Does an Avatar affect your perception of the poster?

[vandermolen]

M forever's shark was memorable!

[Scarpia]

I am influenced by avatars Scarpia, but I think in the opposite way that you are.  I view paintings and photographs as impersonal, I think that you might as well not have an avatar if you go with that route.  In the middle are the composer portraits (like I have) which tells you something about the poster: they really like that composer!  It's highly appropriate.  And then avatars like Sarge has or Greg are personal because it tells you something about them, they are probably the best.

I find the "cultural reference" avatar to be the most evocative of the character of the person who chose it.  For instance, I notice knight usually has an architectural detail of a graceful public building.  This suggests to me a respect for cultural traditions, and for things of beauty and grandeur.   Bhodges has an odd piece of avant-guard furniture.  There is a taste for elegance, but a bit more iconoclastic than knight.   These avatars give me the illusion, at least, of having some additional insight into the posters persona.  Having a generic picture of Mozart, or whatever, strikes me as unimaginative, redundant, and somewhat presumptious, as though the poster claims a preeminant claim to that composer on the board.  Anyway, just my impression.

[Scarpia]

M forever's shark was memorable!

Yes, I recall.  I think I changed mine to this



with the tag l line "I think you are going to need a bigger boat."

The one time M. improved of me, briefly.

[Renfield]

I find the "cultural reference" avatar to be the most evocative of the character of the person who chose it.  For instance, I notice knight usually has an architectural detail of a graceful public building.  This suggests to me a respect for cultural traditions, and for things of beauty and grandeur.   Bhodges has an odd piece of avant-guard furniture.  There is a taste for elegance, but a bit more iconoclastic than knight.   These avatars give me the illusion, at least, of having some additional insight into the posters persona.  Having a generic picture of Mozart, or whatever, strikes me as unimaginative, redundant, and somewhat presumptious, as though the poster claims a preeminant claim to that composer on the board.  Anyway, just my impression.

Out of curiosity: what if a composer picture is also artistically interesting? Say, one of those Brahms pictures (you know which ones I mean). Or that Moussorgsky where he looks - realistically - like a drunkard. What if one where to use that?

[Scarpia]

Out of curiosity: what if a composer picture is also artistically interesting? Say, one of those Brahms pictures (you know which ones I mean). Or that Moussorgsky where he looks - realistically - like a drunkard. What if one where to use that?

It is the formal portraits which imply reverence that strike me as tiresome.  Your avatar, with the caricatures of Mahler, for instance is in another category.  Now Antoine Marchand confuses me.  The formal portraits of people that, I have no idea who they are.

[Renfield]

Now Antoine Marchand confuses me.  The formal portraits of people that, I have no idea who they are.

Actually, if Antoine is reading this: I would also appreciate a caption. In general, I am not bothered by formal portraits, though I do see your point about their being formulaic. But as a rule, I do prefer to know who they are!

[Antoine Marchand]

Actually, if Antoine is reading this: I would also appreciate a caption. In general, I am not bothered by formal portraits, though I do see your point about their being formulaic. But as a rule, I do prefer to know who they are!

Yesterday, during a conversation with Premont and other people (included Scarpia) that was probably the distant origin of this thread:

... I frequently change my avatar: Roberto Bolaño, Jorge Luis Borges, G.K. Chesterton and currently George Santayana. I suppose it would be a kind of homage, if my posts had some value.  Surprinsingly, I have never choosen a composer or a musician, probably because my favorites are taken: Bach, Haydn (well, Gurn IS that avatar), Brahms (Q and, lately, Brahmsian), etc. Sometimes I have considered Leonhardt, but then I thought that that avatar was yours. 

[Scarpia]

Yesterday, during a conversation with Premont and other people (included Scarpia) that was probably the distant origin of this thread:

Yes, I recall there was mention of Santayana.  I have no distinct idea of who he was (I will have to google him, I guess). 

[Renfield]

Yesterday, during a conversation with Premont and other people (included Scarpia) that was probably the distant origin of this thread:

Thank you.

[Antoine Marchand]

Thank you.

The truth is that, in general, I have no problems with any kind of avatar. Personally, I think the choice of an avatar as a kind of game that I usually use to recall some people that I admire. Do I like formal portraits? I would say yes. In fact, I have noticed that interesting people often produce pictures that might be interesting even for those who do not know who is that person:

Jorge Luis Borges, the blind bard

Roberto Bolaño, L'enfant terrible

G.K. Chesterton, the polemicist

... and George Santayana, the philosopher who looks like a banker (well, he was professor at Harvard  ).

[greg]

You know what's funny is how on this forum, you get so many composer avatars, and on an anime forum, you get nearly 90% anime avatars... 
and for some reason I have anime avatars on here and for the anime forum I just joined (though i don't post often- kinda hard to get into it) I have a music-related avatar. Why?! 

(maybe it's just from my strong distaste for being part of large crowds?)

But to me, avatars don't really affect my impression of a poster that much. Sydney Grew and Rod Corkin can be pretty bizarre no matter what avatars they have. Rob Newman didn't even have an avatar (did he?) and.... 

I'm thinking about changing my avatar to Muhammed.

[KevinP]

Yes, and when people change their avatar, they shouldn't assume everyone will notice that they are the same person. I usually only notice names if I'm replying to them or if I think the words I'm reading sound like something someone would say. For example, I'm often reading a post and say, 'This sounds like something Bogey would say' and only then do I look at the name.

[Sydney Grew]

… and George Santayana, the philosopher who looks like a banker (well, he was professor at Harvard ).

Let it not be forgotten that he was also, as has been the case with nearly all truly great men, a homo-sexualist.

[jowcol]

Not sure if you all know the story, but my Avatar is a photo of me on a very special day-- Dec 26, 2004, when we were visiting Thailand. (My son is next to me) We were inland and pretty much out of touch, and this picture was probably taken about 5 hours after the Tsunami hit.  It wasn't until we were heading back that evening that my nephew-in-law started picking up all of these frantic calls on his cell phone trying to see if we were okay.

Another friend of my wife's panicked, and so  we were listed amount the missing on the CNN website for a couple of days, which required a lot of emails just to let pretty much everyone I knew that I was not dead.  That didn't stop Fox news from dispatching a camera crew to my neighborhood to interview my neighbors about our grisly deaths.

I must admit I'm tempted to use the Repin portrait of Mussorgsky, but I don't seem able to replace this one.  Yet.

[greg]

Let it not be forgotten that he was also, as has been the case with nearly all truly great men, a homo-sexualist.

Yes, that is such an important fact. We're glad you reminded us.

[Scarpia]

Jorge Luis Borges, the blind bard

Roberto Bolaño, L'enfant terrible

G.K. Chesterton, the polemicist

Well, of those three, the first and the third I know nothing of, unfortunately.  The middle one, Bolaño, wrote what I would describe as the worst book I ever read.

[Franco]

Yes, I recall there was mention of Santayana.  I have no distinct idea of who he was (I will have to google him, I guess).

Santayana, I think, is who said, "Those who cannot learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."  But beyond that, I don't know much about him either - other than he is a good guitar player.

[Keemun]

My perception of a poster is often affected by their avatar, even more so when the poster is not well known to me.  Scowling, sour-faced composers (or writers, artists, etc.) give me the impression of a poster who is likely complaining about something or looking for an argument.  Scarpia's former avatar is a perfect example.  And then there are those posters who have evocative avatars for the sake of garnering attention.  One that comes to mind (I have momentarily forgotten the poster's name) is the avatar showing the backside of a naked man on a bed about to shoot what looked to be a dildo-tipped arrow.  (I used AdBlock Plus to block that image from appearing in my browser, but it did nothing for the image already burned into my mind.)  Posters without avatars seem more difficult to relate to because they give no non-textual clue as to their personality. 

I have no idea what my avatar conveys to people.  Perhaps that I am a tea-loving dork?  So be it.   

[Renfield]

One that comes to mind (I have momentarily forgotten the poster's name) is the avatar showing the backside of a naked man on a bed about to shoot what looked to be a dildo-tipped arrow.  (I used AdBlock Plus to block that image from appearing in my browser, but it did nothing for the image already burned into my mind.)

That's the fellow who wants to return to the womb. I think the avatar is the least of his problems.

[Keemun]

That's the fellow who wants to return to the womb. I think the avatar is the least of his problems.

That's the one.