that reminds me, I was going to do a Serious Post about this
So I've been getting rid of the "crazya02" username all over the internet, for the very good reason that I don't like it very much. A big reason is that it's a bit... lolrandom preteen-ish? Which makes sense since I'm pretty sure I came up with that name when I was around that age. "crazy" means "I'm so random", "a" stands for "alek", "02" is entirely meaningless (not even my birthdate: I was born in '99).
"crazy" can also be construed as ableist. That might seem like a big stretch/not worth worrying about, but the internet has plenty enough making fun of marginalized people for "comedy", and NOT adding to that is important to me.
Those are the two big rules for myself I've formed over time: don't be random, don't be a jerk. And my old name violated both of those!
To be clear about extent: "Don't be random" doesn't prevent weird perspectives and presentation (otherwise I'd be a huge hypocrite), but there should always be a coherent
joke present. Likewise, "don't be a jerk" doesn't prohibit light ribbing and punching upwards, but I have to be careful about who my joke is making comfortable and who it isn't.
I wanted my new username to just be "alek", but
@Alek beat me to the punch on that one. (They're not even active!) I came up with "alek poster" on the spot. I guess it sounds a bit "poor man's dril", but... that's basically what I am, so at least it's apt. My sense of humor is definitely influenced by years on twitter; I think I have a similar comedic perspective. Responding to my own posts with second punchlines is super weird here, but common practice on twitter.
But for whatever reason, my posts get much more engagement here than on twitter, even though it's a way smaller group. I think being a single (albeit active, broad, and social media-like) thread offers a good context that I can do pretty obscure jokes within that still land. Plus maybe using twitter joke formats is a novelty here, but unremarkable there.
Anyway that was interesting but I'm done with humorless talk about humor. In a second I'll step back into character and pretend this never happened