Humans get their names when they are babies. Names are given by parents and we hardly can be responsible for what we are called for the rest of our lives. One would think that avatars are in somewhat better position. Avatar gets its name from its human, so it's to be expected that there is some thinking about it and that there should be some sense and aesthetics in it. But, is that always the case?
So many times we meet avatars with names which provoke only one question: "What the hell were you thinking during the registration?" Problem is that while everything else in your identity (look, character, specie, gender…) is changeable, name is permanent. It stays with you for the rest of your second life. Or until you decide that you are sick of that stupid numbers and hardly pronounceable set of letters so you go to the registration page and start it all over again.
Which is really a problem. Most of us had no idea what we are jumping in while we were filling that registration form. We do those all the time, all over the Web. Nothing says this one can be any different. While most of the usernames are just something we use for logging, second life user name is an important part of the identity.
It is a problem without solution. One rarely knows those things about life before living the life. And when the things are learned, it's too late to change anything. So avatars and humans go hand in hand about this. Some had luck with names, some didn't.
It would be really nice to have some warning there, on the registration page. It would be great to have some guidelines like Vint's 10 tips for choosing a good name or ArminasX' How Cool Is Your Avatar's Name?. Many people would have easier lives and we would not be littered with joHn84's or something that's impossible to spell correctly. If there is a correct way to spell it, that is.
I just opened an JIRA issue for some name guidelines on the registration page. Please, vote for it. Thanks.
Great post Dandellion! I suffer from the name problem greatly, and I wish you well with the JIRA (I voted.) I would love to fix my name. For those readers who may be interested, I cooked up a name quality scoring system available here: http://www.secondeffects.com/2008/06/how-cool-is-your-avatars-name.html
Thanks for the vote and for the link…. I’ll put it in the post.
done, tough I doubt that will change anything at all.
The reason? Actually, even if they say the contrary on the knowledge base *IT IS* possible to change names. You just need to buy the one you like from the Lindens via direct contact. It is possible, it happened more than once that deleted (not "sleeping") accounts, willing to get back with their old names, just register with a fresh name (not possible to use the old one even if deleted) and then buy back the old one. And I witnessed this tough I have no "living" proof right now to show you.
Another source of remuneration for our Linden friends!
[...] that are already registered and read or blog, or who google for ‘avatar name’, etc. Miss Dandellion Kimbal found the *prrrr*fect solution: Give name creation guidelines at the Second Life & other [...]
Great post. I have recently had myself cloned largely because I can’t stand my original name any more (although there are other reasons). I have voted for this JIRA, too, although I’m not sure there is any way to really convey to the unwary what is about to happen to them when they become SL citizens. ;)
Well, if one won’t read and understand you cannot stick that in their heads. But it’s still nice to have info provided for those that will read it.