Mr. Initial Man

Furcadia

I’d been kicking around Furcadia since at least 2003 (which is how far back my oldest characters date), but it wasn’t until the Noble Hyooman was offered as a digo (buyable avatar) that I brought Mr. Initial Man into the game.

Fursonæ and Personæ

I am not entirely sure when I became Mr. Initial Man. The last possible year this could have happened is 2001, as that's as far back as my e-mail accounts date, though I think I was online earlier, maybe as far back as the late 1990s. As there are no archives of the internet from back then—at least, no archives of the InsideTheWeb bulletin boards that I know of—I pick the late 1990s as when I got this moniker and go with that. Yes, there’s a story behind it, but because it was in the ROC that I got this nickname, I’ll tell the story in that section.

Redwall Online Community

I got this name as a joke.

On the Out-Of-Character InsideTheWeb bulletin board for the Redwall Roleplaying Club Empire of Sampetra: Imperial Navy Serving Ublaz (don’t go looking for it, InsideTheWeb shut down in 2001, and EoS:INSU has been offline for years as well), I’d sign my posts with J.D.W.P.X.M.V.D.K., which stood for John-David Wesley Philip Xebastion MacColl Vickers Doornenbal Kraaikamp—a conglomeration of my legal name, a name my late grandaunt always called me, the maiden names of my maternal grandmother, mother, and paternal grandmother respectively, and the fact that I thought Sebastion was a cool name but would be even cooler if spelled with an X.

It was one of those cringey phases people go through when they’re in their teens and early 20s, and I was no different.

As a result of this, some wag on the bulletin board—you know who you are—started calling me Mr. Initial Man as a result. Judging from the conbadges dating as far back as 2004, my user name on many forums, my instant messenger usernames, my email addresses, and the very URL of this website, it seems to have stuck.