An Aspirant

This is one of those silly personal pages that arguably don't really belong on the Wiki. Should there be any people interested in discussing the role of "an aspirant" along the lines of JustaProgrammer (etc.), can I suggest JustAnAspirant??

AnAspirant is a signature, lying in some as-yet poorly defined area between a RealName signature, a DramaticIdentity and AnonymousCoward. As far as I'm aware, it's currently only used as a signature by one person (me).

I'm just someone looking for the true path to happiness in programming. XP seems to be a contender, but I'm not yet convinced. "IWantToBelieve" would seem an appropriate summation of my current stance towards XP.

Why have I chosen to use a nickname? I'm not anyone you've heard of, and I'm sure that while my ideas are forming I'll say some pretty dumb-sounding things. It's a security blanket. I do want to be able to search the Wiki for things I've said though, so it's better than total anonymity.

While your desire to learn is deeply appreciated, you should be aware that in this community there is a strong predilection against people using pseudonyms. You can read more at RealNamesPlease, but the main point is that real names tend to make people more polite, and is better for community-building.

Don't worry about saying dumb stuff. We all say dumb stuff. That's part of learning.

Welcome to Wiki. I hope this place teaches you as much as it has taught me. -- FrancisHwang

Duly noted. I'm nonetheless going to claim one of the special exceptions for the moment. As I feel more sure of myself on the Wiki, I will probably make attempts to discard aspects of my anonymity. Other than this foible, I have every intention of being a model wikizen.

Incidentally, if anyone cares to point me at any other people's pages who have taken similar stances, or discussion of this issue from the point of view of others who believe in the use of nicknames, it would be appreciated. Currently, I can't see any way in which this stance is worse than signing myself as AnonymousDonor. (PhlIp might be one example?)

The distinction is between a DramaticIdentity, a disposable online handle, and a nickname. A DI should be used as the punchline to a given paragraph, not chronically. Online handles should not be used (per RealNamesPlease) because they are disposable. They exist in ChatMode fora to provide severability and role playing. A nickname, such as TaralDragon, that one has invested in full-time is not severable, and represents as much accountability as a real name. And "Phlip" is not a nickname, it's a contraction. -- PhlIp

The important page seems to be RealNamesPleaseDiscussion. With some trepidation, I'm going to enter the fray.

I discussed, and was discussed, on RealNamesPleaseDiscussion, and some generous WikiZen added me to the list of 'exceptions to legal names' list. I might note that I'm against nicknames, since I don't consider mine to be one. The difference I see between signing as AnAspirant and signing as AnonymousDonor is that the latter is not an identity. Almost everybody is aware that AnonymousDonor is a 'signature that is not a signature' - a way of putting a signature on something (usually for formatting and clarity reasons) without claiming ownership. However, signing as AnAspirant is first of all moderately confusing - it sounds, as we discussed with BrianOneiromancer, like an Extreme DramaticIdentity, intended to represent a generic person learning about XP. This is at least briefly confusing. Second, once it's been explained that this is not the case, it still doesn't 'look real'. This is arbitrary and personal, but my personal observations regarding IRC and other nickname based systems suggest that when people lurk behind nicks, interpersonal relationships suffer. Nothing personal intended, of course - I'm sure you're great. =) -- TorneWuff

Regarding the DramaticIdentity aspect, that's partially the intent. When I started signing as AnAspirant, I hadn't properly realized it, but now I'm a bit more au fait with DramaticIdentities, I can be more explicit. Should anyone else wish to assume the DramaticIdentity of AnAspirant, they should feel completely at liberty to do so. Should the contents of this page become a bit more stable, I'd be actually encouraging it. This would dilute the usefulness of AnAspirant as a unique marker for me to search for, but since I consider it a useful DramaticIdentity, it's a small price to pay.

It occurs to me that my ideas on this point are more than a little confused, since I also claimed on RealNamesPleaseDiscussion that I don't think of AnAspirant as a persona. I think I shall have to update that. It clearly is a persona, but I can't think of a situation in which I wouldn't want to adopt it. It's a description of who I am, or believe myself to be, or would want myself to be. A persona is pretty much how I would want others to see me, and I must admit that by signing myself off in that way, it's certainly that too. The name serves as a reminder. I may be a foolish seeker of unattainable goals, but at least I attempt to stay aware of that fact. The most obvious aspect of myself which differs from AnAspirant is that I tend to be a lot more argumentative in reality (no, really, it is possible). AnAspirant is also an attempt to keep that in check (although of course it has also led to me plunging into the thick of things).

Well, this is all excellent - I'm learning already. Perhaps after going through more mental hoops I shall arrive at the same conclusion about all this that the rest of you have (i.e., use RealNames). Even if that does turn out to be the case, I'll be pleased to have these pages as a record of the reasoning behind that decision. Until then, I hope that other people will accept it as an experiment. Perhaps Wiki isn't the place for it, but it's all ideas, innit?

One of those ideas is clarity. See the PrinceOfStories thread on RealNamesPleaseDiscussion.

Hmmm, this page is already growing out of all proportion. Refactoring coming soon I think. Still, in the meantime, anyone want to voice their reactions to the above?

I prefer RealNamesPlease. Try using your real name for a month and see what happens. -- JimLittle

Question for AnAspirant: if you're using this as a DramaticIdentity, what role does it represent? Dramatic Identities such as any of the SixThinkingHats or (in a specific context) ChryslerComprehensiveCompensation add information to a comment. For example, signing with BlackHat shows the comment comes from a critical frame of mind.

What frame of mind does AnAspirant represent? What information does it add? Does using an easily confused UserName/DramaticIdentity hybrid add information to the wiki?

CategoryDramaticIdentity