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Lockergnome is a nickname that I kind of gave myself, but I can’t take full credit. My college-prep writing teacher called me the Gnome. Then one day, I told my friend Dave that I am the Locker Gnome. That’s how I got it, and it stuck. TuxedoJericho sent in his top five list on how NOT to choose a handle.

• Choose a name that suits you. You must also choose something that is somewhat honest. If you are joining a chat room in order to ask simple questions about computer, you shouldn’t choose a nickname with the word ‘techie’ in it.
• Choose something that is easy to spell and/or say. When it’s hard to say, people will more than likely shorten the name when they type or spell it. My name, TuxedoJericho, has been shortened by people to things like TJ, Tux, and TJer.
• When joining a chat, please be sure to check and see that your name doesn’t contain strong language or sexual references. This can get you the boot from the chat as soon as you enter the door.
• You should probably not use your real name as your chat name. Some people do this, but it could potentially lead to danger. If you’re smart about hiding pertinent facts of your life, this shouldn’t be an issue.
• Don’t pretend to be a famous person. This is especially true on tech chat’s like Chris’. For instance, Steve Jobs isn’t likely to enter Chris’ channel, and speak like a total n00b.
• If you’re going to choose the name of a famous character, be prepared to answer questions constantly if you really ARE that person. I use the name DrHorrible at times. People constantly ask me if I am Neil Patrick Harris, and are disappointed to find out I am not.

I have to agree with all of those tips. Be smart when choosing a nickname before you enter a chat room. You never know if you will end up sticking around to become a part of the community. You wouldn’t want the other members to remember and judge you by a poorly-chosen name, would you?

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What’s Your Usual Handle in a Chat Room?

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I use Lockergnome, or even just my real name, on most of the Social Networks I belong to. I know several people who choose one name, and stick with it everywhere, for all time. Is your username unique? Do you stick with one wherever you go? Usernames are kind of fun, but I’d honestly like to see them disappear. Inevitably, people tend to get upset when they join a new site, and their username is already taken by someone else. How can you check and find out if your username is taken on any given network out there, is to check with Usernamecheck. Simply type in the username you wish to check on, and the service will let you know what sites it has already been registered on.

This site is a quick and dirty solution to a question that I often lay awake at night worrying about. Do I have my username registered across every site that I should? What if the next internet humiliation meme just happens to share the username I’ve been using for years, and suddenly people are emailing me asking “hey, is this you ???”. The site is simple. I have a stack of web app urls, the application pings the site using the username you want to check, if it returns a “no user name” error we return that. The site uses Dojo as it does all the checks using Ajax (each check takes a couple of seconds so using Ajax you don’t have to sit and wait 3 minutes for the page to load).

Within seconds, Usernamecheck will let you know if your nickname is available on any or all of the 54 sites it checks. Also, if there are sites you’d like them to add, you can always email them to let them know!

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<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8ET-kzKUxzY"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8ET-kzKUxzY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/">Chris</a> | <a href="http://live.pirillo.com/">Live Tech Support</a> | <a href="http://media.pirillo.com/">Video Help</a> | <a href="http://feeds.pirillo.com/ChrisPirilloShow">Add to iTunes</a>

Is Your Username Already Taken on Popular Social Networks?