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Weird Personal Names

Ghost In The Machine said:
I wish we could react to posts with the side-eye.
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Ghost In The Machine said:
My real surname isn't weird, just really bog standard for round here. So I usually write under fake names (two, mainly) but unaccountably worked on one book using my real surname - not even sure why. Last week, I was hate-watching a YT video made by some nutters who seem to have it in for me (or her, the person I write as). And they started bitching about me when I was working using part of my real surname - only done it once. I have the same surname as a character in 'Red Dwarf' (NO! Not Rimmer!) And on the playback of the Live Chat, as these dicks started talking about my book, and I was waiting for some heavy duty insults coming my way but one of their regular trolls said "...OH X, like X in Red Dwarf?" and I thought "Really? Is that the best you can do?" It's not even a character I mind being likened to. In fact, it's my favourite.

In their other (hobby related) YTs they have spent months slagging off one of my Reddit usernames, not even realising it's the same person as the person whose work they also slag off... There's also an Instagram feed where the same people hate me both on Reddit and my work pseudonym IRL - which I follow with great interest. They still haven't joined the dots. If one of the British ones doxes me I'm down the coppers, though.
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Who are these nutters?

It's unfortunate that several of the communities most intensely focused on subjects of interest to a Fortean shelter cadres of such venomous members: UFOlogy, Cryptozoology and Ripperology, to name the obvious three, are awash with unpleasant individuals who expend as much effort tossing bile at one another online as they do furthering research in their field.

And then whenever you get a glimpse of the person behind the mask, his or her real life is usually a complete shambles.

Because people with healthy and happy home-lives, successful careers and a modicum of psychological security don't waste most of their lives online, cyberstalking relative strangers.

'Twas ever thus, I suppose. There just seems to be more broken people these days.
 
Yithian said:
Who are these nutters?

It's unfortunate that several of the communities most intensely focused on subjects of interest to a Fortean shelter cadres of such venomous members: UFOlogy, Cryptozoology and Ripperology, to name the obvious three, are awash with unpleasant individuals who expend as much effort tossing bile at one another online as they do furthering research in their field.

And then whenever you get a glimpse of the person behind the mask, his or her real life is usually a complete shambles.

Because people with healthy and happy home-lives, successful careers and a modicum of psychological security don't waste most of their lives online, cyberstalking relative strangers.

'Twas ever thus, I suppose. There just seems to be more broken people these days.
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These are people who practice a craft with a very placid public image - in fact it's a writhing hotbed of corpse-strewn battlefields. I stuck my head above the parapet re. stuff we don't talk about here and have had various people on the opposing side trying to shoot my head off, ever since! They're mainly Americans but the one who directly Instagrams and YTs mentioning my work name or pseudonyms, is a fellow Brit. So if he steps into territory where I start to feel unsafe, I'll see if we have an harassment case. I keep an eye on it because it's surreal and weirdly fascinating but like the other targets, (and there are many, usually female), I haven't publicly responded in any way, because it would drive more traffic to him and the acolytes. I guess Big Foot etc fans could be equally rabid and Fortean stuff will inevitably attract some similar people although we don't see it, here.

Yes, I think it's safe to assume some psychological inadequacies in people who make it their life's mission to go on about one issue and pursue others online. That stuff must be filling some void or other. I'm the most unlikely target for this which maybe makes it funnier.
 
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Ghost In The Machine said:
These are people who practice a craft with a very placid public image - in fact it's a writhing hotbed of corpse-strewn battlefields. I stuck my head above the parapet re. stuff we don't talk about here and have had various people on the opposing side trying to shoot my head off, ever since! They're mainly Americans but the one who directly Instagrams and YTs mentioning my work name or pseudonyms, is a fellow Brit. So if he steps into territory where I start to feel unsafe, I'll see if we have an harassment case. I keep an eye on it because it's surreal and weirdly fascinating but like the other targets, (and there are many, usually female), I haven't publicly responded in any way, because it would drive more traffic to him and the acolytes. I guess Big Foot etc fans could be equally rabid and Fortean stuff will inevitably attract some similar people although we don't see it, here.

Yes, I think it's safe to assume some psychological inadequacies in people who make it their life's mission to go on about one issue and pursue others online. That stuff must be filling some void or other. I'm the most unlikely target for this which maybe makes it funnier.
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There are people who set up fake Amazon profiles simply so they can review other authors books and leave absolutely stinking reviews. It usually amuses me when you see a book that has almost universally decent reviews and then one single one star review where the reviewer goes into enormously great detail about all the awful things the author has got wrong. We always say it says more about the reviewer than the book, so I'd guess that these people must get similar responses from the people who view their 'work'. They love to fondly imagine that everyone out there is 'on their side' whilst most people are actually laughing at them.
 
catseye said:
There are people who set up fake Amazon profiles simply so they can review other authors books and leave absolutely stinking reviews. It usually amuses me when you see a book that has almost universally decent reviews and then one single one star review where the reviewer goes into enormously great detail about all the awful things the author has got wrong. We always say it says more about the reviewer than the book, so I'd guess that these people must get similar responses from the people who view their 'work'. They love to fondly imagine that everyone out there is 'on their side' whilst most people are actually laughing at them.
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Trading at shows for a while before covid was my only ever experience in retail and got to say, seeing hundred and hundreds of punters in a day made me realise really quickly that there's always going to be, say that one in a hundred, who hates you, the horse you rode in on, and that horse's cousin. Although 20 plus years on eBay should have told me that. Most people are fine, some are bloody brilliant. That one in the hundred is the bastard leaving that review. And as you say, they probably usually have an axe to grind. But like you, if I see one or two super negative reviews in a slew of otherwise good ones, now just chalk it up to being "that nutter" who seems to lurk in every random group of people...
 
I now have a relatively unusual (in the UK) surname as I decided to have a change when I married Mr J. It's pronounced in various humorous ways over here but 'over there' it's as common as something like Green or Davis!
 
Swifty said:
I went to school with a Byron Bullock. His name sounds like someone who operated a canal barge during the industrial revolution.
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Is he the one who founded Byron Burger?
 
I was reading one of those confounded House magazines to which I am so addicted, and there was a family in there where the baby daughter was called Mitzy. Quite a cute name, I thought at first. Then I imagined having a high court judge called Mitzy, or indeed meeting a Mitzy in almost any professional setting and wondered what possessed them.

I suppose Mitzy might be a pet or nick name of course. I do hope so. Great name for a cat, not so much for a child that's going to grow up...
 
catseye said:
I was reading one of those confounded House magazines to which I am so addicted, and there was a family in there where the baby daughter was called Mitzy. Quite a cute name, I thought at first. Then I imagined having a high court judge called Mitzy, or indeed meeting a Mitzy in almost any professional setting and wondered what possessed them.

I suppose Mitzy might be a pet or nick name of course. I do hope so. Great name for a cat, not so much for a child that's going to grow up...
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I know someone who had a dog called Mitzy.
 
Had a soft spot (sometimes not soft) for Cordelia Chase in Buffy and Angel and as far as I know, Charisma Carpenter is her real name.
 
ramonmercado said:
I know someone who had a dog called Mitzy.
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To me, that name sounds like it belongs to a brassy showgirl from Noo Yoik. Great name for a cat though. A neighbour of mine had a cat called Mitzi. She was a lovely cat but a bit bonkers, and I thought the name really suited her. I could see it working for a smaller dog too. Not so much for a Rottweiler.
 
Mitzi just makes me think of the phrase 'Mitzi Gaynor and her nasty plywood teeth', which I think was the Pythons.
 
We had a big debate at work about name badges. The powers that be wanted at least given names on the badges but some staff objected. The main reason being they said was that someone who'd found out their name could call to them in the street and they would think it was someone who knew them and be off their guard, particularly going home on late nights.

The powers that be attended a meeting with the concerned in the library with them and seemed to be at least partly persuaded by the above argument. However as they left the meeting and walked through a busy library another member of staff held a 'phone out to one of the staff from the meeting and yelled. "'Ere Gill, your Joe's on the 'phone; shall I put it through to the staff room?"
 
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