how everybody came to get their "handle".

What would be really interesting is a little explanation of how everybody came to get their "handle". Of course, some are fairly obvious, like mine and Ryan’s, but others are more curious.

You mean their avatar or the tag line ?

For example, davidm I have a pretty good idea why you use that username. But where did dev_cw come from? Or SmashingRed?

Originally, I was known in online circles as Matria (level 112 ranger), because my kids got semi-hysterical at the idea of me using Mom as a login for the gaming site I worked for before getting onto the Internet (1993/1994). But Matria was already taken when I got my original AOL account, as well as the pre-Microsoft takover Hotmail account (CompuServe doesn’t count, since they used numbers for usernames), as was susano, so sottwell it was and has been ever since; even when I got divorced I kept the same name mostly because I was too lazy to go around changing everything. Besides, it really pisses off my ex every time he sees something about me online

Oh you mean the username !

Yeah sure, could prove interresting
OpenGeek is quite self explanatory (and quite catchy !) but true, some are rather hard to fathom...

But where did dev_cw come from? Or SmashingRed?

I hate to say it but I don’t have a cool story... dev_cw was a username I created for a personal project I was working on in the late 90’s. The site was CariocaWeb (hence the CW) and it was being developed (hence the dev). It was first used in a freelance site (elance) and I just stuck to it to. I have also used Zeca40 (Zeca is a name in protuguese but in my case it was short for Ze Carioca which is he name of the Brazillian parrot character from Disney toons). For a while I used S2M2 which is the name of my company and is a nice username, but it was not anonymous enough and some of my posts started to show up in search results (so I had to watch what I said). Today I could very well use s2m2 but I am stuck with dev_cw. I wish I had a better story. It is a bit of an oxymoron since I am not really a dev

My avatar image is the coastal mountain range here in Rio.

BTW - a Carioca is a native of Rio de Janeiro in case anyone is wondering.

In my head I imagine shashingred to be a person with red hair and a "smashing" personality

And what means Coroico ?

The contest is open. Even if some of you have the answer

It’s an anagram for cocorico ? (only the french can understand this...)
Ooops sorry a "c" is missing for this to work

dev_cw... that’s exactly what I mean! Not something clever or funny, but the story behind it. People’s stories fascinate me. Is that site still alive?

coroico, are you from Bolivia?

Mine is not exciting either. SmashingRed is the name of my company--SmashingRed Web & Marketing. I made it up. Actually if you say it wrong it sounds like smash Ingred (that doesn’t seem very nice.) The idea was simply to create a unique name for my company that would stand out and be unique when building marketing.

I had other handles over the years back when I used to play MUDs and MOOs in the early 90s at University. Otherwise I have always been jaygilmore, gilmorejay or with my wife gilsan (for Gilmore / Sannes).

Coroico..I have an unfair advantage since you just explained this to me a few days ago. I will let the others figure it out.

sottwell: the site never materialized. It was a spin off of a book we wrote on being a carioca but we never got the act together (I hate to admit it but I am terrible with business ventures).

<shameless self promotion>
The book was written by my mother and illustrated by a long time family friend. It started off as s spoof but is in its 15th printing edition and still sells like hotcakes having sold over 30K copies. It is titled "How To Be A Carioca" and is a satirical guide to blending with the Rio natives (no one likes to look like a tourist while on vacation). It is in english so anyone interested can take a peak inside at amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/8585556013/
</shameless self promotion>