Tilly O’Shea is a fictional name, which was fairly unique when I started using it as a nickname on various websites (spawning from a nickname I was given in sixth-form – Tilly even made an appearance in some of my A-Level work). There have even previously been websites dedicated to Tilly. Now, there appear to be several Tilly O’Sheas across the internet, which suggests that people have copied my name, particularly on various forums and bulletin boards. So now you can never be sure whether or not it is me…

On forums and bulletin boards where signature images are allowed, I always use ones in the same ‘real life’ style. You can see the current set of signatures below.

In July 2006, the size was made uniform and six new images were introduced, and two older ones (Bridge Graffiti and Newspaper Letters) were retired. In a more radical overhaul, in November 2006 a further twelve new images were added (Temple, Street Sign, Underground, Street Party, Phone Box, Directions, Home, Harrods, Hotel Bar, Tea Rooms, Punk and Cold Morning), and six were retired (Cappuccino, Beach, Beer, Soup, Scrabble and Magazine).

There are currently twenty-one signature images in active service. A randomly chosen one is added onto all of my bulletin board and forum posts, and, where facilities exist, a new one is chosen each time the page is refreshed.

So that’s a rough history of Tilly O’Shea.