Non-Greek with Greek Screen Name

SATX*APhi · #1 06-23-2002, 06:42 PM

Earlier today I received an IM on AOL from a gentleman whose SN has the name of a fraternity. On his profile it states where he goes to school (which is in the same city where I go to school), so I figured he was a member of this certain fraternity at the school listed on his profile. I mentioned to him that his fraternity had invited my sorority to a party this past spring and he mentioned to me that he WAS NOT a member of this fraternity and was going to "pledge" in the fall.

I would not want someone who is not in my sorority affiliating themselves with my sorority like this guy has done. He may be a great guy, but everything this guy says to someone via IM, or even e-mail, affiliates him with this fraternity, which he is not a member of. It's a little deceiving. His response when I asked why he had the name of the fraternity in his SN if he is not a member: "i was thinkin of joinin." That's great! But what if for some reason he does not go through recruitment, or what if he does but he does not join this fraternity? I asked if he was a legacy, which might explain why, but he said no.

Something about this just does not sound right. Why would someone put a certain fraternity or sorority in their SN if they are not a member, to make others think that they are? This just rubs me the wrong way.

carnation · #2 06-23-2002, 07:12 PM

Seems like that could kill your chances of pledging. Remember that girl last year who was going through rush and used ChiO in her screenname? Someone politely pointed out that doing that could be seen as presumptuous. (GC never heard from her again.)

ThielGirlie · #3 06-23-2002, 07:37 PM

I think that's kinda rude to use a GLO's name in your screen name and not being a member of it... Most of my friends that are greek went and changed their screen name to one with their org's name in it the day they accepted their bid. I think that's a really cool idea, because then they were able to announce to the world their affiliation... with a screen name that said it, too!

I kinda equate the screen name thing with the woman that lives across the street from me that wore her cousin's ZTA letter shirt all the time... She was never a ZTA, but she TOLD people she didn't know (like Wal-Mart and stuff) that she was!

She ALWAYS wore it, and then about a week ago I asked her if I could buy it from her for $5, and she accepted it! I'm gonna give it to one of the ZTA's I know at school, cause I can't stand to see her wearing them when she was never even a member...

dekeguy · #4 06-23-2002, 07:43 PM

This is only kind of related to your comments about user names, but in the last few years I have met three different guys whose first names were 'Deke' but they were not DKEs. One was an SAE, one was an ADG, and one was a non-Greek. When I first met them I asked what chapter they hailed from and was told that no, that was their real first name, not their fraternity. They were not legacies and had no apparent connection. It was just what they had been given as first names. My Dad told me that Deke or Deak was a fairly popular boy's name in the deep south when he was growing up. I suppose it still is. Must have been funny for a guy named Deke to pledge SAE or ADG!

KappaTarzan · #5 06-23-2002, 07:45 PM

haha i've actually had a confrontation regarding misrepresentation of an org before... not a pretty thing.. something i feel so strongly about. DO NOT PRETEND TO BE A MEMBER OF A GLO IF YOU ARE NOT!!!! even if you are going to rush!!

dekeguy · #6 06-23-2002, 07:53 PM

Or if they have to say anything, maybe "wannabee XYZ"
but yeah, don't claim letters that aren't yours.

kddani · #7 06-23-2002, 07:57 PM

Why do people want to be posers?
Kappa Delta has an extensive online community, strongly through our Yahoo group.
There was a girl named Fallon who jonied the list, said she had been a KD and had transferred to another school. She basically tried to affiliate with that chapter, and they found out there's never been anyone named Fallon that was a KD! Ever!
She joined in our messages frequently, and we actually busted her during our weekly chat. Basically we had all put two and two together, someone did the research on her through our Headquarters, and we confronted her. She made up all these stories about the stress she was under, yada yada yada and evaded the question we asked: what's your pin number? why are you lieing?
She blocked each and every one of us from her IM list and was never heard from again.
We were really upset because she seemed like a great girl, but deceived us like that! Someone in the group had even sent her a small present and a card, and we were just deceived.
Why would people want to pose as a member of a group that they certainly are not? Especially when it's not that hard to find out the truth.

Dionysus · #8 06-23-2002, 08:00 PM

There's an old saying "Imitation is the highest form of flattery!"

carnation · #9 06-23-2002, 08:06 PM

I actually saw a poser in action awhile back. She was visiting friends at Mississippi State and told everyone all weekend about her GLO at the U of Arkansas. She was wearing paraphernalia too! The girls in that group at State had a funny feeling about her after a couple of days and asked me to call a friend who was president of that chapter at Arkansas. No such person had ever been in that chapter!

In the meantime, the girls in the State group were doing hilarious stuff to her like asking her if her chapter pretended to row a boat in the chapter room as a part of the initiation ceremony like theirs did (they made that up) and she said yes! They strung her along all weekend before they busted her!

Kevin · #10 06-23-2002, 08:42 PM

With Summer rush many times these guys are everything BUT new members of these fraternities. Our house tries to line up our Candidate class before rush actually starts if at all possible. If this was the case I can see this happening.

James · #11 06-23-2002, 09:50 PM

LOL, I thought that was a rules infraction? Certainly a violation of the spirirt anyway.

I wouldn't get too excited about someone with letters in their IM name though.

As to what Thielgirle said, most fraternity chapters that I am aware of do not allow pledges to wear letters at all. Chapters that is, National rules are often different. Obviously sororities are different, but most fraternity chapters do not consider pledges to be members yet.

All rhetoric about changing the name from pledges to new members to the contrary.

Quote:

Originally posted by ktsnake
With Summer rush many times these guys are everything BUT new members of these fraternities. Our house tries to line up our Candidate class before rush actually starts if at all possible. If this was the case I can see this happening.

GammaPhiBabe · #12 06-23-2002, 09:58 PM

I wouldn't worry about it too much... after all, this is the internet! There are men out there with female screen names, women with male names, adults pretending to be teenagers, twelve year olds claiming to be twenty, etc. One thing about the internet is that you can't always judge a person by his or her screen name! I mean, I wouldn't like it if someone were presenting herself (or himself for that matter) as a Gamma Phi without actually being one. But there are worse things.

AngelPhiSig · #13 06-24-2002, 01:47 PM

We had a girl at our school my freshman year who bought different letter shirts (fraternity and sororitity) and wore them all over campus...

Yep, she turned out and came to a bid party, she was kinda psycho.

kdonline · #14 06-24-2002, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kddani
Why do people want to be posers?
Kappa Delta has an extensive online community, strongly through our Yahoo group.
There was a girl named Fallon who jonied the list, said she had been a KD and had transferred to another school. She basically tried to affiliate with that chapter, and they found out there's never been anyone named Fallon that was a KD! Ever!
She joined in our messages frequently, and we actually busted her during our weekly chat. Basically we had all put two and two together, someone did the research on her through our Headquarters, and we confronted her. She made up all these stories about the stress she was under, yada yada yada and evaded the question we asked: what's your pin number? why are you lieing?
She blocked each and every one of us from her IM list and was never heard from again.
.

That was the BEST chatnight we ever had - but BOY, were we ever deceived!

I can't believe she went to such great lengths to "prove" she was a KD. And I can't believe so many of us fell for it.

yes, this IS the internet - you can be whoever you wanna be. But Fallon knew some of our ritual - no doubt, be conned someone into "refreshing her memory".

Let this be a warning to everyone - make sure your membership knows (collegiate, alumnae and esp ONLINE) never to IM or email any part of ritual to ANYONE!!

33girl · #15 06-24-2002, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AngelPhiSig
We had a girl at our school my freshman year who bought different letter shirts (fraternity and sororitity) and wore them all over campus...

Yep, she turned out and came to a bid party, she was kinda psycho.

OMG!!!

That takes BALLS to do that in Clarion...where everyone knows everyone....so who ended up kicking her butt?