# Can we get 'how to enable avatars' added to the 'FAQ - Technical issues for Posting' sticky? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 22, 2012, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033 "2012-07-22T10:51:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/221 "2012-07-25T17:13:39Z")
> [@tapu](#): > > My avatar is a super-hero, too. With glasses. > [@MsWhatsit](#): > > I made it on some “create your own superhero” website a long time ago. It was the closest I could get one to actually looking like me, which is to say, not very close. I guess the market for librarian-shaped superheroes with glasses is kind of minimal. I enjoy the idea of a superhero who still has bad eyesight. (yes yes, I know, Daredevil, blah blah) ---
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/222 "2012-07-25T18:27:40Z")
Wow. Don’t come into About This Message Board very often, but I learned a couple of things reading this thread. There’s a script for enabling avatars?! Neat! Great job guys, thanks for setting something up for the community. I don’t have Greasemonkey installed right now, but once I get a chance to do it I will give this script a run and see how I like it. I don’t really care about avatars, but it will be neat to see how things run. Tuba Diva doesn’t like charity?! Bad! 100 bucks is a lot of money! Charities can use every penny! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/223 "2012-07-25T18:54:57Z")
Why not just change the motto to _celebrating_ ignorance already? What with the “the script is dangerous!” “people will see my picture!” “people will put up obscene pictures”, blah blah blah, having “Fighting Ignorance” up there is a complete joke. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/224 "2012-07-25T19:08:52Z")
Fearing Change since 1973.™ ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/225 "2012-07-25T19:23:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Why not just change the motto to celebrating ignorance already? What with the “the script is dangerous!” “people will see my picture!” “people will put up obscene pictures”, blah blah blah, having “Fighting Ignorance” up there is a complete joke. Calm yourself. There is no need for this. You got your avatars, you won the battle. Why give yourself a heart attack, or get all frothy when you got what you wanted? To what end? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/226 "2012-07-25T19:46:28Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Calm yourself. There is no need for this. You got your avatars, you won the battle. > Why give yourself a heart attack, or get all frothy when you got what you wanted? > To what end? World peace. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/227 "2012-07-25T20:30:11Z")
Just when I think things here can’t get any stupider, people go on a two page fistfight over the definition of “avatar”. Holy mackarole, some of you folks need a serious chill-pill. > [@elbows](#): > > Okay, well I think the thing that ought to be stickied, and ought to have been mentioned to the board during the heated discussion of avatars, and the introduction of the script, is that if you have a ‘profile’ picture on your user profile page, that anyone using the script will see that picture as an ‘avatar’ beside your posts. "This just in, if you post a picture in your profile, someone might look at that picture while they read your posts! Don’t be alarmed, experts advise this is harmless. If you’re embarrassed by a picture in your profile, they recommend \*don’t post a picture in your profile. \*If you are embarrased that your picture may be associated with something you might say, \*perhaps you should reconsider what you might say. \* We now return you to your regularly scheduled kurfluffle, already in progress." > [@](#): > > Even if you hate avatars, even if you don’t care for the photo, and even if no one bothered to tell you! Why would one post a picture they hate in their profile, to be associated with themselves? It is self-associated content. > [@](#): > > I think people have a right to know that little detail. I think it should be stickied because when people posted those pictures I don’t think they were foreseeing this application and they deserve to be informed. I don’t think there is any requirement that the board inform people that pictures that they willingly associate with their user identity may be associated with their user identity. Post a link to a picture in _one post_, and someone could decide that is how they wish to think of you from now on, and bookmark it with your username, and every time they read a post of yours, they pull up that image. And then laugh at you. Or burn incense. Or whack off. If the board administration wished to reduce the number of clueless newbies posting threads in ATMB requesting avatars or suggesting avatars be turned on or asking why we don’t have avatars, it would be useful to put a comment in the FAQ for technical issues to point to the thread on how to self-install avatars. That thread makes it clear where it obtains images to use as avatars. > [@elbows](#): > > I am not trying to protect any ‘innocents’ from themselves or ‘dangers’. Only inform people, who may have posted a profile picture ages ago, and forgotten about it, that it will be seen as an ‘avatar’ for those using the script. Inform. > > Why? Because, whichever side you’ve been on, through these debates you know, _this_ detail never came out, and the debate _was_ contentious. What do you mean, never came out? It’s right there in the description of how the greasemonkey script pulls avatars. > [@](#): > > Where is the downside to informing people of this detail? I’m not seeing it. There’s no particular downside, it is just ridiculous and unnecessary. It’s like telling people if they put a URL in their profile to their blog, someone might go read their blog. > [@](#): > > And sorry, but no, I don’t see that telling people where to get the script, should be piggybacking on that message. What you want, is not related to my point, please stop trying to make it so. Just to get what you want. Sure, there is a slight difference between telling people “by the way, someone has created a script that pulls any image you link in your user profile and uses it to create an avatar for people running that script,” and telling people “by the way, someone has created _this script_ that pulls any image you link in your user profile and uses it to create an avatar for people running that script.” The first, however, is likely to get some people to say “Hey, there’s a script that shows avatars? Where can I get it?” And thus generate more threads asking that question. If the point is to reduce the number of repetitive requests about avatars, then posting in the FAQ a link to the thread on how to get avatars would be useful. And include the appropriate disclaimer that the SDMB does not own or endorse the script, blah blah blah. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/228 "2012-07-25T20:36:36Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > World peace. Kumbaya. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/229 "2012-07-25T20:56:54Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > That is entirely separate from the point I was making, and should, in no wa,y stop them from informing people that their profile picture is now being seen as an avatar for those who use the script. It also seems only fair that there should be a sticky warning users that at least one user here has a greasemonkey script that changes one other specific user’s infamous signature line into the sentence, “I’m a drooling idiot who LOVES to eat his own shit.” ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/230 "2012-07-25T21:00:10Z")
> [@](#): > > There’s no particular downside Then why the rabid, frothy opposition when you’ve already won the right to avatars? No downside to informing people of something, about which, there has been lengthy, contentious back and forth. But we’re incensed at the very proposition of informing people!:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/231 "2012-07-25T21:11:43Z")
No one’s incensed. People are puzzled and bemused by your insistence that people need to be informed. It never occurred to the rest of us that some people don’t want other people looking at the photos they uploaded to a public photo gallery. Why do people keep saying avatar people have won the right to anything? Guess what? I’ve always had the right to mod my browser to display shit differently than yours does. Crazyhorse and others have merely made that modifying easier for those of us not very familiar with computers. _But we haven’t won anything we haven’t always had the right to do._ ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/232 "2012-07-25T21:27:20Z")
No, I insisted on nothing. I merely suggested, since it was such a hot button issue, and since there was no downside to doing so, the wise, and seemingly self evident, thing to do, is to inform those who may be affected/have feelings about the issue, of this detail. Why you find this so extremely offensive a proposition, I cannot fathom. Yeah, yeah, “they should already be aware”, we heard it the first 6 times already. It’s about awareness that this\* is\* a hot issue for some people. Considering how hot some people are about it, to me, it just makes sense to inform rather than not. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/233 "2012-07-25T21:31:19Z")
Who’s offended? Please point out a post where someone gets offended at the idea of telling people about the avatars. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/234 "2012-07-25T21:42:01Z")
People who aren’t worried about posting their pictures on the internet, aren’t going to be worried if we see their image as an “avatar” beside their posts. The whole thing is a strawman. I notice Tubadiva never answered her own question as to which mods/admins actually use the script. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/235 "2012-07-25T21:51:33Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Then why the rabid, frothy opposition when you’ve already won the right to avatars? Can we at least, in the name of honest debate, stop propagating this mistruth? There are people here who would like the board administrators to turn on the ability to view avatars. If and when that happens, then you can say they’ve “won”. Viewing internet content, modified the way I want in my own home on my browser, is a right I’ve always had. I have not ‘won’ that here. ---
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/236 "2012-07-25T21:52:43Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > I notice Tubadiva never answered her own question as to which mods/admins actually use the script. She was questioning **Guinistasia’s** driveby post. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/237 "2012-07-25T21:55:17Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Then why the rabid, frothy opposition when you’ve already won the right to avatars? I’m not rabid or frothing at all. And I haven’t won the right to anything. I have not been advocating for or trying to get avatars, and I have not installed the greasemonkey script, or posted a pic or link in my profile. I have also not sent a picture to **Arnold Winkelried** for the gallery. I do not choose to see avatars, but I have become convinced there is no reason others shouldn’t be allowed to see them, even if they have to implement the method on their own. > [@](#): > > No downside to informing people of something, about which, there has been lengthy, contentious back and forth. Okay, so I thought of a downside. Stirring up contention in people who are not aware of something that should be obvious from the way the internet works. If they don’t know about it, then they don’t have to get upset, and then we don’t have to sit through another complaint-a-thon. Win-win. > [@](#): > > But we’re incensed at the very proposition of informing people!:dubious: I’m not incensed, I merely find it silly and unnecessary and wonder why you are so concerned that other people might find out how the internet works. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/238 "2012-07-25T22:02:08Z")
> [@](#): > > If they don’t know about it, then they don’t have to get upset, and then we don’t have to sit through another complaint-a-thon. Win-win. This passes for ‘reasoning’,:dubious: I’m out. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/239 "2012-07-25T22:08:07Z")
That’s probably for the best. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033/240 "2012-07-25T22:24:18Z")
I disagree that the pro-avatar crowd hasn’t won. We have. We\* created a way to make it super easy for the layman to have avatars by the posts. No one can stop us. It seems, that was the problem at first. Some wanted to enjoy the board with avatars and some didn’t. Those that did smartly utilized a work around and we got what we wanted. I always thought the anti-avatar crowd lost that battle. Why? Because they were still coming off bitter about it. They seemed to not only not want avatars, but not want the rest of us to have them either, which made them look salty and sour. So yeah, the pro-avees did indeed win and the anti-avees did lose. Like I said, though, it is starting to look like the pro-avees are losing their cool a bit. No need to push so hard for the sticky. \*by ‘we’, I mean people who understand this sort of thing. Not ‘me’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-get-how-to-enable-avatars-added-to-the-faq-technical-issues-for-posting-sticky/629033.md?page=13)