I find quite a bit of the nick hopping to be amusing. There have been some very clever names popping up. Sometimes it's in response to current events and BBS drama (maybe just to annoy Libman?), but sometimes it seems to be inspired by an avatar change.
I view it as just an extension of the personality quirks we get to display in our signatures, avatars and taglines. It doesn't take a whole lot of new posts to figure out who a someone used to be, based on the writing style and inside jokes.
Hell, if I had the imagination and time to come up with a clever new name, I might do it myself. Who doesn't want to be somebody different, every once in a while?