Back on the first day of moderation, which was three years ago next week, me and the other original moderator ("Moderator1" a.k.a. "Burkey") decided to be anonymous. Randy assigned sequential handles, at our request.

About three weeks later we decided to end anonymous moderation, after a ground-swell effort of posters to "out" us . We decided to maintain the handle, as a way of people immediately knowing we were acting as a moderator. We added a signature line with our normal name, so posters knew who was behind the posting.

Soon after Burkey and I started moderating, a third moderator was named, but she decided to use her normal handle. I recall there were some instances where people weren't sure whether she was posting as a regular user or moderator, as the old software at that time did not have any sort of flag, Consequently I believe she would add a signature line to designate "official" moderation acts.

There was a pretty long period before other moderators were added, maybe six months. No one else apparently ever asked for a sequentially assigned name. Eventually the de facto practice was to use one's normal handle.

I have to log in and out, to change my handle. A bit of a pain I'll admit, but one wouldn't want to kill off a legacy tradition .