In my previous post (long time ago), I write a lot about extrovert people who put nicknames that are more informative yet less relevant than Wikipedia. Nevertheless, after finishing Velina Collin’s ‘Finishing Touch’ module, I am convinced that maybe it is a good idea for many SMU student to start changing their MSN account. And when I say MSN account, it means the email that you usually used to sign in.

For your information, most SMU students use MSN as main platform of instant messaging (IM). One can testify that there is more than 95% chance that students will ask “What is your MSN!” instead of Yahoo! Messenger or GTalk or AOL or Jabber or maybe IRC #Channel! In addition, having suffer in SMU for almost two years, I could confidently put a random number of 90% to represent a portion of students who have MSN account before they enrolled to the campus that they love.

Based on my observation on numerous MSN accounts, I often found people with rather childish MSN account such as

Angelbusted_88@hot…
Baron_nitez@hot…
Great_grumpy_man@hot…
momotora@hot…
kokakolavenger@hot…
Life_is_kind_of_beautiful@hot
nyaaah@hot…

And the list goes on…

(the above list is purely fictional. Any resemblance to real account is either a mere coincidence or a figment of your wild imagination)

Ok. I do not intend to judge anyone. I just find people who do not properly identify themselves are a bit confusing - sometimes to the point of annoyance. After all, one cannot expect people with low memory cell like me to memorize 300+ emails associated with numerous nicks that keep changing depending on individuals’ hormonal change as they reach adolescence. In short, proper email address can help poor people like me to identify many of my friends.

Imagine…

Boy : “Hi. Nice to meet you”
Girl : “Nice to meet you too. Do you have MSN?”
Boy : “Sure. Just add me. HappyGayGuy@hotmale.com”
Girl : “Err.. ok. Bye. Cya” (scamper away to the nearest rest room)

Or maybe…

Boss : “welcome to the company kids”
Intern : “thank you”
Boss : “do you have msn?’
Intern : “Yeah. You can add great_slasher_samurai_X_1249832487@msn.com”
Boss : “… can you drop me an email on that?”

And the sure deal breaker (especially in the Middle East region).

Cust A: “Can we discuss this over internet”
You : “Sure. Just add our MSN. My msn: MyGODIsGreaterThanYours@hotmall.com while Joe’s is Israel_Rox@mesem.com”

Honestly, my msn account is neither the most informative nor politically correct. Yet, I guess in term of readability and professionalism, my msn email is reasonable and understandable despite a tinge of extra information on my religious background. ;p How about your MSN account?

Next… before you apply for your MSN account…

Could somebody enlighten me on why many people use nameless-obscure-unrelated-blabber for their MSN nick?

Yes, I fully understand the importance of hiding one’s identity in a fierce network jungle. In fact, I strongly advise the use of pseudonym in more liberal chatting services such as in IRC or WinMX or Battle.net or etcetera. However, since every people in your MSN list are technically your friends, why make things difficult. It is always with deepest reluctance that I type ?Ini siapa yah?? (Read: ?Who is this??) to anyone with exotic email and out of the ordinary nickname who page me. Yeah, nickname and not ?type a personal message? feature which is available in at least MSN 7.5. I adopt lazes faire approach to ?personal message?.

So far, I have identified several reasons for such behaviour of hiding one?s identity behind a series of nameless-obscure-unrelated-blabber:

• People want to announce something important to everyone including people who are still using MSN 1.0 Beta which does not have ?personal message? feature and forget to include means for people to identify themselves.
• People addicted  to announce anything to everyone including people who are still using MSN 1.0 Beta? and forget or accidentally forget to?
• Split personality - the easy way out to blame almost everything
• Terrorists who are discussing their next-big-thing behind ?PeacefulBoy2001? and ?InnocentGirl777? try to avoid government?s detection - I just love conspiracy theory
• People who get satisfaction from typing ?How dare you forget about me!? or ?Guess! (grin)? - Don’t tell me such people exist.

I believe one of the above category should be correct. Hit me if you have other theory or disagree.

In any case, please be aware that I do not wish to persuade anyone to adopt clear and concise MSN nicknames (e.g. ?Aditya Lesmana, 20 years old single?). That will make MSN looks so unbearably dull and geeky. A simple telltale hint to help me remember who you are behind those nameless-obscure-unrelated-blabbers - initials, plain email id, etcetera ? will be much helpful for clueless people like me.

Oh my… what have I write. I just hope that people who read this entry do not put me in their MSN’s ignore list or blacklist.