The Effulgence spoilers mentioned in the thread title concern which templates have appeared or will be appearing in which worlds and their relevant characteristics.
The parameters of a DW screenname are:
- it must be between 2 and 25 characters (inclusive)
- it must use only alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9) and underscores
- it can't start or end with an underscore, or have two consecutive underscores
- Avoid numerals unless you have some kind of pun or reference or letter substitution or other clever use for them that is so blazingly brilliant it overcomes my aesthetic dislike
- Use underscores sparingly, for noble causes. Noble causes include:
- Improving the pacing of the phrase - I had a never-used Rorschach journal on LJ called and_god_was_not, and it just wouldn't have worked as andgodwasnot. Too fast and mumbly. Likewise some of my Effulgence journals, like hold_infinity and fiery_delights.
- Improving the parsing of the phrase - Lalita's dream_me_up would be much harder to read as dreammeup.
- Emphasizing alliteration or other parallels - e.g. free_flowing, pumpkin_pie.
- I really like phrases that are from something, like a song or poem or somebody's canon or an existing thread. But things that aren't are okay too, if they fit the character well in some way.
- I try to avoid screennames that are or contain the actual name of the character, or one they frequently use, or anything else I'm going to be saying verbatim in narration attached to that screenname, because it will pain me with pains every time I do it. But sometimes I can be tempted to make an exception, if there's some kind of play on the name that is just perfect.
- I try to avoid using words that need apostrophes - it's, don't, I'm, et cetera - because they can't have them and it makes me sad.
If you want to check if a screenname is available, you can go here and type it in under "Account name" (but please don't actually go on to create it because then i cannot use it myself XD), or try going to [attemptedscreenname].dreamwidth.org and see whether you get someone's actual journal or a variation on "There is no user qqqqqqqqqqqq at Dreamwidth Studios." But you don't have to do this part if you don't feel like it; you can just throw suggestions around regardless. In fact, I encourage making suggestions even if you know they aren't available, because there's always a chance that I or somebody can come up with a variant or derivative that's still free.
I'm gonna nab the first post of this thread to list screennames I need, so it'll be easier to go back and edit the lists later as I will inevitably need to do.
