Respectfully, I disagree but it's probably just a generational difference. A lot of us only took a new username if the one we chose when we were younger was offensive or if we drastically changed as a person. Once you had a username, That was your online name for the most part. If you wanted a new username, you'd search online to see if someone was using the new name you wanted and if nobody was, then you could use it. If people change their username often, that's hard to do now and people don't seem as concerned about taking a name already being used. Standards change, I get it, but I still think it sucks and can lead to potential problems later on.
Pirates or pirating, while on the tame side of potentially bad username choices, had/has to do with stolen programs, songs, games, etc so I changed it when I realized there were other connotations attached to it other than just the old pirates from history. I chose to put Invader in front of my name instead because of being a fan of Invader Zim, old sci-fi movies, and loving arcades (Space Invaders being one of the games I was best at). I also didn't feel like I belonged well… like I was an outsider, an alien, an alien invader. As an invader, I could invade other parts of the internet (just by being there) and maybe invade my way into the hearts of others (friendship) which I liked the idea of. And after a search with no hits, I saw nobody else had InvaderBethany yet so it could be mine for the taking. Using someone else’s username (which people have since done) was seen as a disrespectful thing. Again, standards change so I just have to deal with it that others have started using my online name for themselves and I just have to hope they don't cause too much trouble connected to the name.
