Why do, relatively, so few of you set an avatar for your profile?
In comment sections or in community pages, it's mostly an ocean of default avatars.
As a UI developer, that's always been a gripe because I put a lot of effort into making them look good and scale properly, etc. When I see 60-70% or more accounts sporting the default avatar, it makes me wonder why I even bother.
So, since this bugs me so much, figured I'd just ask.
Lemm.ee users I can understand because of the waiting period for uploads, but AFAIK, most instances don't have that restriction. Even then, there are plenty of .ee accounts that never bother to go back and set one.
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Why the fuck would I ever want to do that? I don't even want people I know knowing who I am.
Keep my name out ya goddamn mouth — Will Smith probably
On Voyager I can't even see avatars or custom usernames
Yeah I put avatars on my early Lemmy accounts, but then switched to Voyager. Now I don’t care because you don’t see avatars on Voyager anyway. Plus I kind of like the old school pre-social media feel.
I think it’d be nice if apps could let choose show or hide avatars in the settings.
I prefer no avatars, cleaner reading experience.
I'm still on Sync for now and same. But I don't think I saw them even on desktop...?
I'm on Sync and I see avatars. Think it's a setting somewhere.
EDIT - sorry, I see someone else has already said much the same :-)
It's okay, you're just being referee! 😉
I'm on Sync as well, and I can see some avatars but not others
Yeah, now that I check, I do see some of them.
Wow, I cannot even find a setting to enable it. I used to have a very high opinion of Voyager, but I am finding recently that it is missing a lot of features.
It’s a free app, so they have to prioritize on what they work on. It’s amazing we have what we have.
Sure, it's just that in the early days when we started getting more Lemmy apps than just Jerboa/Lemmur, Voyager tended to be on the forefront of adding new features not found in other apps. But nowadays, as the landscape of Lemmy apps has matured, Voyager has fallen behind as its philosophy seems to be stuck at "be a clone of Apollo". It is by no means a bad Lemmy app; it is just no longer at the same relative level compared to other competing Lemmy apps.
It’s built on the ethos of Apollo. Apollo’s dev had no interest in supporting avatars because they make for a shitty, cluttered experience and I FULLY stand by that decision.
I don't see avatars in my app and I don't really care to. Never had them in early reddit and that's what I'm trying to replicate.
But... you have one.
Maybe I uploaded it when I made the account? I haven't thought about it since. Honestly didn't remember that Lemmy used them.
Debatable lol
I wanted to say the same, but then I saw the avatar next to your name and realized that I do in fact see avatars. I just never noticed and still don't care.
Even though I tend to comment somewhat frequently, I prefer to be just "another voice in the crowd" I don't really want to be more easily recognized lol
OMG it's Asafum everyone! Here he is! Wow!
With the low adoption rate of avatars they realy stand out compared to places with default avatars where they all blend together.
Nailed it
That's fair.
I mean, the reason I have a picture should be obvious, I'm literally going for visibility with a name like this...
But 9/10 times it's a generic name with a default or no picture.
There are avatars?
Yep. Check your profile settings. Apparently it varies by app, but Lemmy-UI, Photon, Tesseract, and a few others have full support.
I use Voyager
That being said, I agree with most others and don't like them anyway; I just had no idea they were a thing.
I also use voyager; never seen avatars, didn’t know they existed.
Hey just wanted to let you know that I fired up Lemmy on the PC today and added an avatar to my profile just for you
Boost doesnt have avatars either
Lemmy has avatars?
Legit my reaction just now.
My what?
My literal first reaction was “we have avatars?”
The fuc is op about lmao
We've got Avatar's now?
Almost every app for Lemmy I have tried does not even have them visible by default and require you to manually turn them on. If their only experience is using an app, they might not even know you can have an avatar.
What? I use voyager, and had no idea. Not that I want to turn it on, I'm just surprised it's an option (haven't checked though).
It does explain why nobody has called out my avatar being AI generated when I talk shit about how shitty AI is (I generated it back when this shit was new and didn't know how crap it actually was yet).
I will now judge you harshly for your transgression. Simply unforgivable. Smh
Wait, your profile says you've only been around for 8 months. I swear I've been seeing you around for at least a couple years now...
I was originally on an instance that has since shut down so I had to move to another one.
My avatar is also partially AI generated. I GIMPed the Zizek face from one of his movie posters though.
I'm used to people calling me out for the Zizek part and that hasn't happened on Lemmy ever lol.
I don't remember what I used for mine, but I remember the prompt was just "a husky dog anthro but the fur that is normally black is green" it gave me 50 different things and this one was the only decent looking image in the whole batch.
Your avatar doesn't look ai generated actually.
KOLANAKI
Lemmy is a place I prefer to be as anonymous as I can while still participating so I don’t set one for myself and I use voyager the vast majority of the time so I don’t see anyone else’s. I personally don’t find profile pictures/avatars add anything to the experience for me.
In voyager your can’t see avatars. A lot of people use voyager.
I think many use apps that don't show avatars. I usually browse lemmy with Eternity and sometimes forget they even exist.
I don't care about mine or anybody elses avatar, also profiles with avatar usually are: selling something (OF) or company profiles or bot accounts, so any account with an avatar is kinda sus to me.
So I should start an OnlyFans? You could watch me garden, read, and yell at the TV during hockey games. And occasionally fix stuff.
brb gonna post space pics to onlyfans now
Onlyfans wasn't originally made for porn.
Oh.
which is so dumb by the way.
I think I read a few months ago in their repo that it's being worked on, but does not seem so.
One of the harsh lessons in software is learning that users sometimes have different wants and expectations than the developer. Gold-plating is a constant temptation, and it usually leads to frustration and resentment.
At the end of the day, if 60-70% of people don't care, either do it for the 30-40%, or do it for your own enjoyment, or put your efforts elsewhere. In any case, don't fall into a pit of resentment just because lots of users are approaching a platform differently than you.
Why do you bother with an avatar for your Lemmy account?
because i need everyone to know i am a lion
Why can’t you just tell the truth for once? You don’t always have to be lion.
i have to be true to who i am, after all, I have my pride
If that’s your mane point, then I guess it’s acceptable.
Because it reminds me of forums to have one. No other reason
I think this platform is less about people and more about commenting. That's also why we can't even subscribe to people on Lemmy, just communities. So naturally, your profile ends up being less important. And I have close to no incentive to care about avatars. This place is more or less just about the text content and the links. And I don't even want my real face to show up next to my stupid comments.
I mean developers add avatar to all kinds of things, whether that's useful or not. I myself don't need one in Spotify or the fitness tracker app or my computer user account. They're there nonetheless, and once you implement them, you have to deal with the UX representation. I think some users like to customize stuff so it get's implemented. But it might be meaningless to most of us.
Piefed is so nice. It's like Lemmy but you can subscribe to anything activityhub. Including user accounts.
I kind of don't like that attitude, but looking at the state of things here, I can't say it's wrong.
Not that everyone who has set a profile image is an angel, but at least it helps things not be a stream of faceless opinions. Just my thoughts, so take that with a grain of salt.
Sure. And since Lemmy is part of the Fediverse, it is embedded into some context... I mean we also connect to services like Mastodon with a very different approach. And we have things like Mbin with a hybrid approach. And as mesa said, Piefed tries to do some additional things as well. But the way Piefed currently handles missing avatars is to just not show any, it'll just be the username as text aligned to the left.
(And I think the stream of faceless opinions is part of the idea behind Lemmy... Whether that's a good or bad thing, or could be improved.)
Definitely think "bad thing" considering the trolls and shills we've had to deal with here, but that topic is far outside the scope of this "Ask" post lol.
Yes, that's likely a longer argument. I think I'm not completely considering it a bad thing... I think the old time forums had some charm to them, where you'd just contribute something to a discussion, no matter what and who you are... It'd be just about a certain topic. But that's not really what we do here. So it's a bit out of scope. I feel we could do that, though. The technology and set up of the platform itself should allow for those kinds of conversations... Bus yeah, it's complicated. And this might be more social media than internet forum.
There are avatars?
We can set avatars for profiles? I don't even see avatars.
Most clients dont show them
Maybe it’s time for a new app 👀
Because it's stupid and pointless
Avatars aren't info. They just clutter the screen. They very, very rarely are interesting. At worst, they show something inappropriate. They require moderation. They don't match any aesthetic of the site.
I literally didn't know they were supported and never see them anyway.
Neither the apps I've used or the web-end I use on my PC seems to make use of avatars at all.
I'd set one if there was a point, but there isn't.
Did you set one after this comment? Because you have one.
I didn't even know there were user avatars. Most common apps don't show them.
I would first need a personality to express.
I hid them to keep the comment section clean looking
Because I don't care about it and it makes no difference. They only show in your profile and I don't look at my profile. The only people that do look at your profile are the people going there to try and find something to use against you.
I'm a creep I click profiles of cute people to see if they have more cute pics
Heck, I was salty when the old site added avatars. I already ignored names and was weirded out by "popular redditors" culture before avatars, and it was annoying to see a logo next to a name coloring my perception of the comment. I'm here to read comments, not to look at avatars
I disable avatar display on all my clients. Reddit and it's siblings like Lemmy have historically been less person-focused than other websites, and many of us like to keep it that way. While it can be neat to recognise people, I only need their user handle to do so and I only check if necessary. It's nice to take a comment at it's value without regard for who said it. Reddit's push towards personifying their users is part of why I left.
I don't care enough
For something like Lemmy or Reddit, any posts or conversations that I have are generally going out to random people who also happen to want to engage in a particular discussion. I don't even look at usernames. The next conversation that I have will likely be with completely different people. In other words, there is no sense of community (unless I were to become heavily invested in a single community for some reason), and therefore I have no reason to want to make myself stand out in any way or make it easier for people to recognize me.
On the other hand, for something like an old school forum that I would frequently post on, or a discord server or something, I might actually get to know people and develop a sense of community. In that type of situation, I feel like an avatar can be appropriate.
You see my user name - that's all you need. You want more info? I've got a comment history you can see too. Why do I need some visual component that I can change when I've got an unchanging name until I decide to abandon this account and get a new one.
Would block avatars if I could, don't want to see people's vanity, just the words.
I can't imagine any scenario which I'd want to use one.
I do not see the importance of an avatar.
Because I dont care.
It is irrelevant.
You could just do those autogenerated things instead of a static image if they haven't set one. Like, hash their username and use the bits of the hash as an input to some function that procedurally-generates an image. Makes it easy to visually-identify users without needing them to go out and manually create an avatar.
I don't really care much about the visual appearance myself, but I did want something unique to make it easier to visually-identify my posts for other users. Humans can identify color in their visual field in constant time, so having different colors for different users is helpful. I plonked "wave swirl"---the first thing that came to mind---or something like that into Stable Diffusion 1.5, got a picture of a wave, haven't touched it since.
EDIT: For a good example, I always easily identify @[email protected] comments, as he's got custom colored Unicode in a display name and a custom avatar and custom background. I don't care enough to go do that myself, but it does highlight the fact that it can be useful for rapidly-identifying people in a conversation.
For those who can't see avatars, he looks like this in the Lemmy Web UI:
I'll add that I don't personally really like the display name functionality, because I need to refer to people in text using "@" syntax---as I did above---by their real username and it makes it slightly more obnoxious to get that, but I do have to say that it does help make users visually unique.
I think that my ideal for user identification would be maybe some sort of procedurally-generated flag as the default. Those are designed to be readily-identifiable at a distance already. Like, use the hash bits to choose one of several different groups of flags (triband, etc) and bits to choose the color of various elements in the flag. If one flag isn't enough to consume all the bits in the hash, maybe do two side-by-side, etc.
EDIT2: Hmm. Now I kind of wonder if that should be done client-side, because it could let the viewing user theme what they're seeing. Like, dark-mode people don't have to have bright flags, if someone wants a specific theme they could use that (a string of different colored cats in different poses), etc.
EDIT3: And I loathe the fact that the Lemmy Web UI by default permits animated avatars. I think I disabled animations somewhere in Firefox specifically because of the people on here using animated avatars. I think that not putting the kibosh on that was a huge mistake.
I'm just gonna reply to your edit separately lol
Haven't used Lemmy-UI in forever, but the user search does work on display names, though the one you mentioned with the custom Unicode characters definitely wouldn't (well, not typing the letters they represent anyway).
Yeah, it already does that. I'm using the Dicebear adventurer pack for users and the initials pack for communities. Each user gets the same pseudo-random one generated every time.
I'm the opposite of another commenter (the one who said they find profiles with avatars sus). I find the ones who don't bother to set anything a bit sus myself. Like, it's as if they don't care to be here, they don't plan on sticking around, just here to hit it and quit it, etc. Taking the effort to put something there at least shows they're trying to be part of something (well, in addition to other factors).
Because a lot of people don't see a benefit in being recognized when pseudonymously interacting with strangers. And in some apps they aren't displayed at all.
I don't even see or care to see avatars. Its just clutter imo.
Yeah same. Does Connect even have a setting for that? I mean I won't use it; I guess I never bothered to look is all.
There is a setting. The profile pictures are so small in list view, you can't really tell what it is.
Tbh I keep meaning to add one but I'm also a wicked procrastinator
Relatable.
Comedy gold right there.
I don't see them on the third party app i use
I had no idea Lemmy even had avatars until I read this post. So I went into my profile out of curiosity - even though I already had "Show Avatars" checked, I've never seen a user's avatar on here before. I did upload one for my own profile though for the hell of it.
Can't be arsed.
I'm not sure how to, and it's not something I care about enough to figure out how. I generally think of posting here as more shouting into the void, so I don't care very much to personalize my account.
I use Sync. I may be missing out on the perfectly simple UI that was developed to do this.
I don't even see it on voyager. I don't know why I would want an avatar anyway.
Because it's an anonymous website?
I thought that they were dumb on Reddit and I think they're even dumber here.
Pseudo-anonymous, but from the toxicity on display here, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was 4chan.
I've put in as much effort to my profile as I wanted to. Sounds like a lot of others did the same.
With 21x21 avatars, the question is why even have this functionality in the first place. That size is too small to matter.
They show up in other places. And 21x21 is still enough to visually distinguish based on them in the comments. Depending on app/UI, they're often larger in the feed and significantly larger in profiles.
Didn't you want to know why people don't set avatars? I answered your question. There is no need to argue back and try to convince me that 21x21 avatars are amazing. They aren't.
My app either doesn't show them or it's off by default. I didn't know there were avatars but I'm not interested in them either since I'm reading on my phone and prefer a minimalist view.
Same. No avatars shown in voyager.
I have avatars disabled
I'm lazy.
You actually have an avatar, lol, so you must not be that lazy haha.
Are you referring to people's profile pictures as avatars? Otherwise I have no idea what you mean.
They are oftentimes refered to as the same thing. Avatar came around first IIRC (it was generally an avatar of who you are, not what you actually look like) and slowly morphed into profile picture as social media took over and people forgot about the whole "don't give strangers your personal information" thing.
I still use avatar personally. Older term for same thing
I've always considered an avatar to be a sort of pseudo persona rather than just the thumbnail attached to an account.
Yeah, profile pictures. In the API data, they're called
avatarso that's the term I tend to use.😉
I've had the same one since I started, though I did change it when someone customized it for me - it was too good not to use.
When I took over 60s through 90s music communities, the first thing I did after removing the apostrophes from the display names was set icons for them. lol.
they couldve made it on ee during the waiting period lol
Because I hadn't even thought of it.
On Reddit, it changed to something semi-unique and, even though I never changed it, I somehow identified with it.
That's what Tesseract does; pseudorandom avatars based on the actor ID if the profile hasn't set one. But those are just local, though.
Lol, here's what it generates for yours:
Thx I hate it!
You guys have avatars?!?
Accounts come and go, but shitposting is forever.
If I care enough about another user to note them across time and communities, I give them a tag.
In the other direction, I don't expect anyone to recall my username from one thread to another, to build any sense of my broader personhood greater than one interaction provides.
An avatar just seems unnecessary. I'm also on an app that only displays them if I go out of my way to see them.
I gots one, they're just fun
(Clicks on your avatar)
Not sure what I'm looking at, but can confirm it's fun!
I have everyone else's avatars hidden anyway so wouldn't make much sense to set one for myself. I just don't see the appeal.
I have one, but use Voyager so I cannot actually ever see it (nor my changed username)
Not that I care too much, y'all can enjoy how good it looks while you're here but I get to see it everywhere :3
There are avatars?
My app do display them, but I hadn't paid attention to it.
Because having a pfp is gay
Guys, I feel like this is a joke rather than an insult. This person has a profile picture.
I don't see the point. Even on my monster screen they're only 6mm² so if it's anything other than simple line art it's just a small meaningless square of digital noise.
Why would you add one? Who even sees it? This reddit/lemmy style of posting and commenting has always worked with just a username and a comment and I like it that way. If my app started showing them I'd either turn them off or find a new app.
They are just so small idrc about others so I dont bother to put one
I have one because I finally found a fun pic that was mostly round so it with fill up the avatar bubble enough to still be distinguishable what it was. Most are way too small to make out what it is, and not intriguing enough to click to the profile just to see it slightly larger.
If mine didn't serve slightly as a promo for my community, I'd likely still have the default.
When I first set up my account I could not find where to add an avatar (I didn't really look that hard) I figured I would get back to it later and only remembered about it from this post.
I set my avatar, but I use old.lemmy.world and can't see it anyway.
If you're using the Lemmy Web UI, go to your account settings. "Show Avatars" is a checkbox on the lower, left-hand panel. You might have unchecked it inadvertently.
I haven't cared about stuff like that since I was 15
I have a username. That's all the identifying I need. Why do you feel the need to twitterfy lemmy?
why would I set a custom avatar?
I tried, there was an issue uploading the picture and I just couldn't be bothered to look deeper into it.
Anyone know if there's a way to see avatar's through Voyager?
There, I added an avatar.
That's me under my Performance Designs Spectre 150, circa 1997 or 98... Can't remember as I've slept since then.
On my app I can't see it. It maybe you made someone else's day.
I am not sure, but I think these changes take like 24 hours to federate.
Edit: https://lemmy.ml/comment/9231658
"At most every 24 hours"
I'm ugly and I don't like cartoon pfp
Mine's a picture of a cow. Just sayin'.
It's a lovely cow.
I like that picture!
I can't remember if I even bothered setting one. My app doesn't use them. I don't find them particularly useful on forums anyways. I only like them on real time chat apps where I know I'll be interacting with the same folks over and over again.
Edit: I did set one up!
I can't see anyone's avatars and did not know I could set one, but I also wouldn't if I could as I think they're always a bit cringe. I prefer the sea of anonymity.
Didn’t know they were a thing and Voyager doesn’t support them.
As a software developer I’ve come to realise that most of the stuff I put extra attention to, actual users don’t care and now in just do what people ask for and nothing more.
That is one reason I never used voyager much.
Can't see them on Lemmy Connect either. I like having this platform be as distanced from social media attributes as possible. Like other users have said, every extra bit of anonymity is a boon.
Dang I thought I had. Thanks for the reminder - fixed!
Nicely done!
Idk how to use anything here
i havent set it to discord either, or anywhere else either for that matter. Only for steam, but that is because i set it when i was child and i havent wanted to get rid of it for nostalagia's sake and because i cant think of anything better.
it just feels unnecessary
If I wanted someone’s opinion to matter more based on who they are, I’d use Mastodon.
Avatars are a psychological trick useful for building up sunk cost fallacy and making a user more likely to personally identify with a product. I don't have social media avatars for the same reason I don't have "nabisco" tattooed on my asscheek.
You sunuvabitch, I'm in!
I don't know why others don't but I'll say why I do, which is that I noticed people were remembering my username whether I had an image or not, so why not have an image? And it was early days, still is, so I figured... may as well be the first static.
Maybe it's just that Sync is an outdated mess, but I can't even see your profile pic. I can see others, just not yours.
It's just flickering static. You're not missing out. :)
procrastination of drawing one
I mostly browse while at work to kill time... I don't have access to the avatar I would use at work. Also I don't think I see people's avatars with the front end I use?
Boost only shows them on individual user profile pages, not in threads, so I don't even know who has one to go look at it.
eh... I've thought about it but it becomes a chore and idk really
I changed it just for you 💾
Lol, nice! It hasn't federated here yet, but I clicked onto your home instance and it shows up. 🤘
I find both avatars and display names annoying and distracting. If they're enabled by default, I turn them off.
None of my reddit accounts had avatars either. I would get banned so quickly it didn't make sense.
If it seems like Lemmy is a more welcoming place, I might make the effort. Not sure yet.
The Voyager app doesn't even show your avatar. So I didnt even know we could all set one since I use this app so much.
Why? Do you want to date my avatar? She’s a Star!
I'm too lazy to search for the image I usually use.
I forgot.
You are probably a dude who spends money on skins and battlepasses.
I think I have one .. don't know who can see my Snoopy.