How I Came Up with My Username (WAW)

What does this image have to do with anything? I used it on YouTube once. And I would rather this be the top image.

For my second entry for Write Anything Wednesday, I have decided to share a story. This was inspired by vinneve, who asked me the question days ago.

About 7 years ago, I was thinking of a name to use for a DeviantArt account — when it was still written as deviantART — and possibly for YouTube. I wanted the name to be something unique and something that I wouldn’t mind using year after year.

Just how did I come up with Shmaltz and Menudo, though? I combined two terms that were “out there” in terms of daily usage — in my life and mainstream America. I first heard of the term “schmaltzy” when a film critic was basically panning the movie “Pay It Forward.” I had to look that up. The term “Menudo” was only familiar to me because of the now-defunct Puerto-Rican “boy band” that allowed Ricky Martin to jump into show business. I looked up both terms (for schmaltz and Menudo) before finally settling on this name.

Well, as you can see, I never used that name for DeviantArt and it took me awhile to use it for YouTube. Why is that? Snap decisions in regard to the former site and technicalities on the latter.

YouTube at the time was just weird in general — like it isn’t still. Amirite, folks? Anyway, pre-2012 or whatever, no one could create a username with a space in between words or use caps. There were also strict rules enforcing the types of names one could have. When I tried to type in “schmaltz,” I was stopped by some stupid notification that the name was already taken. It wouldn’t even let me use that just began with schmaltz, even if I wanted to add in my full chosen username.

While fiddling with this crap, I eventually dropped the c (like Shmaltz Brewing Company), but I was still rebuffed. And who the hell was this “shmaltz” guy on YouTube, anyway? I had to settle for a suggestion: TheOther Shmaltz.

Yeah, I didn’t really like the name. So when Google was offering people the chance to change usernames, I jumped on it. 💡 However, there was clearly a catch. People who decided to change their usernames (and sign up for a YouTube account) were automatically given a Google+ account. (And when people used their real names to sign up for YouTube, those were on display for lawdy dawdy and everybody.) Why if that person didn’t want to put their name out yet? Too bad, sucker!

Google is a pro at pissing off people who use its services. Before the Google+ business, it was about people being forced into using Cosmic Panda.

I swear, YouTube has been a nightmare since Google purchased it.

Over two years ago, there were a series of crappy changes. For one thing, people were forced into the Channel One format for their channels. Custom avatars were gone. And then there was no limit for the number of characters users could use for posts. That wouldn’t be abused at all. Nope.

Anyway, I fell for it 😡 , but I wanted that name change. (I would later get rid of the Google+ account. I had no use for it, anyway.)

And that is how I came up with my user name.

Why did I use it for WordPress, you ask? That’s easy. A new place, a new beginning — although I wanted to use a name that was familiar to me.

Fin.