Using pseudonyms (was Re: Python 3K or Python 2.9?)

[Aahz]

In article <mailman.726.1190130940.2658.python-list at python.org>,
Steve Holden  <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote:
>Aahz wrote:
>> In article <46ef893c$0$21882$426a34cc at news.free.fr>,
>> Bruno Desthuilliers  <bruno.42.desthuilliers at wtf.websiteburo.oops.com> wrote:
>>> Aahz a écrit :
>>>> In article <46ee2d9d$0$26213$426a74cc at news.free.fr>,
>>>> Bruno Desthuilliers  <bruno.42.desthuilliers at wtf.websiteburo.oops.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> But what, given that I'm an AOL user still thinking it's kewl to hide 
>>>>> behind a pseudo, what else would you expect ?
>>>>
>>>> What exactly is a "pseudo", pray tell?
>>>
>>> Sorry : a pseudonym (a nickname).
>> 
>> You apparently missed the thrust of my sarcasm.  You can't tell what is
>> or is not a pseudonym online.  For all I know, "Bruno Desthulliers" is a
>> pseudonym.  While I recognize that there is some social advantage to
>> linking consistent identifiers with people, I have I think understandable
>> irritation with people who insist that names follow certain patterns.
>> 
>> (For those joining only recently, my full legal name is "Aahz", which I
>> changed from my former name precisely because of attitudes like Bruno's.)
> 
>... coupled with a certain bloody-mindedness that forces you to rub 
>people's noses in your ability to choose to do so? ;-)

While there's certainly some truth to that, it is also the case that I
have seen people like Bruno take exception to some people's born names.
After all, there are people whose parents chose to name them "Moon Unit".

For that matter, there are plenty of people who are better known by some
nickname that is not their legal name.  And even before I changed my
name, I had plenty of problems from people believing that my name was a
nickname and "helpfully" fixing it.  (Which is really where my attitude
comes from, and the practical difficulties of having only one legal name
are not that much larger than my former difficulties.)  Overall, I think
that Bruno's attitude is more injurious to community than letting people
be known by whatever name they choose.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

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