I say keep your name the way it is. DonMonkey or just plain Monkeyman. Believe me, the underscore is a pain.

If you change your name to something like "donboy", not everyone is going to know no matter how many times you post "Monkeyman is now donboy" in the forum and in chat. Eventually, someone's going to think there are two different people -- Monkeyman, who hasn't been around for a while, and donboy, who just showed up recently. Then one day, they'll ask "Hey, what ever happened to Monkeyman?" and donboy will reply, "Um, that's me."

You already have a name that we all know. Go ahead and stick with it. If Rinkworks was the only message community we frequent, and there were only two, three dozen people who visited here, then yes, it would be easier to keep track of who's who. But if everybody -- or at least a good dozen or so who were attending the upcoming RinkUnion decide to change their RinkHandles all at once, I'd need a sheet of paper next to my computer to keep track of everyone.

Take a look at SentryBallBoy. He changed his name every six months or so. When he did the Speedball change, I missed that announcement and was wondering who the heck this Speedball fellow was. Likewise, I thought of JimmyOfYork and Wes as two different people until someone told me -- yohey! Same person. Morris/eric slator as well. While I'm naming names, the whole split of mamday/Melanie in chat/forum was a huge surprise. I never knew that they were the same person up until a month ago -- and she's been posting in the forum since last September! (I'm certain that if I was active in chat, the Kiki/unipeg split would have been slightly confusing.)

Even though most of us here know each other's real names, we also know them as posting under a specific handle. I know that this poster is really John, this person is really Stephanie, this one is really Carrie. Then suddenly someone shows up as John, someone else shows up as Stephanie, someone else shows up as Carrie. Are these the same John, Stephanie, and Carrie that I know? Are they other people with the same common first names? Do I really have to reference IP numbers when I read a post to determine who is who?

So, I'll stay Faux Pas here in Rinkchat, even though everyone knows I'm Thomas. That's why you should stay "Don the Monkeyman" or just "Monkeyman" (or at least keep the word "monkey" in your chatname). That's why you, hlf, should stay hlf and not name yourself after a cat (which you'll tire of eventually and want to rename yourself after a knight of the round table, then we'll have to call you hlfelineahad).

-Faux "Thomas" Pas