At the New York City meetings we found, oddly enough, that everyone’s real-life name was “Doug,” including Biggirl, Eve, and SaxFace.
This caused many hilarious mix-ups and hi-jinks, let me tell you!
So we fell back on Wonko the Sane, manhattan, Lux Fiat, DrMatrix, and soulsling, in some cases injuring them badly.
It seems to just depend. I cheerfully (after my first cup of coffee, anyway) answer to RT, Rufus, Firefly, and Kim, which is my RL given name. I call some Dopers by their real names, some by their usernames, and some I go back and forth with. (With John Corrado, for instance, I do all three at once. ;))
Globe: I refuse to.
Nothing against Napster, I just hate ON-J with a passion
I prefer to be addressed as The Empress of Stormy Emotions.
People seem to have a perverse thrill of calling me “Satan” in public. I wonder why…
For the most part, I always use user names at gatherings, though there are variations depending totally on my warped mind as to why they exist.
For example, pldennison is just Phil. Falcon is USUALLY Falcon, but sometimes I’ll call her Amy. Drain Bead is Libby now and always (among other things), but she’s… a special case. 
Yer pal,
Satan
I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Four months, four weeks, 14 hours, 15 minutes and 19 seconds.
6023 cigarettes not smoked, saving $752.97.
Extra life with Drain Bead: 2 weeks, 6 days, 21 hours, 55 minutes.
Both, though it was wierd, I rather like my real name a bit, and sometimes I feel like I should be a strange little elf when addressed as Swiddles. I also think it has to do with whether some people fit their names. Ever met someone and thought “Yea, right, who are you kidding? You are NOT a Josiah, you’re a Bob,”? Like that.
Though, as always, I’m with Eve. Take note, at all further Dopefests I may encounter, I wish to be referred to as Princess Star Jive.
I sure enjoyed hearing people say “Hey Cranky” at the Flint Dopefest. I think it’s because I know it’s what my coworkers have been dying to call me all along…
I answered to it readily enuff, and am suggesting my husband start using it.
I also noted two things about using Board Names:
• You get Odd Looks from other patrons when you say, “Have you heard the latest about Satan’s sex life?”
• Do NOT Yell, “Hey, Uke Ike!” across the bar in New York. [try it out loud, and see what I mean]
I can recall all the dopers I met in SF this summer but I can only remember their screen names. If I try real hard I can remember that Demo’s real name is Vince, but after that I draw a blank. And I’m certain we exchanged real names even though I think we used screen names mostly.
Ah, I recall also that PurpleCrackWhore’s real name was Marva (Mulva?) – that’s one name you didn’t really want to be using in public.
As beatle eluded to, our Vegas gathering was mostly first names. I got “tech” and “techie” a lot but found I responded more to Liz and techie. beatle has an unusual first name so sticking with beatle for us was easier.
At the AOL gatherings I used to frequent we used mostly screen names – mine is coflower so they call me flower. Except for the few good friends I have on AOL I am known as “Flower”.
Depends on the situation though I think. I prefer to use first names as opposed to screen names. Some screen names are so outlandish that calling them by their screen name just doesn’t work.
What I find to be hard is to go back to screen names when addressing people on the boards and in chat.
Take Mr Cynical and Lexicon for instance, I prefer to call them by their first names now and have to catch myself.
Me, too. I catch myself all the time with the (few) people whose names I know.
I’m thinking of pulling a reverse Larrigan and start going by my real name here, or some variation. Especially since Homer won’t let me forget what my UN means in his warped little mind.
No prob. Just keep in mind, it is appropriate to use his board name in the following sentence:
“Coldfire, could you please hand me a new felching straw?”
Even though we exchanged real names, I still thought of people as their screen names, so I guess that is what I called them.
In fact, my brother and I have taken to referring to each other by our screen names. He calls me “Bean” half the time now–but he always gave me nicknames. I call him Billdo, much to the amusement of our parents.
If I try real hard I can remember real names. But the first thing that comes to mind is Uke or Greenie even though I know their real names.
I changed my username and people still called me Biggirl (the visual, I think).
Well at my first dopefest, I was called Silo!
At the second one, in Vegas, I was called Mike!
I prefer to be called Mike. On the SD I’m Silo, but IRL I’m Mike.
One difference I noticed from the 2 dopefests I attended was: At “the first in Raleigh” it was 4 hours long. Vegas, it was “three days long” of living together. I was kinda shy at the “first gathering,” and I was shy at the “second one” too the first day or so. But in Vegas I got so comfortable with everyone, after being with them for so long, I became quite extroverted in the ladder part of the gathering.
In short: I’m shy around people I haven’t met before, but once I get to know them I’m not shy at all. It takes me a while to break the ice.
Don’t ever call ValerieBlaise “Val.”
Unclebeer will tell you his real name, but evidently, everyone in his life calls him Unclebeer, so we tend to keep that up, or shorten it to Unc.
I’m Chris.
Falcon=Falc or Amy
Flypside=Flyp
Omniscient=Omni
Everyone else tends to just go by their real name, IIRC. I don’t think that Falc, Flyp and Omni INSIST on being called by their SNs, but they just are.
AT all the LA Doper gatherings I’ve been to, I try to call everyone by their real name, if I can remember it. It just seems weird to call someone “pricciar,” especially when you have no idea how to pronounce it. It also doesn’t help when someone like “Shayna” is named after a friend’s dog…it just feels a wee bit weird to basically be saying, “Hey, BITCH!”
Of course, I try to remember their s/n simultaneously so I’ll remember who was who later on…and as a result, I cannot for the life of me remember zyada, phouka, or DRY’s real name. But I remember the others! I do!
Me? Eh, call me Laura, call me Ruffian, call me Ruff. (At the last doper hanging-out, whenever people said the word “rough,” my ears pricked. Funny, as I’m not called that anywhere outside of Doperdome.)
Call me Sani, actually. You could call me Jon or Jonathan (NEVER John, not that I’d know the difference). I suppose Satan will forever refer to me as “Sandy” and others will come up with puns on Sani as Max does (SaniFlush, SaniFresh, etc.) Don’t worry, I don’t mind, so long as you aren’t actively making fun of me. I called Michi Michelle at both of our gatherings, even though that’s her middle name. I don’t remember what she called be, but I don’t think she ever needed to use my name. And we called Bear_Nenno Bear because, well, that’s his name.
That, of course, should be “what she called ME.” Remember, kids, preview is your friend!
Speaking of screen names, I owe you a vote of thanks, SanibelMan.
N.Y. Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle. Coupla weeks ago. 9 Down. Florida Island. 7 letters. Got it. Thanks.