it's so true though

i've had people slip away for so long... and then reunite with them nearly a decade later.

sometimes longer

and i've been thinking a lot about this more recently, re-reading old RP threads and realising that so many people have drifted away and I wonder if they're alright...

it's one reason I'm happy to keep Nightsail as my primary handle. I've had it since the days of dial-up, when I got into my first fandom (Transformers) and have just... carried it my whole online life.

once in a great while I'll go by something else, but never as my primary.

like... even here, going by a shortened version if it visually, it's still my actual handle on Plurk, what people can @ me by....

yeah. actually i can spot some people on my public art socmed on other websites that I knew from 15-20 years ago because they have the exact same handle and icon (both of which were very memorable)

and i'm like hm you know, I don't know if they know it's me

since i go by a very different public handle now...

Yeah, I've deliberately kept my own handle all this time too.

And picked it six months before I even went online.

mine was more just Junior High Me trying to come up with a Transformers-y sounding name I liked... and then after, realizing I really liked it? and it was a bit unique....

It actually bugged me that for a long time that I didn't have a consistent alternative for when it was taken, though I do now.

i've been around online for a very long time and honestly i kinda wanted to disassociate from my old handle. in part because 1) it's very long 2) there's a league of legends streamer who has the same handle?? 3) the shortened nickname (Ten) is extremely not SEO friendly LOL

(When Pteryx is taken, it tends to be in Hardcore Gamer-adjacent spaces.)

(Or spaces so broad that the guy named Pteryx who played FPSes and such is inevitably there anyway.)

(Well, broad and mainstream.)

I've had this name since dial-up, and I'll always be Ziri, it's already helped a couple people find me again

honestly, this tale comes to mind - the one about Edgardo and A Guy Called Squid. I know I'd have hunted for my CR in a situation like that, lol....

One of my favorites, that. And this is a fine rendition of the original transcription:

The Ballad of Edgardo, an RPG Story - Weekend Legend...

The Ballad of Edgardo, an RPG Story Part 2 - Weekend...

Had that happen with an old friend of mine. We used to RP on AIM and LJ, then we drifted apart... But she reached out to me about two years ago, and we reconnected and we've started RPing again and it's great. :3

And echoing that I have kept my old internet handle since... almost -forever-... I don't even know how long I've used this name.

I had an experience where I made what I thought was a new friend and we got close and then randomly discussed old rp and discovered we were previously, several years before, close friends under different handles and lost track of each other

I lost track of her again but I'm convinced this will just happen again

You okay if I send that to a few specific people who haven't plurked in years in hopes they might ever return and see it?

I don't see why not? I'm replurking it from someone whose timeline wasn't public, after all...