# Would it bother you if avatars were allowed, but off by default? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 4, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045 "2010-10-04T20:20:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/61 "2010-10-05T18:25:46Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > > [@elmwood](#): > > > > Slippery slope! Slippery slope! If people are allowed to use avatars, it’ll open the doors to signature images, inline images, and blinking text! Everybody will be posting Goatse images! Dopers will be writing messages in German about eating at Applebee’s and Olive Garden, and how Jesus Christ became their personal lord and savior! It’ll lead to the breakdown of Doper society! Slippery slope! ARRRRRRGH! > > No! _ **NO!!!** _ > > We must nip this terror in the bud! Vote Tea Party. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/62 "2010-10-05T18:31:43Z")
I’d previously thought of it as simply an aesthetic preference. Until this thread, I wasn’t aware that not liking avatars was a form of control-freakism borne of Asperger’s syndrome, equivalent to denying women’s suffrage and equal rights for gay people. Now I feel kind of bad, and worry that soon it might be like packing Jews into cattle cars or skeet-shooting puppies. I just personally find them kind of tacky and distracting, and think enabling them would cheapen the board in a small way—by removing one of the few characteristics that distinguishes it from thousands of other sites in the non-stop garish freakshow that the Web has come to represent. Yeah, you can turn them off. And if my neighborhood were littered with scattered trash, rusted car-hulks perched on blocks bleeding oil across cracked driveways, shattered crackpipes and used condoms, waist-high crabgrass, and defeated armies of pink plastic flamingos, I could “solve” the problem by wearing a grocery bag on my head. ---
**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 5, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/63 "2010-10-05T18:33:32Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > > [@elmwood](#): > > > > Slippery slope! Slippery slope! If people are allowed to use avatars, it’ll open the doors to signature images, inline images, and blinking text! Everybody will be posting Goatse images! Dopers will be writing messages in German about eating at Applebee’s and Olive Garden, and how Jesus Christ became their personal lord and savior! It’ll lead to the breakdown of Doper society! Slippery slope! ARRRRRRGH! > > No! _ **NO!!!** _ > > We must nip this terror in the bud! Get out your bullet, Barn. ---
**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 5, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/64 "2010-10-05T18:35:14Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Yeah, you can turn them off. And if my neighborhood were littered with scattered trash, rusted car-hulks perched on blocks bleeding oil across cracked driveways, shattered crackpipes and used condoms, waist-high crabgrass, and defeated armies of pink plastic flamingos, I could “solve” the problem by wearing a grocery bag on my head. If you make it the plastic kind, your problems will surely be solved. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/65 "2010-10-05T18:44:21Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > Except for those lovely people that change their avatar as often as they change their underwear. I can never keep up with those people on other sites. Even then they serve a purpose: Avatars are extremely helpful even within a single-thread. It makes it infinitely easier to keep track of who’s saying what. > [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Yeah, you can turn them off. And if my neighborhood were littered with scattered trash, rusted car-hulks perched on blocks bleeding oil across cracked driveways, shattered crackpipes and used condoms, waist-high crabgrass, and defeated armies of pink plastic flamingos, I could “solve” the problem by wearing a grocery bag on my head. That’s actually not the same at all. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/66 "2010-10-05T19:03:45Z")
If only they would allow us to use a unique series of letters and/or numbers to identify ourselves. It could be placed at the top left-hand corner of each post, maybe enlarged and in a different color to make it stand out, but it would be in the same box as the message itself so that there would be no mistaking who wrote what. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/67 "2010-10-05T19:06:21Z")
If only those were easy to remember…you know, like a picture. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/68 "2010-10-05T19:06:45Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If only they would allow us to use a unique series of letters and/or numbers to identify ourselves. It could be placed at the top left-hand corner of each post, maybe enlarged and in a different color to make it stand out, but it would be in the same box as the message itself so that there would be no mistaking who wrote what. What’s wrong with sniffing each other’s butts to establish identity? It also gives a general status update as to diet, health, and other activity. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/69 "2010-10-05T19:13:48Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > Even then they serve a purpose: Avatars are extremely helpful even within a single-thread. It makes it infinitely easier to keep track of who’s saying what. Well, until spiteful avatar impersonators start using and downloading their enemies’ avatars. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/70 "2010-10-05T19:13:51Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > If only those were easy to remember…you know, like a picture. And how would you propose ensuring that no two pictures were alike? ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/71 "2010-10-05T19:28:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > > [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > > > If only those were easy to remember…you know, like a picture. > > And how would you propose ensuring that no two pictures were alike? It seems to be an analogous phenomenon to 2 women wearing the same dress to a party. Yes, it does happen at times, but it is generally seen as something to be avoided if at all possible. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/72 "2010-10-05T19:31:49Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > > [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > > > If only those were easy to remember…you know, like a picture. > > And how would you propose ensuring that no two pictures were alike? You can’t, just as you can’t prevent similar usernames or sigs. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/73 "2010-10-05T19:35:53Z")
> [@dzero](#): > > > [@Czarcasm](#): > > > > And how would you propose ensuring that no two pictures were alike? > > It seems to be an analogous phenomenon to 2 women wearing the same dress to a party. Yes, it does happen at times, but it is generally seen as something to be avoided if at all possible. And there’s the rub-We have a program that prevents you from using another poster’s name, but no such program is in place to prevent you from using another poster’s picture, and even if I trusted each and every poster here not to do such a thing it would be damn near impossible to avoid this dilemma _unless a constantly updated bank of all pictures used so far were available to one and all._ ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/74 "2010-10-05T19:37:30Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > > [@Czarcasm](#): > > > > And how would you propose ensuring that no two pictures were alike? > > You can’t, just as you can’t prevent similar usernames or sigs. Really? I could register as Red Barshetta, and you think the mods would allow it? ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/75 "2010-10-05T19:38:25Z")
> [@Electric\_Warrior](#): > > I want avatars off for myself. Now imagine that people start commenting on each other’s avatars or making jokes about each other’s avatars. My response: wtf is going on? And if no context is provided then I won’t know to turn on avatars so I can understand exactly wtf is going on. I think it behooves anyone who frequently reads a board to know the rules, standards, etc, and should thus know about the options of turning on and off sigs, avatars and such. And if you are required to occasionally do a bit of research to find out “wtf is going on,” wouldn’t that be preferable to denying a whole set of people the fun of avatars? FWIW, I would turn off avatars. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/76 "2010-10-05T19:38:55Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Yeah, you can turn them off. And if my neighborhood were littered with scattered trash, rusted car-hulks perched on blocks bleeding oil across cracked driveways, shattered crackpipes and used condoms, waist-high crabgrass, and defeated armies of pink plastic flamingos, I could “solve” the problem by wearing a grocery bag on my head. Oh, VT, normally I think you’re awesome, but dude. Worst. analogy. ever. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/77 "2010-10-05T19:38:58Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > and even if I trusted each and every poster here not to do such a thing it would be damn near impossible to avoid this dilemma _unless a constantly updated bank of all pictures used so far were available to one and all._ Near impossible? Like hyperbole much? It’s near impossible to prevent this hypothetical situation, yes. It’s also near impossible it’ll actually happen. There are a lot of images out there–significantly more than there are posters. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/78 "2010-10-05T19:40:48Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > > [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > > > You can’t, just as you can’t prevent similar usernames or sigs. > > Really? I could register as Red Barshetta, and you think the mods would allow it? Perhaps not that specific example, but there are already several usernames who are similar enough that it confuses me, such as the Quasimodem and some other username that’s quite close (which I can’t recall offhand). And there’s still the “problem” of identical sigs… ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/79 "2010-10-05T19:43:34Z")
I am going to assume that the people who are deeply concerned about similar/identical avatars have never gone to any other message board, or Facebook, where people use avatars or profile pictures all the time and this is really not a major problem. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045/80 "2010-10-05T19:45:31Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > > [@Czarcasm](#): > > > > Really? I could register as Red Barshetta, and you think the mods would allow it? > > Perhaps not that specific example, but there are already several usernames who are similar enough that it confuses me, such as the Quasimodem and some other username that’s quite close (which I can’t recall offhand). > > And there’s still the “problem” of identical sigs… \*\* Quasimodal\*\* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-bother-you-if-avatars-were-allowed-but-off-by-default/556045.md?page=5)