Personal Rebranding

[Z-Man]

Ever since the Z was used as a symbol for Russia's aggression, I don't quite feel it anymore... so wherever it is possible to rename myself without too much bother, I'll be the "Mossy Slacker" from now on. Because I'm lazy and Moos is my last name, which is German for moss, and also because it seems to be unique. Unless it sounds like a fetish thing I don't know about, in which case, please stop me

Here and on our Discord, I'll remain Z-Man. I'm informing you so you don't have to wonder who the smug prick commenting Lucifer's videos is.

[sinewav]

What's with all the terrible people taking all the cool letters? X and Q are also tarnished. Lower case e and i are not great either. I'm investing in V and ɑ̃.

[Lucifer]

Here and on our Discord, I'll remain Z-Man. I'm informing you so you don't have to wonder who the smug prick commenting Lucifer's videos is.

I didn't see any comments from that username?

I guess I should change your name in the credits? I can use your Patreon username if you want.

[Z-Man]

I'm investing in V and ɑ̃.

Isn't V taken by the Anonymous guys in a roundabout way? But hey, you do you.

Lucifer: I don't comment often, by that I mean almost never. I think only here if you unfold DukeDroklar.

I don't care too much about how I appear in the credits, no need to change anything, but you should probably just go with the Patreon names there if you don't want to go insane keeping track of aliases.

[kyle]

I'm sorry but this in my opinion this falls under suicidal empathy. you are empathizing with being associated to something you clearly are not part of, to the point of making a drastic change, you've built up the Z-man name for decades, well before Russia started using it, and not you are feeling shameful for using it in your alias,If everyone changes names because someone bad used it, what's the point of names, we will end up running out of them, and have yo switch to numbers.

Stand for what you are, not what someone else has done, don't bow down and change just because of them.

With that said, if that is your wish I'll still respect your new alias.

[Monkey]

I actually agree with kyle on this one. I think Z-Man is a good name and I don't see an issue with you continuing to use it but hey, it's your decision and I will refer to as the Mossy Slacker if you wish.

[Lucifer]

I don't care too much about how I appear in the credits, no need to change anything, but you should probably just go with the Patreon names there if you don't want to go insane keeping track of aliases.

That reminds me, I need to make a text file to track all these aliases and then write a script to generate the credits.

[sinewav]

...If everyone changes names because someone bad used it, what's the point of names, we will end up running out of them, and have yo switch to numbers.

Counterpoint: It's not a big deal at all. I rename files all the time. Streets get renamed. Software project names change (see Armagetron Advanced). Companies change names when their focus changes. And people change names! I have several friends that used shortened or cute versions of their names growing up but later wanted to be known by their proper names as adults, even something as slight as Dave/David. One of my friends legally changed her name first AND last on her 18th birthday to something completely different because she just didn't like her birth name. It wasn't even like she hated her parents or anything, but distancing yourself from trauma is actually a good reason to change names. In each one of those cases it took me no effort at all to simple call someone something else. And in my own life there were people who only knew me by my DJ name and some of my friends will occasionally call me by my screen name. Speaking of, in Armagetron the people posting on this forum are rare in that we don't change names constantly. In fact, there are a bunch of players today who are probably players from the past I thought left the game but simply changed names. I'll never know for sure!


Also, Russia is bad.

[Lucifer]

...If everyone changes names because someone bad used it, what's the point of names, we will end up running out of them, and have yo switch to numbers.

Counterpoint: It's not a big deal at all.

I laughed out loud. I thought he was joking. But who am I to talk? I get flak periodically for having the most evil name, apparently.

And I still support Z-man not wanting to be associated with Russia.

[Z-Man]

kyle and Monkey: Thanks for the feedback! That's why I have absolutely no problem keeping the name here. For other places, there are actually other reasons, the Putin thing just pushed me over the edge. The smaller other thing is that it's just a silly name a dorky twenty-and-a-bit year old picked for himself for Quake. Or rather, Quake 2. It was an improvement over my previous name, "Stupid Idiot". Know where the Z comes from?



Zorro. The Antonio Banderas movie had just come out, and of course I grew up partly on the old serials.

The other thing is that I don't stick to a single name anyway. Over in the Defcon community, I'm "Bert the Turtle", of the "Duck and Cover" PSAs.

The last and most important thing is that... Z-Man is quite a common name. So common that in most places, it was no longer free for me. I got it on sourceforge and spaceports (anyone who remembers that has been here for a looooong time ), but not Steam, Github, Gitlab, XBox Live, PSN,.... I was an early Switch adopter and preregistered, so I got it there So I'm zmanu or zmanuel or something there.

As a result of these two, I'm properly Z-Man in just these places apart from here (by which I include IRC and Discord):
Switch Online
The Kerbal Space Program Forums
I would have gotten it on the Fuze forums, but they have a MINIMUM username length, so I'm Z-Mann there.

[sinewav]

Zorro.

This... this is one of the most shocking things I've read here. Z-man == Zorro-man. I'm now imagining you solving merge conflicts wearing a mask. Hola Diego! Also, this is not dorky at all, Zorro is cool as heck.

[Z-Man]

I'm now imagining you solving merge conflicts wearing a mask.

I'm not saying I'm doing that, but I'm also not saying I'm not doing that.

[Phytotron]

Know where the Z comes from?

Zorro. The Antonio Banderas movie had just come out, and of course I grew up partly on the old serials.

Well, I'll be damned. I always thought it was a reference to Z-Man from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

[Z-Man]

Phytotron! No, to my shame, I have to admit I have not seen a single movie by Russ Meyer.

[Word]

Know where the Z comes from?

Zorro. The Antonio Banderas movie had just come out, and of course I grew up partly on the old serials.

Well, I'll be damned. I always thought it was a reference to Z-Man from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

Oh, hello Phytotron! How are you doing?

(also, I actually thought the same thing, googling what a Z-Man is years ago made me watch the movie and then I had a phase where I used to spend a lot of time on Roger Ebert's website reading old reviews when I wasn't playing Arma, haha)