I’ve received a number of questions over the years of where the name “Silwenae” came from. It was randomly generated in Everquest – the second name I chose within EQ. It was unique enough that I stuck with it, including registering 3 domains. (And for the record, it’s pronounced sill-win-ay).

CmdrTaco, co-founder of , has written an op-ed piece on Slashdot on how Blizzard made him change his name due to the use of “Cmdr”, a title, in his World of Warcraft name, and how it’s affected him.

Online persona’s are interesting – there is a lack of accountability in using a handle for your pixels. There’s safety in anonymity. It wasn’t until recently I even put my real name on my blog – not out of safety, but out of privacy. (Though smart interweb people just look at Internic to see who owns a domain, and I’ve never faked that). I grew up on BBS’s, and using popular characters from books I liked – and I see that trend every day online (how many Drizzt’s did you see back in the EQ days?)

What does an online handle mean to you?