In comment sections or in community pages, it’s mostly an ocean of default avatars. Why do you choose to stand out with a custom avatar on this semi-anonymous platform?

    • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
      151·
      3 days ago

      Do you use Voyager? Or perhaps another client? Nothing about the user profile is surfaced in Voyager. You have to go to the native webview and open a user’s profile to see all that. I set a brief bio there, but until it’s exposed in my primary client I don’t really see any reason to worry about all that.

      I do sometimes check on nsfw boards so can flag users as OF creators vs. amateurs because I have more appreciation for folks doing that for fun than as a hustle. Other than that, it’s too much hassle to go checking everyone’s profile when maybe 10% of people set anything at all.

  • cobysev@lemmy.worldEnglish
    151·
    3 days ago

    Because I’m not an anonymous person. This is my default username for most of my public stuff, and it’s how friends and family find me online. I try to be genuine online; I don’t care to hide behind an anonymous profile.

    I firmly believe in being a decent, respectable person toward everyone, even when I’m anonymous and don’t need to be. Every time I’ve created an anonymous account, it’s just ended up turning into my regular public profile, so why hide under a different username?

    The profile pic just helps me stand out a bit more for others who know me here, and friends/family trying to find me. I regularly write video game reviews to post to !games@lemmy.world, so it helps me to be more recognized in the wild. My profile pic is my semi-anonymous profile pic that I use on other platforms when I don’t want to broadcast my face to everyone.

  • Yareckt@lemmynsfw.com
    3·
    3 days ago

    I find it easier to follow a thread if I can quickly tell who is saying what. I usually don’t remember the usernames so a picture helps there. It’s not a necessity of course

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    3 days ago

    Completely forgot there are profile avatars on Lemmy. BRB, gotta hop on my desktop to see if I have one set up. Cannot find any settings about it in Voyager ( probably didn’t look hard enough or my eyes glossed over it ).

    Edit: editing on my browser and I have my favorite Tiny Toons character as my profile avatar. All is good. I don’t have many images I use as profile avatars, so Dizzy Devil Ducky it was. At least that;s what I imagine was going through my head.

  • eezeebee@lemmy.caEnglish
    6·
    3 days ago

    In comment sections or in community pages, it’s mostly an ocean of default avatars.

    When I joined it seemed like most people had an avatar. I have used this one for years, so why not?

    I also like recognizing other Lemmings. Username is alright for that, but the image helps even more. It makes it feel like a small community from the internet of old (forums).

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      We should totally do that again. Fun for the people generating them with different LLMs, fun to see the crazy stuff that shows up, and some people wind up with an avatar that they like.

      @Thelsim@sh.itjust.works

      I remember that “blank face” image being generated, too.

      Also an interesting way to compare different LLMs, because you can see what they’re spitting out for the same input.

      EDIT: Found that thread:

      https://sh.itjust.works/post/7955084

      The intent wasn’t originally to generate avatars, but some people did wind up using it as their avatar.

      • Thelsim@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        3 days ago

        I remember that post! I had a lot of fun generating people’s usernames :)

        I guess we can always do another one?

        • Usernameblankface@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 days ago

          Sure! Might stir up some activity over there. I wouldn’t mind running my username again through whatever is free to see what images I get back this time