I have a little bit different "take" on this.

For years I was involved in Cowboy Action Shooting, a scenario based shooting sport done in costume with old-west guns or modern replicas thereof. It's tons of fun, btw and straight shaving would be a huge hit in that crowd.

When you join the organization (SASS=Single Action Shooting Society) you register an "alias" for yourself. Most folks think very hard about their alias, the character they want to portray. Since I'm a clergyman and a professor, some of the guys started hanging "Reverend Doc" on me and so I registered that as my alias.

In this game, we have tons of fun and regularly shoot with the same folks and there are online forums, etc. The funny thing is, the aliases don't seem impersonal or evasive at all. There are people I have known and shot matches with for 10-15 years and still, only know them by their alias. We've talked about our marriages, our kids, our faiths (or lack of it), and yet never seen each other in street clothes! It's weird to realize for a decade I've shot with some guy who looks like a saloon keeper and find out he's a county prosecutor or catholic priest.

In other words, a "handle" or alias, or username, can be a fun and authentic part of an experience.