Ask Lemmy

I generally don't recognize usernames and don't look at them too much

There's the guy who uses thorns (who I have tagged as Nigel þornberry)

There's maybe a half-dozen frequent posters who I'm genuinely not sure if they're masterful trolls, some kind of AI training bots, or just really need to go touch grass (preferably on their way to a therapist's office.)

There's one dude whose username just happened to stick out to me after having a random conversation or two with him and seeing him being a generally pretty decent dude around Lemmy, I tagged him "this guy seems cool" at some point, and at some point it occurred to me that he might appreciate knowing that, so I shot him a message, and sure enough he did. I now consider him to be a pretty good friend, which is a new experience for me, I've never really been one to have online friends, I (somehow) do pretty well at making friends in meatspace and have never really felt a need to seek out an online friendship.

There's a handful of people who have said some incredibly dumb shit that I've tagged (for example one dude who I tagged "Tankie, down vote and ignore" although the last few times I've seen him pop up it seems like he may have mellowed out a bit, so good for him)

I've been here for 2 years and I only recognize violet08 and the_Picard_maneuver. Oh and Nicole, the girl with glasses who wanted me

We used to see a MargotRobbie but they stopped. Dunno why. They committed to the bit, though.

Ladybutterfly or something like that

I don't really pay attention to user names when I read, but there are a few frequent posters that I've recognized

Oh man, lots. Ada, Kolanki, WorldsDumbestMan, SatansMaggottyCumFart, Neidu, LadyButterfly, CaptainLezbian, CptAggravated, that one guy with the Chinese symbols whose mom is a piece of work, Stamets when he's posting, Sunshine, Blaze, DistantSounds, Sodalite - the list goes on and on.

I may spend too much time here, lol.

I could recognise a violet or PugJesus post without nametags! I enjoy both posters' content although violet's is a bit concerning and less educational, lol. Oh, and the guy who only posts anti-Western narratives memes, he always gets downvoted but he keeps at it like Marx's strongest soldier 😅. There was also this maniac called Satan'sSomethingSomething I just had to block on two different accounts. Finally, there are several posters I have personally tagged cause I regularly see eye to eye with them, or at least I consider reasonable, prosocial and capable of having a normal conversation (flaxvert, Maeve, VikingHippie, among others). 👍

If they comment/post a lot and use an avatar or have emojis in their display name, I probably recognize them.

Very few I recognize by name alone.

I tag folks based off interactions, so after a couple years on here there's a lot of names I recognize. Most of them are regular posters or admins (Pugjesus, Stametz, Violet08, Mrdown, Picard Manuver, Geneva Convenience, ada, db0, etc. who don't need to be bothered with tags) or people who I have a special friendship with like @AntiBullyRanger (I really hope you're doin' okay) or my legit bro @toynbee@piefed.social

Then theres various regular commentators on my NSFW posts like @StrangeBedfellow@lemmynsfw.com and @Keepthoseeyeslockedonmine@kinkycats.org who I appreciate a ton!

(Personally, I was once asked out of the blue by @WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today to give my opinion in a discussion about battery tech. I think at the end this will probably be where I consider my life to have peaked.)

When I start recognizing a username it's usually because that person is about to get blocked. Applies to quite many users mentioned here too.

I think the small size of the platform is a bit of an issue in this case. The only way to not get "famous" here is by constantly having to make new accounts.

I recognise your mum

I tag users occasionally when they stand out to me, so I recognize those people but often forget why I tagged them as such lol

I recognize a decent number of people, lots of famous frequent posters have already been mentioned but I also tend to remember trolls and people with bad takes.

I don't recognise many, but there are a few that pop up regularly like PugJesus, Picard Maneuver and K O L O N A K I.

So far, nobody's mentioned recognizing me, despite the fact that I feel like I comment a lot (an unhealthy amount, really).

I'm not sure whether to feel insulted or relieved.

I only tend to recognize the users I have assigned custom tags to. Usually to mark them as trolls or suspected bots, but sometimes just because they told a funny story or are enthusiastic about something specific.

I mainly recognize PugJesus, SatansMagottyCumFart and like the other two or three lithuanians on here.

For me, one of the great things about this general style of "News Aggregation" social media is that it's community/topic focused rather than being focused on individual personalities/identities. So, in that respect, I really don't notice or pay attention to the usernames, aside from blocking/filtering out all the crumby people that make this place a much worse experience for me. Out of sight, out of mind, so I couldn't even tell you who those people are.

I'm actually a bit surprised by the responses here. I know a lot of the names mentioned here, but there are more I don't recognize than I had expected. Sometimes it does feel a little small of a group here, but seeing both the number of names I do recall aaaand all the ones I don't both help me feel this place is about 50% bigger than I had felt.

It seems there are more of you I've yet to get to know. 😄

What I'm really curious of is how many people's block lists I'm on. I'm pretty rarely controversial, but I'm sure I've had to have annoyed someone by now or bored someone to tears with endless owl superbness.

This is gonna sound really terrible, but... I generally don't recognize people by name so much... maybe something dyslexia related? I think there are a couple of rare exceptions, like the user with two letters and then four numbers in their name.

I recognize lots of avatars, as I scroll around, but I don't generally register the names or even descriptions of the images, just kind of like... my brain just remembers purplish-blob shape, red glowy circle, monochromatic goblet.

Oh, and dancing banana, and blue name furry. I actually remember his, it's Kolanki I think

All of you users with no avatar, go get one so I remember you all please! It's an accessability aid in a way :p

Never had anyone recognize me (I post and comment sparsely and in short bursts) but I recognize a lot of other names. Most of which I'm sure the average Lemmy user recognizes.

The big ones I recognize:

• SatansMaggottyCumFart
• Stamets
• The Picard Manuever
• poVoq
• PugJesus
• fossilesque
• Cowbee
• ComradeSharkFucker
• ThefuzzFurryComrade
• lumpenproletariat
• GodlessCommie
• Bad
• UniversalMonk

There's a few more that I can't think of off the top of my head. It's nice that the community is small enough to recognize people so often.

There's a guy who thinks I'm some kind of troll or bot and tries to "call me out" by name every once in a while, I suppose that counts.

Personally, I try not to pay close attention to usernames - I want to engage with what's said, not form opinions about the people saying it.

There's a few big names, I usually find it interesting seeing which instances people are on and whether they carry some kind of theme. The people in the Star Trek instance, forget the name, usually have pretty good memes for example

I don't really pay attention. I come here to quip. It's like a mental purge for me.