First Impressions: User Names
Subtitle: What's in a Name? When I first signed up for JDate, I thought really hard about my user name. The instructions said I should pick something that says something about me, and warned me to think very carefully, because I would not be able to change my user name later. I wanted something clever but informative. Something that would stand out. Those who know me know how much I appreciate acronyms and alliteration. After much thought, I decided upon NoisyNightOwl . I stay up late, and I'm a talker. And it's an alliteration. I realized only later that it made me seem overly chatty and lazy. eHarmony doesn't ask for user names. They just use your first name. Match.com requires user names. Again, when I signed up for Match, I thought and thought. Finally, I came up with TheEditrix . I thought it was smart and sexy, a feminized version of my job as an editor. Brutal truth time: I haven't gotten a very good response on Match.com. 90% of my emails have gone