# Avatards **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 5, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161 "2010-10-05T19:22:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/201 "2010-10-07T14:03:49Z")
> [@Gustav](#): > > I don’t know, I think there might be an argument to be made. It’s not that a lack of avatars makes people smarter, but think of it backwards: what kind of people do you suppose will look at this forum and say to themselves “I will rather post somewhere else instead, because I can’t have a picture of my favorite lolcat next to my name”? Probably not many, but it stands to reason that filtering out such people will elevate the average level of discourse. And it really doesn’t take a huge amount of shit posters to significantly drag down a forum. It also doesn’t take a huge amount of elitist, arrogant, smug posters who react with kneejerk conservatism to any hint of change and who promote themselves as smarter than average to drag down a forum. This conversation about avatars is illustrative. People actually think posting here is a status symbol. It’s hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/202 "2010-10-07T14:19:50Z")
For me it’s a time thing. If a page has avatars, I can scan for the posts of particular posters quicker. This makes it easier to find posts that I want to read, and to skip posts that I do not want to read. When my high-speed connection is having a bad day (I live in the boonies at the end of the line), avatars cause a page to take longer to load. In finding a balance between download time and visual scanning time, my internet connection has improved enough over the last year that now I would prefer avatars (provided the don’t move, blink or make noise – all of which are distracting), whereas previously, I did not prefer avatars. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/203 "2010-10-07T14:26:27Z")
> [@heatmiserfl](#): > > Wha? I…forgive you? 😕 Sorted. Next thread… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/204 "2010-10-07T14:28:50Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Nothing is worse than dope memes. The worst one? “This is the smartest board on the internet!” Yes, if the internet is solely comprised of the [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) domain, and even then it’s a tie. > [@jsgoddess](#): > > It also doesn’t take a huge amount of elitist, arrogant, smug posters who react with kneejerk conservatism to any hint of change and who promote themselves as smarter than average to drag down a forum. This conversation about avatars is illustrative. People actually think posting here is a status symbol. It’s hilarious. Ignoring for the moment your hyperbole and strawman-building (“status symbol,” really?), you provide yet another baffling example of a poster whose opinion of this board appears to range from indifference to sneering contempt, and yet— here you remain, day after day, as if unable to tear yourself away. If nothing about this board sets it apart from the others (except what you see as lofty and unsupported claims of intellectualism), why waste your precious time here at all, let alone advocate so strenuously for a feature you can already enjoy on innumerable other discussion boards that are surely more worthy of your presence? ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/205 "2010-10-07T14:31:58Z")
“Smarter than average” is elitist now? Damn, that bar just keeps dropping lower every day. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/206 "2010-10-07T14:36:15Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Does talking on the telephone sans picture upset you? I far prefer video-conferencing to tele-conferencing. I find with video-conferencing it is easier to keep track of who is who, and it is easier to spot when someone has something to say, or when someone has paused but has not finished speaking. On one video-conference when I was making submissions to a panel of judges, the video froze while the audio continued. I found that a little distracting, and had to spend a tad more time keeping track of which judge was firing which questions at me. The next time I have to appear before that panel, I will check to see if they have upgraded their system, for if they have not, I’d rather take a long flight there and back to be able to communicate face to face, than to be stuck with only audio. ---
**Author:** ![Peeta\_Mellark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Peeta\_Mellark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peeta_Mellark)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/207 "2010-10-07T14:38:03Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Me, I’m having fun imagining the anti-avatar peeps in other social situations. > > At the bar: > Me: I think I’ll have a Jack and Coke… > Anti-avatar people: NO I HATE JACK AND COKES DRINK WATER YOU GODDAMNED COMMIE SUNUVABITCH > > At the video rental store: > Me: I think I’ll watch Kindergarten Cop > AAP: ABSOLUTELY NOT THE IDEA OF SOMEONE WATCHING ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER ACTING MAKES ME WANT TO SPEW :vomit: No, no, no, you don’t understand. If people watch Kindergarten Cop then they might talk about it and then I won’t know what they’re talking about and I will become ENRAGED because now I’m not part of a conversation about something I have no interest in. Jesus Christ. Try to keep up. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/208 "2010-10-07T15:43:28Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > _No_ to the idea that the point of avatars was for readily identifying posters. So, there’s one person who’s said that they will occasionally change their avatar. The horror. The horror. Clearly, all of us who’ve said we’d like them because it would make it easier for us to identify people are just lying. > [@begbert2](#): > > You wanna show off your pretty pictures, make a thread specifically devoted to it. Keep it out of my GD. We’re in the Pit, you moron. Since we’re taking ownership of subforums, \*my \*fucking Pit. > [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > 1. Sometimes nametags at conventions have head-shot photos, sometimes they don’t. Similarly, some message boards have avatars, some don’t. Are you really that thick? I MEAN THE PERSON’S HEAD, RETARD. Not some picture on their nametag, which would be ridiculous and redundant. > [@](#): > > You are probably aware that unlike business nametags, the ‘nametag pictures’ on message boards (avatars) are often random images–not photographs of users. So what? The point is to have something to identify them by that’s visual versus verbal. It doesn’t matter if I can’t see how fat they are or how terrible their haircut is. > [@](#): > > As long as avatars aren’t taking up space and interfering with the conversations in the fora, everything’s cool. Oh, good, then you approve of enabling avatars, since their display will be disabled by default. > [@](#): > > Reminder: \*\*WE ALREADY ALLOW AVATARS. \*\* They are located in the user profiles. Reminder: YOU’RE A FUCKING IDIOT IF YOU THINK THAT’S AN AVATAR. > [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > For those of us who chose to not have to look at—whatever the hell picture someone opts to toss up, we would be outside of the conversation. > > I don’t want to have to look at avatars in order to follow the full thrust of the conversation. Wait… Your complaint is now that if we enable people to upload avatars if they so choose, and enable the rest of us to display said avatars if they so choose, you WON’T BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE IN A CONVERSATION THAT YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT ANYWAY? Wow. I… just… Wow. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > At the video rental store: > Me: I think I’ll watch Kindergarten Cop > AAP: ABSOLUTELY NOT THE IDEA OF SOMEONE WATCHING ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER ACTING MAKES ME WANT TO SPEW :vomit: There are so many more, better objections to that film than the casting. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/209 "2010-10-07T16:09:04Z")
I think we should allow avatars but they should only be pictures of cats. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/210 "2010-10-07T16:44:15Z")
Do they have to be your own cats or can they be someone else’s? And are captions required, encouraged, or disallowed? ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/211 "2010-10-07T17:23:53Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I would offer that even when people don’t directly reference them, because they are information/data/content the change the thinking of people reading the thread, and so change the flow of the thread itself–even if sometimes it is subtle (sometimes it would be blatant). I’ve heard that argument in previous avatar threads. I call it the “golden eye argument” - that avatars will cause some very subtle and esoteric changes to people’s posts that will no doubt be negative given the rarefied perceptions of those with the golden eye. They’re like audiophiles who claim that the ultra-high end speaker cables with the red insulation have a “shallower soundstage” than the identical cables with the blue insulation, even though 99.99% of all listeners and the most expensive text equipment can’t find or measure a difference. So, let’s take the kind of thread our golden eyes say defines the SDMB - something like [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=159184). How would a thread like this change with avatars, even if they’re unmentioned in the thread? Also, do the people that think the “intellectualism” of the SDMB would suffer with avatars know that such threads only make up a very small minority of all the threads on the site? Let’s compare: > **[Google Search](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22postmodern%22%2Bsite:boards.straightdope.com)** > **[Google Search](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22pimples%22%2Bsite:boards.straightdope.com)** > **[Google Search](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22sartre%22%2Bsite:boards.straightdope.com)** > **[Google Search](http://www.google.com/search?q=%22lady%2Bgaga%22%2Bsite:boards.straightdope.com)** ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/212 "2010-10-07T17:47:19Z")
OMG! Look at the mental midgets with the avatars and their lulz-filled verbal diarrhea on [this message board](http://forums.philosophyforums.com/threads/einstein-vs-kant-19947.html). And [this message board, too](http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=187510)! And [this forum](http://www.freeratio.org/showthread.php?t=293036)! And [this board](http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=99825)! If we allow avatars, we’ll become just as bad as [this site](http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/108226-Is-there-a-quot-hard-problem-quot-of-consciousness)! ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/213 "2010-10-07T18:13:33Z")
The problem here is that we’re assuming people who don’t want avatars have any logical objection. Which they don’t. As the saying goes, you can’t argue out what wasn’t argued in. They have a completely irrational dislike of avatars, so they think that no one else should be allowed to have them, even though they can’t give you a good reason why, nor can then explain how it will have any negative impact on them since they can leave the damned things turned off and refuse to upload one of their own. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/214 "2010-10-07T18:14:42Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > OMG! Look at the mental midgets with the avatars and their lulz-filled verbal diarrhea on [this message board](http://forums.philosophyforums.com/threads/einstein-vs-kant-19947.html). And [this message board, too](http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=187510)! And [this forum](http://www.freeratio.org/showthread.php?t=293036)! Thanks. It’s reassuring to know that if the Avatar Rebellion on this board fails, there are other venues where I can discuss rationalism and free thought with Captain Crunch and Animal from The Muppet Show. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/215 "2010-10-07T18:21:20Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Do they have to be your own cats or can they be someone else’s? And are captions required, encouraged, or disallowed? Any cats, captioned or not. I don’t want to be a Nazi about it. Except, no cutesy trying to get by the rules by posting Meerkats 'cause it has “kats” in the name or performers from “Cats”, the musical. Just cats of the actual feline variety. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/216 "2010-10-07T18:23:57Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > Except, no cutesy trying to get by the rules by posting Meerkats 'cause it has “kats” in the name or performers from “Cats”, the musical. Just cats of the actual feline variety. STOP OPPRESSING ME, NAZI! [You know who else only wanted real cats?](http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/cgi-bin/seigmiaow.pl) ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/217 "2010-10-07T18:28:33Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > > [@Wile\_E](#): > > > > Except, no cutesy trying to get by the rules by posting Meerkats 'cause it has “kats” in the name or performers from “Cats”, the musical. Just cats of the actual feline variety. > > STOP OPPRESSING ME, NAZI! > > [You know who else only wanted real cats?](http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/cgi-bin/seigmiaow.pl) No! Nazi was actually my nickname in grade school.\* [sub]\*Seriously, I was always getting called a Nazi because of my German last name and because kids are stupid.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/218 "2010-10-07T18:40:44Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > OMG! Look at the mental midgets with the avatars and their lulz-filled verbal diarrhea on [this message board](http://forums.philosophyforums.com/threads/einstein-vs-kant-19947.html). And [this message board, too](http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=187510)! And [this forum](http://www.freeratio.org/showthread.php?t=293036)! And [this board](http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=99825)! If we allow avatars, we’ll become just as bad as [this site](http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/108226-Is-there-a-quot-hard-problem-quot-of-consciousness)! The only reason all the intellectual types are here instead of there is the avatars. Avatars are to smart people as garlic is to vampires. I think we should allow avatars, but only of actual gods, in keeping with our lofty self image and Rain-Man-like literalism. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/219 "2010-10-07T18:51:48Z")
Only “actual gods”? Kind of hard when they’re all made up, i’n’it. Is there some base number of required believers we’re going to use to determine which ones are “actual”? ---
**Author:** ![Peeta\_Mellark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Peeta\_Mellark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peeta_Mellark)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161/220 "2010-10-07T18:56:13Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > OMG! Look at the mental midgets with the avatars and their lulz-filled verbal diarrhea on [this message board](http://forums.philosophyforums.com/threads/einstein-vs-kant-19947.html). And [this message board, too](http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=187510)! And [this forum](http://www.freeratio.org/showthread.php?t=293036)! And [this board](http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=99825)! If we allow avatars, we’ll become just as bad as [this site](http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/108226-Is-there-a-quot-hard-problem-quot-of-consciousness)! Oh, nice discussion on BAUT Forums. I really enjoyed reading that one, thanks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatards/556161.md?page=12)