How did you come up with your username? Why did you choose it?

[HisVirusness]

One of my father's favorite bands is the Reverend Horton Heat. Jim Heath was given that as a nickname from the owner of the nightclub he first played at, so when he started a band, that became their name. My father, correctly figuring I was going to get into performing arts, always told me you didn't give yourself a stage name, and he'd use that as his prime example.

Years later, I was doing stand up comedy on the northside of Chicago, and became a regular at a couple of open mics and showcases. One of the bookers would introduce me as "The Virus", inspired by a tattoo I have, and also because I was unnecessarily loud and abrasive on stage. I just embraced it, and "HisVirusness" became my online moniker that didn't incorporate numbers or contain my initials.

[Dan Q]

I've used a lot of usernames over the years. Probably the first one, which I used to use on BBSes in the early 90s, was "Diceman". Like the George Cockcroft (Luke Rhinehart) book, but in my case it was a school nickname because back then I collected dice.

Much later I became "Scatman Dan" in many circles, after Scatman John, after some new friends from university discovered that I knew all of Scatman John's lyrics by heart.

But by the time you've shed your anonymity online, the horse has already bolted and there's little use shutting the stable door. So nowadays, I just go by my real, full name basically everywhere. If you see a "Dan Q"... it's probably me... or else some annoying Dan Quayle or Dan Quigley or similarly-named person who's chosen to use just the initial of their surname with no regard for those of me whose surname only has a single character in the first place, grr.

Upside: I'm very easy to find, because my name is short and unique. Downside: the same thing.

tl;dr: it's my actual name