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Back in the late nineties I played a game called serim ral. It was a fantasy war game that you played by post (at first) then by email, every two weeks. Think 100 people playing game of thrones mixed with lord of the rings and a complicated game of chess. I got dragged into it by friends and ended up loving it.
I had to come up with a load of names for the characters and I wanted a theme, it was before I had Internet at home so I picked names from the bible and Damascus was born. I've used the name ever since including an email address.
Im currently planning my Badger divide trip and booked a few days parking in Glasgow. Paid by PayPal but they payment got blocked due to security concerns.
As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. During one of these screenings, we noticed an issue concerning a recent transaction.
In connection with the issue, PayPal's Compliance Department has reviewed your account and identified activity that we have a couple questions about.
Please provide the following information:
An explanation of the reference to "Damascus"
We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. We apologize for any inconvenience.
So even though I've had a PayPal account for over ten years with this email address that includes Damascus it's all of a sudden stopped payment.
So I think my username has possibly put me on an FBI watch list.
So whats the story behind your username and what does it say about you?
Signed, Dave 😁
foo all man
Mine is a grape-based spirit which brings back fond memories from a time in Chile
I feel mine is slightly self explanatory. Nowt exciting really.
Not particularly interesting; the name and the sail number of the dinghy I sailed as a teenager.
I like Irish mountains in Kerry, not the highest but most picturesque.
I like the Clive Cussler novels with Dirk Pitt and the year I was born......
Mine shows both a lack of imagination and that its second time around
Originally I was TandemJeremy. I tried to register as Jeremy but it wouldn't accept it so I added the tandem as I rode one. I got called TJ
Then I got banned and returned a couple of years later in deep cover as TJagain. Unfortunately they soon worked out who it was but kindly let me stay 🙂
I had a dog called Onza
Mine's the name of the Lancaster bomber from the Len Deighton novel Bomber. Epic book telling the story of a fictitious WW2 bombing raid from both perspectives, and how in the end everybody loses.
You should read it.
Have a guess?
Just a bike I needed an identity and background for over in ReetroBike.
It's not a homage to an 80's pop band. Instead, 'tallpaul' was taken when I joined (how vary dare you!) and hyphens etc weren't allowed so my normal second choice of tallpaul_s wasn't allowed, so ta11pau1 it was.
Oh, and my name is Paul and I'm very tall.
Don't know where I learnt this limerick from, but:
There was a young man called Paul
Who was so extremely tall
When he got into bed
He stuck out his leg
And turned off the light in the hall!
I prefer my wheels to have contact with the ground, airtime is achieved regularly but for as small amount of time as I can get away with! Only use this name on here, my older forum names are not really suitable to me anymore. One that I used a lot in the late 90's was a completely innocent abbreviation but has since taken on a totally different meaning in one language so has been retired, one forum actually deleted all my posts purely due to the name!
My favourite car a MK1 Escort Mexico Sebring red YES712M
Mine was given, not chosen
But worn with pride
My mate at school helped me create my first email address, Phil was taken so he mashed some extra numbers.
I don’t use that email anymore but it’s become my username on a few forums.
My user name is just what everyone has known me as since I was at school. I’m 53.
Me and our kid always referred to each other as our kid, then as a rhyming thing she started calling me bin lid, then her mates started calling me that, then my mates. It then got appropriated to Binners by one of her mates and that’s what I’ve been called ever since
I reckon there are people who’ve known me for years who don’t know what my actual name is. Everyone just calls me Binners, apart from my wife and my mum and dad. Actually… they do some of the time too
My name stems from where I spent an excess of spare time fiddling with bikes and cars before children intervened and it was shorter than
"5 minute job turns into all nighter"
YES712M
MOT due 1st July 1984.
You'd better get those sills welded!
I used to breed penguins and sell them to local restaurants in Ireland.
the jonv bit is obvious enough. Then after the hack I somehow bodged up registering / re-registering and couldn't work out how to be jonv so I became theotherjonv, which is actually still thejonv really.
Originally originally, it came from the character in Top Gun. I've gone by Cougar (or latterly UKCougar) online since the late 80s. It somewhat unfortunately has a different meaning these days of course, but after 35 years it's a bit late to be changing it.
ABC warriors 2000AD back in the day.
Been Pond, Pondy or Pondo since ooo - about 1980 or so? I couuldn't say with any certainty why - I didn't fall into a pond until 1998, so it's not the obvious.
I used to be a crazed aeronautical engineer making mad but ultimately flawed pigeon killing aircraft for a mustachioed cad and his s****ing dog.
I think he was on Rhythm or bass guitar in a punk band called Crass, I saw them at the Trades Club in 82 in the town I think this website resides from, lose connection. It's all a long time ago.
a reflection of a lack of imagination on signing up to stuff over 10 years ago... an old car registration and Nikon D90 camera mashup.. seems to have stuck across a variety of forums..
My nickname is Big Gordi some of my friends are Gaelic speakers they call me Gordi mhor.
It was pretty much chosen at random when every conceivable combination of my name was already taken as an e-mail address even back in 199something.
John Peel indie band from back when I used to listen to him on the wireless. Chosen because its a little bit like my original username what I had to abandon cos the account got ****ed up. Oh, and “bicycle”, obvs.
Student days - basically a bunch of misfits united by a general lack of getting shit together who applied for accomodation late were stuck into a closed halls of residence until all the temproary American students buggered off home at christmas. The other residents of the grounds (the squirrels) took serious exception to this and would sit in the trees and pelt our young students with sticks and conkers. One young man, possibly under the influence of alcohol, decided this should be a two way fight and retaliated with a barrage of conkers. The squirrels acquiesced and following an offering of half a 2.6kg catering tin of beans wedged in a tree* peace reigned and the champion declared the King of Squirrels which stuck forevermore.
We do not talk about the Other Shit That Went Down inside (and outside) those halls.
*those beans remained there for at least 3 years and as I recall were still there even after the halls were redeveloped into flats.
Have a guess?
Accountant from Dumfries, with dreams of the Brecons 🫢
Mine is simply the first letters of the first names of the firstborn of each of the surviving squadron members of my late grandfather. Or is it?
I'm Scottish.
Folk are always asking me for routes.
I had a previous moniker on here but got stalked by a weirdo who choose a very similar name to mine so asked to change it to something else. I believe that might be the only time the Mods have allowed a name change (well, other than that time we could all change to anything we wanted and it got very, very confusing).
I was the first in the group I rode with to have a baby (not literally, Mrs FB did the hard work).
Complicated birth and tricky first few months meant I didn’t ride for about 6 months hence I went from being at the front of the pack to Fat Boy At The Back (named before the clothing brand existed).
caher – I just thought you were from Cahersiveen
No not really that's south Kerry. In north Kerry there's a hill fort called Caherconree which is one my most favourite places in the world. I used to run up pre knee issues.
It's the place where and Fionn mac Cumhaill fought Cú Chulainn.
I love Irish folklore.
It's an iron age fort on top of a mountain.
Two things that were important to me when I signed up. Also wanted something different to what I was known as on other forums at the time (although some folks here have tracked me down nonetheless over the years).
When I first joined, somewhere around 2003-ish, my favourite books were by a particular SF author, now better known for the TV series “The Periferal’, but then was known for a series of books, one of which had a hacker character called Count Zero, from a computing term ‘count zero interrupt’. It’s easier to write out than ‘Neuromancer’, although now I wish I’d changed it to that back when there was an option.
My name is Adam the numbers are from rugby union, back row forwards. Dull eh!
Stanley... It's not my real name. It's not anything like my real name. I don't even know anyone called Stanley. But I do like the name.
When I first started using forums in the early 2000s, I had an inkling that I shouldn't use my real name... "Stanley" was born 🙂
I believe that might be the only time the Mods have allowed a name change
The mods have no control over usernames. That comes down to Mark / staff.
There have been a few over the years. You won't get a name change if you've just been a plum and want to hide the evidence (which is why it's generally verboten) but you will if there's a good reason for it. Which as I recall there was in your case.
Mine's sort of similar to the OP's, when I went to uni and got the internet I joined a bunch of mailing lists and one of them was for the game battletech- the card game version specifically. Anyway, in the game there's a group of hilariously badly written faux scots called the Northwind Highlanders, hence me being scottish in a mostly US group I ended up Northwind. That was 1996 but it stuck, I keep bumping into people from other internet cults especially sv650.org and people say "why'd she call you northy?" Cos that's my name!
Knowing my luck it'll also turn out to be a neo nazi cult or a branch of the tory party or something and I'll have to change it
Mine was given, not chosen
Similar. A contraction of my name combined with wanton disregard for my own safety when I first started mountain biking.
Early 00's and I had to come up with a email address and various logins - homage to Darwin, we are all children of monkeys etc, but just monkeyboy had been taken on the email address so I added initials which were also my nickname through school.
I'd love to have an interesting story to tell, but it's just a nickname, although one given to me by my American football team. It has since been adopted by Fazzini-jnr, as that's what his rugby team mates called him. Back in my early 80s school days I was nicknamed Farrahs as everyone wore Farah stay-press trousers, and my surname starts 'Far'.
It's my surname, crap isn't it.
Nothing, it's says nothing, you didn't see me
Mine comes from the troubled main character in Apocalypse Now. It’s only used on his forum and I think I joined up soon after watching the film _again_ and it seemed apt.
you didn’t see me
Wow! I've only just noticed the 'r' in the second part of your username a_a. I always thought you must like Toyotas! My bad. 😳
A lack of imagination.
Kendo was taken. The profanisaurus was on the bookshelf next to me as I was thinking of an alternative. Wish I'd thought of adding 'theother' to 'Kendo' instead, like Jonv. Some folk are unaware of Viz and think it's my actual name.
An uninteresting fact: At some point I was able to edit my profile, and now when I comment on FGF or another front page article, my username appears as Kendo.
That I registered in the early days of the internet. 🙂
It was from when trail centres were starting to be built (CyB, Glentress etc) and our riding group of friends was at its biggest before kids/emigration. We needed a bike hauler so bought the Mk1 Nissan Prairie for £300. Shoved a Stanza Turbo engine in it and ripped the interior out.
Used for big roadtrips all over with friends in convoy. Happy times!
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Mine was given, not chosen
Sort of similar here.
As a teenager, I worked in a bike shop in London. It was always quite hot in there so I always wore shorts. I'm tall and lanky anyway although as a teenager it was probably a lot worse - certainly on a school football pitch I was an uncoordinated mess!
Anyway, talking with a regular customer about bike fit, leg length etc and he'd said something like, "you'd know about that, you have crazy legs!" and the nickname sort of stuck amongst the staff.
Must have been about 2002 that I registered on here - definitely the very early days of STW, maybe even before Issue 1 was actually published. And I've had the name ever since. I do occasionally wish for something marginally less childish now but it's become relatively widely known so I'll stick with it.
Mine is not a spelling mistake but a pun based on my surname which people often get confused about and call me Mr Pott.
Shows I’m living in the past!!! Old call-sign at previous work (actually two of them) kilo; generic for the motorcycle on surveillance and kilo 11 was my one of my personal call-signs.
Used to love watching the small geckoes in the house I lived in in Thailand, plus there was one big loud tokay that for ages I thought was a nocturnal bird. Still get confused, but I am seventy six you know.
Half is my name but shortened and half is reference to my first, and most beloved, motor vehicle.
At uni our usernames were SURNAMEINITIALS. Mine was SURNAMEBJ, there was another on my course called SURNAMEJ1 (I guess no middle name). J1 started calling me BJ, sometime Beej, and it stuck. BJ was taken when I signed up, hence beej.
I spent some time in the very early 00s as a teacher in Thailand. Ajarn/Ajan is teacher in Thai, and I'm called Tom.
It ended being my default forum name, as it's quite unique.
Easily misread though...I get referred to as Alan quite a lot 🤔
I’m a big fan of the Big Bang theory.
Convert - back in 2004 (I think) when I joined I was a roadie and triathlete. This was before being a roadie was an aspiration of every middle aged, middle class fat lad. I was half decent and it basically ruled my life....which was maybe not a good thing. My coach told me I needed to get a bit of perspective and have a break for a winter. Clearly with zero imagination, I thought of all the stuff I could possibly do that would be different to riding my bike this winter what could I do....oh yes it would be riding a bike off road. Anyway, it turned out I quite liked it and it went from off season cross training and a way to socialise with my non 'proper' cycling friends, to an integral part of my life once I retired (early - knackered hip) from racing proper. Hence, I'm a 'convert'.
It still irks me that my username has a lowercase 'C'. I think that was a result of how the early versions of the site worked. Any chance we could all be upgraded to usernames with capitalisation?
Frame number of my old Spooky...
Mine is my old caving club nickname, shortened slightly.
Well I was a young teen caving with a mostly older bunch and every trip was immediately followed by the pub. 8 hrs underground - straight to pub etc. Anyway I was too young to like beer so drank cider and inevitably I would be wrecked and sick before dinner. Our lights were homemade and the metal waist-belt bracket engraved with names. Yak Monster didn't fit but Yak did.
Creakingdoor when I sold it back in 1983 within about 3 months it was rolled, nowadays it would have been restored as it had a roll cage
Amazing if you check road tax/mot it can trace vehicles back to the early 80's as I checked another reg plate of a car around that time and it tells you when it last got tax before the scrapyard in the sky
I'm that fella that lives near you. Probably.