Comments on: The Tasselfoot Theory of Usernames

By: Necrojesta

Necrojesta — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:34:37 +0000

So true, usually people I find with numbers in there names are 12 year old kids who insist on me being a newb.

People from my school will always have at least 2 numbers and relate to their names in their usernames.

By: player_03

player_03 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:19:06 +0000

I read through that thread and noted the supporters and detractors (you had two supporters in all, by the way). I also found your comment and lost a lot of respect for you as a result.
I can’t respond there (and the thread is way too old to revive, anyway), but this seems like a reasonable place as well. Here goes:

If there is any correlation between “intelligence and lack of numbers in usernames,” it is weak. It has too many exceptions for it to be used to predict anyone’s intelligence with any degree of certainty. Others have covered this point as well, so I’ll just leave it there.

I’d rather not get into an argument as to how evolution works (too much of a red herring), but using it to defend the idea of killing “weak” people is about as stupid as 2010azam’s recent YouTube post.
Basically, “survival of the fittest” makes no sense as (and was never intended as) a guideline, moral or otherwise. It certainly doesn’t apply to the ability to articulate oneself online; there’s no real reason to select for or against that (yet).
Yes, I do get annoyed when people get the Theory of Evolution wrong. Why do you ask?

Finally, it makes no sense to encourage someone to commit suicide because they were saying stupid things in a chat room. I realize you weren’t serious about suicide, but this does touch on an important issue.
Behavior in a chat room is not an indicator of real-life intelligence or maturity. In person, people tend to take each other more seriously, put more thought into what they do, and convey their opinions more clearly (without even having to exaggerate them in order to be noticed).
This also applies in one-on-one online conversations, especially if you have a topic of conversation. When people are discussing something one-on-one, they tend to be thoughtful and articulate, even if they are not when talking to a chat room.

By: Zageron

Zageron — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:33:13 +0000

I agree.

By: AngryGerbil

AngryGerbil — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:42:30 +0000

I invented this name for the game ‘Medal of Honor: Allied Assault’ because my roommate and I thought it was way cooler to be killed by an angry gerbil (or in his case ‘Cupcake’)than yet another “DARK KNIGHT OF MASSIVE BLOODY HELL DEATH!” like so many kids did (do?) back then. (when was that anyway, 73 years ago?)

For some reason, I just never could get away from it. So I have a silly net handle. I’ll get over it.

By: Comment Of The Day: 2010azam | Tasselfoot

Comment Of The Day: 2010azam | Tasselfoot — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:17:58 +0000

[...] WTF is that. And lack of any sort of spacing/capitalization formatting. -6th and final reason: Tasselfoot Theory of Usernames strikes [...]

By: Jacksmacks

Jacksmacks — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:49:28 +0000

Tass not to offend you but, is your username really that original? I mean your just taking the name from a character in the DragonLance books. So, isn’t that just as unoriginal as just adding numbers to the end of your name. Or, maybe less original because your just ripping it from a book. Oh, and by the way Tasselfoot the Kender from the DragonLance books was an awesome character. I’m just adding my 2 cents…

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:24:45 +0000

An interesting theory, which may actually hold ground in some instances, but certainly there are exceptions to this “theory” or yours. I can recall from FFR two halfway decent examples: nforcer and foilman. The former wasn’t much of a poster in the general public after he was FFYa’d, but he had 5 numbers in his username if I recall correctly and he was without a doubt among the more intelligent posters in the community. foilman had 4 numbers in his username as I recall and he could definitely hold his own in matters of intelligence and discussion, though he turned into a bit of a troll in the last year of FFR or so. That was disappointing.

I think your experience with people’s usernames and numbers is truly more of a coincidence than anything. Either that, or you just have the knack for engaging stupid people XD.

By: Xandertrax

Xandertrax — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:40:30 +0000

I agree 100% with this theory. It’s mostly appropriate to age and maturity. Even I had a username that had two 00’s at the end when I was younger. Fortunately, however, I passed that stage fairly quickly.

And so what if a game has 10 million players? There are 6+ billion people in the world, there should be enough creativity in different individuals to come up with their own, unique username.

But, hopefully, everyone won’t go around picking their favorite characters as usernames, or we’re going to have a lot of Harpots, Edlens, and other various permutations running around.

By: Astral

Astral — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:22:27 +0000

They start stupid, they get better.

By: dork5002002

dork5002002 — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:11:13 +0000

I believe this theory appears very true, especially the part about X’s and such. My name is full of numbers at the end. I didn’t even graduate in 2002 as some may think. I just tapped on the keyboard a few times to pick some numbers. My intelligence or ability to carry a conversation was probably low when I made the username. Since it has been over 10years since I made dork5002002 I believe the theory no longer works on me. I am much older and more educated now.