Mark Collier

I often hear people call me “sparky”, usually around the Yahoo! office, and always with a smirk. This is because I use the handle “sparkycollier” on my Yahoo! IM and on a lot of other services, like twitter.

My Austin peeps know that the real Sparky was my beloved, goofy, scotch loving Great Dane who died a couple of years ago. Sob.

Oddly enough, the reason I use this handle is due entirely to Yahoo! (where I now work) and the ridiculous number of people who use it. Back in 2000, when I was working for a dotcom in Austin, I needed a Y! ID because several of my colleagues used it for IM and I was also testing out Y! photos since I was in charge of our digital imaging strategy. Naturally markcollier mcollier, markwcollier — all taken. When I tried sparkycollier and it worked, I started using this all over the internet and have had good success. Apparently it’s not too common.

Here’s to you, OG Sparky. I miss you man.