a "you need to be more careful"-conversation. I advised her to focus on Facebook privacy settings, since all info came from the profile there.

As far as you are concerned, I've always assumed that.

 

Yes a name is a label, but the importance of it is shown in your quote. The need to keep some hidden.
Out of respect for people here I try to use user names the way they are presented, some start with upper case etc., although I do abreviate some on occasion e.g. "Ned". I would hope that if the owner of the name took offense they would stomp all over me.
Also I see the occasional real first name used by some members when talking to others. I assume they are more known to each other than just the forums here, so I feel that doesn't give me the right to just use their real name.

I remember seeing your real name here some time ago Wenchie, and you used to be PCWench (don't be mad at me if you didn't want anyone to know that now) I joined here a while after the original crew, but I remember the comradery you guys had, and although I'm not a really social person, i secretly wanted to be part of that crew. Regardless of that you guys made me feel very welcome.
The lounge was so much different then. If you were away for a day or two you had to check the next page to catch up on threads.

 

Which applies to all my IRL names, not just the one I use on Facebook. The reason I dismiss a name as a label and nothing more, is that it doesn't matter what a person calls themself, the individual doesn't change. If we ever meet face to face, I'd ask you to just call me by the same name that everyone else in the room does, but personality-wise I'd still be the same person that you've gotten to know here on the forum. It would just be a chance of labels.

 

No, i don't mind at all. See, originally my title was PCWench because I found this place after reading over what an ex boyfriend was doing online - and I wanted to be part of it without him knowing it was me (less drama that way). After a time he left anyway and I was more than folded in. Everyone here called me wenchie instead of Pcwench anyway, and I asked Jim if it could formally be changed, since.. that's how I was known and how I wanted to be known by people who mattered, which the ex fart no longer did.

yay 2 cent history lesson.

Also my regular internet handle is more than a little easy to stalk me with, and I seem to attract the weird ones, so it's nice to have a place to feel more safe.