AIM is lame

Way back in 1994, when I was still a frustrated AOL dial-up customer and was dreaming of the day when I'd have something like a DSL connection to my home, I registered two AIM IDs: markdrury and AIMisLAME. The latter was chosen in response to some aggravating email and instant messaging behavior in the AOL client software, behavior I can't now remember, thankfully. I've been using AIMisLAME ever since, and I've discovered in the intervening years that thousands of people answer the question, "What is your AIM ID?" with the offhand "AIM is lame," an answer that far too many people take literally.

Nearly every day that I login to AIM for an hour or more I get a message from someone I do not know, one that begins something like: "Yo, [expletive], waddup?" Depending upon my mood and how busy I am, I'll either play along or will tell the errant IMer that I am not the person s/he thinks I am. It can often take five or ten messages to make clear that I am not, in fact, "... Crissy from the Superbowl party, the blond who was there with Derek but who looked unhappy and was leaving with two girlfriends, and who said her AIM ID was 'AIM is lame' with a smirk as she breezed out the front door." Here is but one such exchange:

(12:52:10) D81385: hey!! i stalked u and took yr sn from facebook! lol
(12:52:25) AIMisLAME: Cool. Who is this?
(12:52:31) D81385: yr rapid vis lover!
(12:52:41) AIMisLAME: Hardly.
(12:52:47) D81385: its danielle
(12:53:03) AIMisLAME: Hey Danielle. Do you want the good news or the bad news first?
(12:53:12) D81385: ??
(12:54:07) AIMisLAME: Good news is I'm a relatively nice guy who gets misguided aims such as yours all the time. Bad news is I'm not who you think I am: http://drury.com/oldindex.html.
(12:54:29) D81385: oh damn sorry
(12:54:33) AIMisLAME: NP
(12:54:41) D81385: :) bye
(12:54:45) AIMisLAME: Later
(12:54:49) D81385 logged out.

You get the idea. Why the hell I still use the ID is unclear, but that makes me lame, too.

(An older yet pithy animated gif from daw_)