Copy and paste from a similar 2021 thread:
Back in the early 2000s I used to participate in the official Nintendo “Nsider” forums with the exact username I use today. It was giant with sub forums for each IP. I was originally browsed the Animal Crossing boards, a bit of the Smash bros, the off-topic “Power On” etc. Eventually I stuck almost exclusively with the Pokemon board and was relatively active there. Back then my #1 Pokemon was Wingull, and Flying type was (and still is) my favourite.
In 2007, Nsider was “indefinitely” shut down and many spin-off communities were made. I went with a group of Pokemon people to a small community; haven’t talked to any of them in a while but we were close for years. We would often communicate through MSN messenger but there was a period of time where it was on it’s way out to be replaced with [trash] Skype and so we experimented with alternative chat systems. One was Xat and it was basically a proto-Discord. (I swear this is going somewhere).
When you join a Xat room it automatically assigns you a silly username. I mine was “SnuggyBunny” and I stuck with it for a bit. The bunny thing became what I guess you could call a meme and I just embraced it. Eventually, rabbits just became my favourite animal because of the association and I even got a pet bunny because of it.
Because it was around 2007-2008ish, Buneary/Lopunny were “the rabbit” Pokemon and since this community I participated in was primarily Pokemon-based it just ended up being my favourite. I’ve just carried that and the rabbit thing to today. I think in online communities like this, it helps to have some identity or easy association for people to make. But maybe I could have chose a better “identity” since people just assume it’s a creepy furry thing but I’m pretty used to it at this point and it doesn’t bother me.
P.S. Here’s a card
