People who write online often write for a number of different reasons, or with a number of different aims/purposes in mind. When I first signed up with HubPages I chose a user name that is a derivative of the well established pen name, under which I'd been doing writing that fell under the category of "spare-time writing". By the time I found HubPages I'd already been earning from some writing (of one type or another) under that pen name. There were a lot of questionable looking "writing sites", some of which had some pretty "nasty looking" material; and it turned out that a few of those folded soon after I signed up with them (only to realize that I was too uncomfortable with the "level" of some of the stuff to want to invest too much time on them). When I say "level" I'm not talking about level of writing quality. I'm referring more to level of crudeness and "anything-goes-ness".
HubPages was quite the mix of writing (and "not exactly writing"), but it wasn't like some of those "anything-truly-goes" sites. This was a little over seven years ago, and members were essentially told to write what they wanted (within some limits), and if it was useful I might make some money. It was simple (kind of still is, even with all the changes that have taken place over the years). But, I still wasn't really sure what to write, and the whole "atmosphere" of the site didn't lead me to think there'd be much earning potential beyond the same few-dollars-a-month level I was reaching on any number of other, similar, sites. So, not takng the site very seriously and also wanting to write some things that by that time were no longer "invited" on some of the other sites; I wanted to separate my pen-name writing fom my HP writing (sort of); and, at the time of sign up, I quickly whipped up the derivative of the pen name.
As it was, I hated the pen name and had "whipped up" that in a hurry, but it had become a "dba type of thing" by then. So, from the time I signed up with HP I've hated the user name that I selected in such a hurry (and one cannot change a user name on there). At first it didn't matter, but as I started to earn money on HP there was the whole thing about having a "history" (etc.) with that account (which meant it wasn't to my benefit to delete it).
Around five years ago I decided to, once and for all, gradually shift from the user name that I hated to a user name that I didn't hate quite so much. Even then, though, I didn't really have plans to write under my real name (at least not on HP). That's when I started the "WordCrafter09" account. It's also when some stuff went on in my personal life (a very distracting leg injury, to name one thing) that made me kind of put on hold any plans for the second account.
Somewhere in the mix over the last four/five years, Panda shook the world of online writing/content-producing, and Panda's, Penguines, and whoever/whatever else have continued being "rolled out". Since then, and mainly because I haven't really known what I'd be doing with any of HP stuff under the "main" (original) user name.
Then, more time passed and during that t me I'd begun doing more writing in my real name (not on HubPages). Basically, there's been some version of upheaval pretty much everywhere that has anything to do with what I write, where I write, and the circumstances under which I write. I don't want a "zillion" HP accounts, so I'd kind of resigned myself to accepting the reasonably acceptable (to me) "WordCrafter09" name. Still, me being me (which means being irked when things don't seem "just right"), I was always kind of ignoring the back-of-the-mind dilemma of whether should just start a new HP account under my real name, delete the WordCrafter09 account, and leave the old "Lisa" account until whatever chips fall or changes are made that would make it clear what i should do with that account.
I'm not someone who cares about things like scores or accolades on HP, but I'll admit to kind of liking the fact that my account is now seven years old on there. I don't know... There's something about even "tentative longevity" or "precarious longevity" that suggests at least a hint of stability in the largely unstable, and ever-changing, world of the Internet.
Now HP has made some changes with how user names are being shown on profiles, and it has worked out pretty well for me with my five-year-old WC account (not as "tentatively stable" as a seven-year-old account, but more stable than a newer one.
In any case, with two accounts remaining in general upheaval of one kind of another, at least my own aims and the aims (at least for now) of HP seem to generally match (at least in this one way).
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