I feel like I recognise maybe 80% of the posters I see...

I generally don't recognize usernames and don't look at them too much

There's the guy who uses thorns (who I have tagged as Nigel þornberry)

There's maybe a half-dozen frequent posters who I'm genuinely not sure if they're masterful trolls, some kind of AI training bots, or just really need to go touch grass (preferably on their way to a therapist's office.)

There's one dude whose username just happened to stick out to me after having a random conversation or two with him and seeing him being a generally pretty decent dude around Lemmy, I tagged him "this guy seems cool" at some point, and at some point it occurred to me that he might appreciate knowing that, so I shot him a message, and sure enough he did. I now consider him to be a pretty good friend, which is a new experience for me, I've never really been one to have online friends, I (somehow) do pretty well at making friends in meatspace and have never really felt a need to seek out an online friendship.

There's a handful of people who have said some incredibly dumb shit that I've tagged (for example one dude who I tagged "Tankie, down vote and ignore" although the last few times I've seen him pop up it seems like he may have mellowed out a bit, so good for him)

I recognize kolanki (I doubt I'm spelling it correctly, but the person with the large blue name), pugjesus, the picard maneuver, violet08, that fucking cm0002 with the 5,000 alt accounts, and that's about it.

What happened to flying squid? They had some health problems and then talked about moving and then disappeared.

We used to see a MargotRobbie but they stopped. Dunno why. They committed to the bit, though.

Ladybutterfly or something like that

I've been here for 2 years and I only recognize violet08 and the_Picard_maneuver. Oh and Nicole, the girl with glasses who wanted me

I could recognise a violet or PugJesus post without nametags! I enjoy both posters' content although violet's is a bit concerning and less educational, lol. Oh, and the guy who only posts anti-Western narratives memes, he always gets downvoted but he keeps at it like Marx's strongest soldier 😅. There was also this maniac called Satan'sSomethingSomething I just had to block on two different accounts. Finally, there are several posters I have personally tagged cause I regularly see eye to eye with them, or at least I consider reasonable, prosocial and capable of having a normal conversation (flaxvert, Maeve, VikingHippie, among others). 👍

I tag folks based off interactions, so after a couple years on here there's a lot of names I recognize. Most of them are regular posters or admins (Pugjesus, Stametz, Violet08, Mrdown, Picard Manuver, Geneva Convenience, ada, db0, etc. who don't need to be bothered with tags) or people who I have a special friendship with like @AntiBullyRanger (I really hope you're doin' okay) or my legit bro @toynbee@piefed.social

Then theres various regular commentators on my NSFW posts like @StrangeBedfellow@lemmynsfw.com and @Keepthoseeyeslockedonmine@kinkycats.org who I appreciate a ton!

(Personally, I was once asked out of the blue by @WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today to give my opinion in a discussion about battery tech. I think at the end this will probably be where I consider my life to have peaked.)

If they comment/post a lot and use an avatar or have emojis in their display name, I probably recognize them.

Very few I recognize by name alone.

Oh man, lots. Ada, Kolanki, WorldsDumbestMan, SatansMaggottyCumFart, Neidu, LadyButterfly, CaptainLezbian, CptAggravated, that one guy with the Chinese symbols whose mom is a piece of work, Stamets when he's posting, Sunshine, Blaze, DistantSounds, Sodalite - the list goes on and on.

I may spend too much time here, lol.

When I start recognizing a username it's usually because that person is about to get blocked. Applies to quite many users mentioned here too.

I think the small size of the platform is a bit of an issue in this case. The only way to not get "famous" here is by constantly having to make new accounts.

"He's just this guy, you know?"

There's a guy who thinks I'm some kind of troll or bot and tries to "call me out" by name every once in a while, I suppose that counts.

Personally, I try not to pay close attention to usernames - I want to engage with what's said, not form opinions about the people saying it.

This is gonna sound really terrible, but... I generally don't recognize people by name so much... maybe something dyslexia related? I think there are a couple of rare exceptions, like the user with two letters and then four numbers in their name.

I recognize lots of avatars, as I scroll around, but I don't generally register the names or even descriptions of the images, just kind of like... my brain just remembers purplish-blob shape, red glowy circle, monochromatic goblet.

Oh, and dancing banana, and blue name furry. I actually remember his, it's Kolanki I think

All of you users with no avatar, go get one so I remember you all please! It's an accessability aid in a way :p

I recognize anon6789 from superbowl, deathbybigsad, and Picard maneuver I'm going to bed soon tho so that's all I've got for now

I don't really pay attention to user names when I read, but there are a few frequent posters that I've recognized

For me, one of the great things about this general style of "News Aggregation" social media is that it's community/topic focused rather than being focused on individual personalities/identities. So, in that respect, I really don't notice or pay attention to the usernames, aside from blocking/filtering out all the crumby people that make this place a much worse experience for me. Out of sight, out of mind, so I couldn't even tell you who those people are.

Way too soon to notice specific people. I suck at focusing on/distinguishing people. They all melt together into one homogeneous background mass, in online world and in real life.

It takes repeated exposure in the same environment under same conditions for me to start noticing them and even then there's no guarantee that outside said training environment i notice them.

I recognize a few dozen usernames on sight, most of which have already been mentioned. Voyager tracks how many times you've up/downvoted each person and shows it next to their name, which makes it easy to recognize accounts after a while.

Though looking through the comments here there are only three posters who I've never upvoted, two of whom have the new user tag, and almost all that do have votes have two or three digit upvote totals. The Fediverse is definitely small and held up by the frequent posters. It's rare to see a truly new face.

I thought I posted too much on my alt on another instance.

Glad I don't see the username here, cause at least that means I wasn't super annoying lmao

I think everyone here has already posted all the names I usually see.

There's also stamets, though I haven't seen them active in places I visit in awhile. Also a few users with custom names like Admiral Patrick or Riker Maneuver.

I recognise SharkFucker420 for some reason ...

I don't recognize anyone, I don't focus on who says stuff but what is said. I ignore the user and the instance (like ignoring ads on websites) and read the content. Only when it's uncanny pro Russia I check if it's an ml user. I never block or tag, too much work.

I'm actually a bit surprised by the responses here. I know a lot of the names mentioned here, but there are more I don't recognize than I had expected. Sometimes it does feel a little small of a group here, but seeing both the number of names I do recall aaaand all the ones I don't both help me feel this place is about 50% bigger than I had felt.

It seems there are more of you I've yet to get to know. 😄

What I'm really curious of is how many people's block lists I'm on. I'm pretty rarely controversial, but I'm sure I've had to have annoyed someone by now or bored someone to tears with endless owl superbness.

There are a few names I informally had good vibes for. I started using tagging to keep track of folks a bit. This especially helped with the opposite because blocking someone who is grossely bad is an easy decision but I like to give the benefit of the doubt. Now I can tag. It kinda gives me this this I wanted from trust cafe where you can rate verything but instead I tag it.

I don't recognise many, but there are a few that pop up regularly like PugJesus, Picard Maneuver and K O L O N A K I.

I recognize some people. Haiii does anybody recognize mee

I try to keep in mind the names of those that I regularly interact with, and even try to pay attention to who my regular lurkers are. While I mainly just interact with people replying to my posts, I lurk a ton myself, but there I think I'm more familiar with the names of the people I am not the biggest fan of, since I don't usually block anyone.

So far in this thread, I feel familiar with:

ada, JetpackJackson, nemo, SnotFlickerman, and I've seen a number of things from my bearboiblake recently

I went on whatever that Fediverse stat tool page is today and was able to predict most of my top ten people I comment with.

I enjoy the relatively small size of the Fediverse, and I like that I get to become familiar with so many of you.

So far, nobody's mentioned recognizing me, despite the fact that I feel like I comment a lot (an unhealthy amount, really).

I'm not sure whether to feel insulted or relieved.

I tag users occasionally when they stand out to me, so I recognize those people but often forget why I tagged them as such lol

Names come and go. Givessomefucks is the only one that comes to mind. Mostly I just respond to the words. My client shows an upvote total. I guess I start to recognize names when someone states running that upvote total up.

Words are more important than identity. That's why I'm on anonymous social media in the first place. I might be a cantankerous asshole in one thread because mood, and the next I'm offering advice with authenticity and lived experience. Those two posts might as well be written by different people.

I don't buy into celebrity, no matter how small.

I only tend to recognize the users I have assigned custom tags to. Usually to mark them as trolls or suspected bots, but sometimes just because they told a funny story or are enthusiastic about something specific.

There are quite a few names I recognize from post activity or unique characters in their name and then there are some that I recognize by their comments like one user I think their name is BigMacHole, I'll read a comment and know it's them before even checking the username because of the way they write their comments.

I notice a couple of people :)

Rimu is awesome and I use piefed every day.

Sunshine ans Blaze are nice and usually have insightful comments. Or memes.

Theres pmjv with awsome comics and ART https://analognowhere.com/techno-mage/on_the_frontier/

Too dang many of y'all. I blame my job not caring if I'm on my phone, ignore the fact that it began years ago when I had a job that required actually paying attention all day.

There's a few big names, I usually find it interesting seeing which instances people are on and whether they carry some kind of theme. The people in the Star Trek instance, forget the name, usually have pretty good memes for example

i only see username@domain.tld on my client but still remember quite a lot of people. I guess like 10 or a bit more.

I've had a couple of people recognise me from previous comments I made. It really warmed my heart to hear. I don't post often, but I do comment a fair amount.

A few people are notable to me, starting with mr furry himself who goes into NSFW topics to make jokes out of them, amongst other things, Kolanki or however you spell that is rarely 100% serious.

@Warl0k3@lemmy.world Pretty much I just like and respect scientists, and I did a stupid by involving her in a thread about batteries, forgetting she is not omniscient. (I also didn't expect her to post what she did, and was surprised big time, so double-burned into my memory).

@Staments (can't spell that). For posting like 90% of content, and being a notable person with ADHD.

@Violet08 obviously, for the moxy (social aptitude), and more obviously starting the whole hornyposting trend.

LadyButterfly is notable and present in many communities, so of course I recognize them. Also does a lot of mental health posts, so they are quite awesome imho.

ComradeSharkFucker for no earned reason actually, I just think the name is funny and tagged them whenever I see an user with the username Shark.

DortOwl, something about the pf, and they comment a lot in certain communities.

The chalice guy, and GreenKnight, they farm downvotes and are a necessary evil.

The administrator of coursr MrManager or something, what a funny username for an Admin to have.

I'm sure I recognize more when I see them, but I can't recall.

EDIT: @sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com how could I forget? I see him comment on a lot of posts and pissed him off often, but one day we corrected a misunderstanding, and he said something so perfect that I cursed being straight in that moment. Man almost single-handedly turned me gay. But unfortunately, I thought about it, but just can't enjoy men.

UnderpansWevil, man has a lot of hot takes iirc.

Boop or something was his username, for reposting and stealing likes. Being a pain in the ass to avoid.

Never had anyone recognize me (I post and comment sparsely and in short bursts) but I recognize a lot of other names. Most of which I'm sure the average Lemmy user recognizes.

I recognize the people who post their art. There are a few people in particular who I especially like seeing what they've made.

Nobody really knows me.

I recognize a decent number of people, lots of famous frequent posters have already been mentioned but I also tend to remember trolls and people with bad takes.

I recognize a lot of frequent posters, as well as a few people from some more niche communities. It's nice that the platform is small enough for that to actually happen. I wouldn't really expect anyone to recognize me, as I don't comment a whole lot and haven't made any posts.

I’m not a big poster. Across 3 accounts (RIP lemm.ee) I have less than five total. I do comment a lot in various communities.

Flyingsquid was a big one and other people mentioned him.

Lately, it's Victoria08. There is someone with a disgusting name that I won’t type out, let’s just call him Satan… Deceptichum?

I remember some Star Trek community fractured and the two people that did all of the memes there split but for some reason I can’t remember their names. Probably Miles or something.

Well, I recognize a few people. But I'm to busy to really post and comment to much to be known. But hey, while I'm here does anyone recognize me?

I recognise your mum

There are some people i pay attention to more than others, certainly.

i recognize @sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com because we think a lot alike and i can see that i would be exactly in their position if i had started life in a different environment.

apart from that i recognize maybe 20 usernames, the lemmyverse is indeed small, it's easier to recognize people with pfp, i hope i get recognized too from time to time as a calm and reasonable person, idk what else to say.

Kind of a scary question lol.

I recognize a few people here and there. Some mentioned already. I tend to remember Prole. I think they have my highest number od up votes per voyager. But I think what really makes them stick out is the fact I agree with 99% of their posts I see, but every now and again they say something I very much disagree with. Which throws me for a loop

I am always right.

I am also an asshole.

mostly just to make people stop and take a position other than what they normally do so they can experience something new.

I low key know everyone from tenforward and I love them all. ♥️

I worry about becoming too recognizable because I have an unconscious bias to begin self-censoring my harsher opinions once I begin to "know" people in the online space. I prioritize people's feelings over being right, and that can cause me to sugarcoat too often when someone I like says something truly tonedeaf or unintelligent.

I just wanna be able to say "The US is a fucking third world shithole" without some American acquaintance giving me the 🥺 and making me feel like a bastard man about it lolol

I don't really pay attention. I come here to quip. It's like a mental purge for me.

The big ones I recognize:

• SatansMaggottyCumFart
• Stamets
• The Picard Manuever
• poVoq
• PugJesus
• fossilesque
• Cowbee
• ComradeSharkFucker
• ThefuzzFurryComrade
• lumpenproletariat
• GodlessCommie
• Bad
• UniversalMonk

There's a few more that I can't think of off the top of my head. It's nice that the community is small enough to recognize people so often.

Some peoples' usernames stand out, for sure, for one reason or another. Mostly the big ones, they've all been mentioned here already, I don't feel a need to mention them here again.

I feel... okay? with not seeing my own name mentioned here, but then again I don't consider myself to be a power user or whatever. I mostly just like answering questions here.

I don't really look at usernames but there are a few that are un-miss-able.

I do recognize a few names and avatars whose (nuanced and articulated) participation I appreciate... even if we don't always agree.

But to be honest, most of the time I browse without much consideration for the name of who posted or commented, and it is only after I've read a fine post/comment that I will check the user name to see if I know them and if so, what I can recall of our previous exchanges.

The people that get to really irk me they quickly end up being blocked, so I very quickly completely forget about them.

I see @MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz and a few others in the *moe communities regularly.

Someone on here with a Futurama pfp that posts funny memes on lemmy shitpost. I forgot the username.

I recognize the person that runs my instance, and I recognize some names because a good amount of time a single user on here is the only one that keeps a comm active.

And I recognize some of the alts of users that I block.

There are a few users I seem to run into regularly, but as with Reddit it's mostly disembodied thoughts floating in the ether. I personally prefer the more personal interactions of old forums. I feel like if anyone here knows me, it's as that guy who's constantly whining about how political everything is on here and won't shut up about his ultra-niche hobbies.

I recognize D_a_X :)

A few names here and there.

I've been recognized in a hentai community or two. 😆

And I certainly recognize a lot of names mentioned ITT.

I mostly recognize names in the art communities, especially if it's people posting their own art. You get to know a person's style.

Aside from ladybutterfly and sunshine, I only really recognize people that I've tagged. And I tend to tag people for pretty arbitrary reasons.

A few stand out besides the most prolific posters. There's only a few other !sumo@lemmy.world fans on here so I remember sergio for sure. Otherwise I've seen a couple people making nitpicky grammar nazi type comments which kind of annoys me and is antithetical to how I see grammar as a descriptivist, so I tend to notice those. Seems to be less of it these days though; a couple years ago feels like I'd run into a handful of those comments every day.

Scrolled through found many recognisable names ladybutterfly, kolanaki, lots of others.

Didn't see Blaze@piefed.zip shout out required.

Its interesting a lot of the names I see are definitely found in the 'all' crowd of lemmy, but theres lots of users who are prolific, but spend their time in more secluded areas of the network that i'd recognise.

Recognise a fair few that have been mentioned. Oh, also that Hossenfeffer chap but he's nowhere near as funny as he thinks he is.

He is posting. I'm literally in one of MrShankles posts Right Now! Crazy.

I don't personally use Lemmy for nsfw stuff, but I'm never mad about MentalEdge's posts when I'm cruising all.

@meow@discuss.tchncs.de

I have started to recognize a quite a few folks here and there. Most I recognize for good posts/comments. Even a few that I don’t necessarily agree with, but they are respectful and thoughtful in their replies.

A couple I recognize for not so great reasons, but this space is pretty small so I try not to block folks unless they are outright awful. For most in this category, I just tag and avoid replying to them in the future rather than blocking.

I'm somewhat new, and don't pay a lot of attention to usernames or use the user notes feature (kind of forgot it existed), so I mostly only recognize particularly distinctive usernames. There are a few I'll recognize when I see them, but the only one that's seared into my brain enough to list it offhand is a certain Satanic name.

There's a few regular posters I enjoy seeing, especially some folks in the !birding@lemmy.world community.

I recognize quite a few people.

RIP Nicole

Besides the people already mentioned I recognize the threads.com guy, some instance admins and pmjv

I mainly recognize PugJesus, SatansMagottyCumFart and like the other two or three lithuanians on here.

Who was that one guy obsessively posting after he read "A Brave New World"?

I notice a lot of the more prolific posters and commenters, for better or worse. Even more so the ones with distinct avatars since I associate that picture with what they post and my client has avatars on by default.

I feel like I often recognize others, but I obviously can't tell who I don't recognize 🤷

most usernames I'm seeing here I have blocked, due to the prolific nonsense they post.

I remember most people I interact with, good or bad.

I only recognize PugJesus by name and there are a few regular posters on the trans communities who I recognize in their pictures.

I came here to be misremembered.

I specifically use this platform to fly under the radar, if anyone remembers me. I apologize. Im usually on the toilet waxing bullshit till my leg goes numb.

The only opinion I respect is satansmaggotycumfart