My name is what?!

Since usernames are a semi-random string of letters, people get some odd usernames. They also have some pretty poor ways of reading them off to you over the phone. It's always a good appraisal of the user's computer ability if they try to read off MIUGK as "Mee-yuh-jick".

Some people get a little more intelligent and try to read off their username letter-by-letter. Unfortunately your average luser doesn't grasp the concept that many letters sound the same unless you hyper-enunciate. M or N? F or S? C or Z? Many people seem to think it's some kind of race to get all of the letters out as fast as possible. Dear Luser, I'm talking to you when I say this: You're just gonna have to say the damn thing again!

When prompted to repeat, the luser will often think that saying letters louder make them easier to understand. I'm here to inform you that this just makes you look stupider.

Some people are actually enlightened enough to try phrasing each letter as a word, like the armed forces alphabets . This actually works pretty well, as long as the user knows how to spell. I once had an argument with a luser with a heavy Asian accent, because they didn't think that kilo or kite started with the letter K. Thank god someone finally said Kimberly or I would have been there all day.

One issue with using words to represent letters is that sometimes you get amusing or unfortunate phrases, like Cat-Zipper-Boy or "F-boy"... F-boy? Now that's just unfortunate.

Anyway, CatZipperBoy, signing off Picture courtesy of t3h g1rl