# Brief explanation of my handle **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 24, 2002, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brief-explanation-of-my-handle/99839 "2002-03-24T08:30:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brief-explanation-of-my-handle/99839/1 "2002-03-24T08:30:04Z")
In a thread that I started about my 50th post (now soon to be 100… yay for me! 😃 ), **lel** asked me why my handle always turned out as “Hamster\_X” in his/her head. I had no idea, of course, but thought I’d start another thread explaining what it meant. (the URL is [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=105029;](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=105029;) I can’t seem to get that blue color and URL coding to work the way I want it to tonight) For those of you that may have seen an explanation I gave in **Crunchy Frog** ’s latest incarnation of the Welcome Wagon, this is pretty much the same, but with some details added in. (oh, and if **Crunchy Frog** does read this, the point is taken re: the prefixes and suffixes) Basically, when I was in Grade 9, I somehow thought I needed a word to describe myself. No, not a word… more like a cool nickname! (or what I thought was cool at the time) Since I wanted it to be at least somewhat meaningful, I thought about what it should be for quite a while, before coming up with **Flamster**. **F** = **Friends** **L** = **Laughter** **A** = **And** (okay, so I know that generally speaking, connecting words aren’t used as part of an acronym unless it’s the first word, as in **The Sports Network** , but I didn’t really know that then!) **M** = **Music** Then I added the suffix “-ster” (as in “Billster”) to make the whole thing look better… there I had it! Some time later, I was playing Earthbound![sup]TM[/sup] and wanted to use this name as a character name, but the game would only accept names with up to five letters. Ergo, **Flami**! After that, I decided to go with **Flamsterette** and **Flamsterette\_X** just because I felt like it! (hey, it was my nickname, right? :D) So that’s the explanation in detail! See you all later! ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brief-explanation-of-my-handle/99839/2 "2002-03-24T08:57:37Z")
Pardon my oversight, but as I “say” it in my head, **Flamsterette\_X** kind of rhymes with Hamster\_X. Add that to the fact that people mentioned the hamsters that used to run the SDMB servers rather frequently, and I guess I just have hamsters on (or in) the brain! PS: That would be her head 🙂 lel ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brief-explanation-of-my-handle/99839/3 "2002-03-24T09:28:45Z")
Flamsterette\_X … wasn’t that Speed Racer’s long-lost sister? ---
**Author:** ![meyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@meyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meyer)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brief-explanation-of-my-handle/99839/4 "2002-03-24T11:18:42Z")
I don’t really have anything to add except that apparently **Flamsterette\_X** and I live in the same city. For some reason I think this is cool. We used to have a Canadian Dopers thread, but it was lost in the great purge, so I feel I should say here - welcome fellow Canadian Doper! ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brief-explanation-of-my-handle/99839/5 "2002-03-24T11:41:25Z")
Welcome FX! (Can I call you FX? 🙂 ) Why the underscore in the username? The SDMB allows usernames with spaces, and the longer a name is, the more of a chance it has to play havoc with forum thread displays. I see several people with underscores in the name and I always wonder why that choice. I understand that sometimes when people sign up they might think that spaces are not allowed. Is there more to it than that? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brief-explanation-of-my-handle/99839/6 "2002-03-24T19:55:46Z")
I just figured you were somebody who got flamed a lot whenever you participated in message boards 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2002, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brief-explanation-of-my-handle/99839/7 "2002-03-24T20:29:49Z")
Another Canadian! Cool name btw… ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brief-explanation-of-my-handle/99839/8 "2002-03-25T03:54:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lel \* > \*\*Pardon my oversight, but as I “say” it in my head, **Flamsterette\_X** kind of rhymes with Hamster\_X. Add that to the fact that people mentioned the hamsters that used to run the SDMB servers rather frequently, and I guess I just have hamsters on (or in) the brain! > > PS: That would be her head 🙂 > > lel \*\* I wouldn’t say it was an oversight, **lel**! Don’t worry about it! In case you were wondering, when said correctly, **Flamsterette\_X** is supposed to sort of rhyme with “hamster”! (I’m not going to get into how one of my friends thinks it should be pronounced) I’ve also seen mention of the hamsters that used to run the servers, and thought tht might be it as well. Having hamsters on the brain is all very well and good1 (haha) Well, you know how it is on a message board sometimes… you can’t tell whether the people on it are male or female at times! So I just decided to take the easy way out… hope that doesn’t offend you! > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Snooooopy \* > \*\*Flamsterette\_X … wasn’t that Speed Racer’s long-lost sister? \*\* Actually, I have no idea! I don’t even know what (or who) Speed Racer is… maybe a former denizen of this board? A character on a TV show? > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by meyer \* > \*\*I don’t really have anything to add except that apparently **Flamsterette\_X** and I live in the same city. For some reason I think this is cool. We used to have a Canadian Dopers thread, but it was lost in the great purge, so I feel I should say here - welcome fellow Canadian Doper! \*\* I have no idea why **meyer** wouldn’t think this was cool… so do I. It’s amazing how the Internet has allowed us to chat with people from all around the world, or indeed from our own area! Ah yes, “the great purge”, which I have heard about many times. Well, I don’t know if we should start the thread again, but thanks for your welcome! 🙂 Now I know what I’ve been meaning to do: modify my location in my profile, so it says that I’m also on “the Hydro Flame Planet”. (I got that one off the side of a truck/station wagon a few years ago when I was doing a newspaper route) I’m going to see if I can do that right after I finish this post. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried \* > \*\*Welcome FX! (Can I call you FX? 🙂 ) > > Why the underscore in the username? The SDMB allows usernames with spaces, and the longer a name is, the more of a chance it has to play havoc with forum thread displays. I see several people with underscores in the name and I always wonder why that choice. I understand that sometimes when people sign up they might think that spaces are not allowed. Is there more to it than that? \*\* FX? Well, it does save typing time (hehehe), so why not? 🙂 Of course, you may run into trouble if someone signs up and decides to use the username **FX**! 😃 (I have no idea whether usernames with only two letters are allowed, by the way… probably not, but I’m just saying) I’ve always done it up like that, with the underscore. For some reason, I think it looks better than having a space in between the “Flamsterette” and the “X”. So it wasn’t really a question in my mind about whether spaces were allowed in my username or not, **Arnold**. Thanks for the info, anyways! > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > \*\*I just figured you were somebody who got flamed a lot whenever you participated in message boards 🙂 \*\* I wojldn’t say I got flamed a **lot** , but it has happened! Admittedly, it hasn’t happened with any great deal of frequency, but iI have experienced it. Of course, if I flamed people a lot when visiting message boards, I would have probably chosen the username **Flamer** or something similar! 😃 > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Obsidian Flutterby \* > \*\*Another Canadian! Cool name btw… \*\* Yes, we Canadians are oh so cool! 😃 🆒 Don’t you just love my name? I think it is the epitome of coolness! 😛 :rolleyes: Seriously though, thanks for the welcome, **Obsidian**! ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2002, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brief-explanation-of-my-handle/99839/9 "2002-03-25T06:01:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Flamsterette\_X \* > \*\*Actually, I have no idea! I don’t even know what (or who) Speed Racer is… maybe a former denizen of this board? A character on a TV show? > \*\* Didn’t watch “Speed Racer,” huh? Oh, well. Cool cartoon, it was. Racer X was Speed’s long-lost brother.