recently.. r24 i fake nicked, r25 i didn't.. there was little difference other then the amusement factor (higher when faking!).. ppl will map your alliance to your coords no matter what. It's how much do you care about them having a nick to go with it? And like its been stated earlier very few ppl actually matter enough to bother hiding, and those that do generally don't have to worry anyway..
Both times my gal chan was equally as active, so thats really not an issue.. With mirc you can set the channels to beep or flash, or any number of things, so not checking them due to laziness is also not an issue since mirc can basically check for you, just set it up right if you go that route.
