Fandom Sunshine Day 2

The sunshine_challenge today is to reflect on one's fandom name.

I shall do my best.

I honestly can't remember how I found fandom, though the initial steps had to have been on CompuServe in the early 90s because that's where just about everything in my internet life began. There was an active RPG community there which I threw myself into because a) I'd just gone off to college and desperately missed my high school RPG group and b) I learned that anyone who game mastered on the forums could get free access. In an era where CompuServ cost $8.95/hr, this was huge. I don't remember if I was required to have a handle there or if it was just what all the cool game masters were doing, but I do remember trying on and discarding a number of possible names.

The one that stuck came from a person I made the mistake of calling a boyfriend. He was convinced that he was a reincarnated Gold dragon (why I didn't take this at a hint to run, I'll never know). Though he didn't use it as his name, he was Lord Gold, which made me his Lady Silver.

When I made the jump to the internet proper, I started with my college email account and real name because it's what I had. In short order, though, I started collecting every free email address I could get my hands on, none of which required my real name to be associated with it. I still have and use one as my now most enduring sock. Presumably the others are still out there, though I haven't checked in ages.

Then I started the Tomorrow People lists. The server the lists ran from required an 8 character handle for the account. For lack of anything better, I went with ladyslvr. That email address quickly went from my list-only account to my primary account, which meant ladyslvr became my name for every log in everywhere. (Surprisingly, a lot of people assumed the major missing vowel at the end was an "a," which made for some awkward conversations with airlines and phone companies.)

Around 2004, I started to fade from fandom. I resigned from running the lists and closed the account a few years later, thus ending Fandom Round 1.

In 2011, Teen Wolf premiered, and I threw myself head first back into fandom, initiating Fandom Round 2. In the interim, LJ had risen (and was starting its decline, though I didn't know that yet), AO3 had been born, and I had established myself personally and professionally such that I did not want any connection between my fannish identity and wallet identity. This led to some challenges as my names were inextricably linked. Also, I was still in contact with many people who knew me from FR1.

There wasn't much I could do about point two except swear people to secrecy. The facts that I'm Facebook friends with most of the original Tomorrow People fandom, I've met them in real life at fannish events, and I've also shared non-fannish activities with more than a few didn't leave other options.

Given that, point one was also largely moot. But, I wanted a new LJ that was fandom only, which required a new name. And I was thoroughly sick of the LadySilver name, which made for a stronger reason to seek a new name. After some deep thought (10 minutes of pondering, maybe?), I turned in one silver for another and went with Argentum--not making any connection until months later to the Argent family in Teen Wolf. Alas, Argentum was taken, so, in lieu of appending numbers on the name, I appended my fannish initials. There's either an underscore or a hyphen between the two bits, depending on what the platform would accept, unless there isn't.

And then I made my AO3 account with the LadySilver name. sighs

So now I use everything interchangeably.

If you need something to call me, Argentum and LS both work great. Please don't call me LadySilver. I hate it. And, if you know my real name, I kindly ask you to not use it in fannish spaces.