Judging members by their Avatars

reply to post by SGT101Airborne


If everybody liked everybody else on here, it would become stale & stagnant. Night needs it's day and good needs it's evil. We all have a place at ATS. I find it hard to get up-set over an anonymous avatar & the writings of said anonymous avatar. Even the members I dis-like, I still read their threads and I still comment. Whether your liked or not, at least to me is secondary. It's the quality of the threads and the points it gets across that matter. We are supposed to Deny Ignorance, I am as guilty as the next member for not doing that. I am as quilty as the next for somtimes Embrassing Ignorance & spreading it all around. Then again, we all are human..................At least I hope so.

I don't judge people by their avatar accept a couple I really don't like and interestingly their personality also seems to match. Other than that I think people have various reasons to chose what they do.

Sometimes is symbolic, which is what I feel mine represents about me. Others chose something that is simply visually stimulating while others go out of there way to shock you. To each there own I say.

My favorite is the lizard in a pinwheel eating his tail, can't remember the usernames spelling. Dragonridr's is cool and the chick from king of thrones with her dragon. Love dragons and she's like super hot and stuff. :p

I'd say usernames play a role also. Just yesterday someone called me Rose. *sigh* I can understand why, I suppose I didn't go with a masculine/macho name. *shrug*

reply to post by Night Star


Thanks, Night Star!! I do like your avatar, too - although it makes me a little sad.
But then - I already am a little sad with the state of the world.

reply to post by Rosinitiate

I'd say usernames play a role also. Just yesterday someone called me Rose. *sigh* I can understand why, I suppose I didn't go with a masculine/macho name. *shrug*

Yeah, I assumed you were a woman based on your name. Sorry about that!!

reply to post by FyreByrd


Experiment. My avatar, what does it say about me?

Extra: what do you think my age/sex/etc is just guessing without looking at previous posts?

reply to post by tothetenthpower


That actually made me laugh and I cannot say that of many things besides the big bang theory and the big bang theory bloopers. So for that I shall thank you.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


it says you are unaware it is not allowed to have animations in your background

reply to post by Jarring


Is that true?
I've had it for a year or more and no one has ever mentioned it.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


you might have gotten lucky, but it's in the avatar/backgrounds creation threads. lol, i'd prefer not to be the one to get you to change it. i was just letting you know.

reply to post by Jarring


It's Blade Runner.. too gnarly to change.
I think I may predate that thread if it's one created after the changes to the site.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


great movie. i recognized it

I judge posters by the content of their posts.

The avatar doesn't enter in to the equation.

I really enjoy looking at everyone's avatars. It gives me a small glimpse into your personality. Some may be very obvious. Some definitely keep me guessing.

What about my avatar then...?

my avatar has nothing to do with ghosts....or i didnt mean for it to be about ghosts

Avatars can serve as a handy IFF system, letting you scroll down and quickly find any posts from someone you recognize. Like when those Q&A's were going on it was easy to scroll through and just look for the avatar of the 'host' to find their responses.

I can't say I've ever judged anyone by their avatar on here, but I have on other forums. People with avatars/signatures/images from what I consider one of the more asinine things of the modern age to plague the internet... I tend to roll my eyes at and skip.

I've use a picture of myself because it's almost like other posters can see who they're talking to. Whilst I wouldn't post any specific details about myself, I don't feel the need to be an anonymous avatar on the internet. In fact I've just updated my picture as I thought it was about time as my previous pic was taken in 2009 when I joined.

I agree with other posters though, that sometimes you form an opinion about a post before reading it, just by looking at the avatar. On saying that though, there has been many an occasion where someone that I have vehemently disagreed with on one topic, I find being in total agreement (and even awarding stars) on a different topic, so I suppose it's like a virtual version of not judging a book by its cover and reading what the poster has to say before making a judgment.

LizardSlicks
If you're using a picture of yourself as your avatar you're probably not all that bright but find yourself quite swell and are more than likely a douche. Or you might just be old.

What leads you to the assumptions that posters using their own pictures are unintelligent, self loving, old douchebags? Also not all self-portraits are "selfies" my daughter took my picture.

I would rather present an honest interpretation of myself, rather than use a picture of some actor or model, which has no bearing on the reality of who I am and like I said in my previous post, I don't feel the need to hide my identity behind a mask of someone else's face (though I understand why many people may not want to use their own image)

reply to post by destination now


i use avatars as well as my own photograph sometimes. it's nice to see a fellow member using a picture of themselves

reply to post by Jarring


Yes, it's good to actually see the person you're talking to and who knows, maybe if you're looking at the person you're having a forum discussion with, you might speak to them in a similar way that you would in a real life conversation, which would doubtless reduce the nasty remarks and personal attacks that are sadly commonplace in many debates.