Should New Users be Forced to Choose an Avatar on Account Creation?

I eventually added an avatar picture simply out of convenience, it is way easier to find my posts in a thread this way. This picture of my dog just happened to be one of the few I had on my computer. Works for me.

I'm surprised at some of the responses in this thread, do people really skip reading other peoples post because of their avatar? That seems like a silly reason to not read a post.

Sooo... Does anyone skip my posts because I have a My Little Pony avatar??

Word.

I think that once you pick you should be unable to change (except to add a Christmas hat).

That way bitches know who you are.

@chavtheworld: What? No, then I can't change my avatar every 2 weeks! : (

@tread311: That's a dog?!

@cloudenvy: Mwahahah

If you force people to choose avatars all you will get is a bunch of terrible avatars.

It's also nice to know who doesn't give a shit just by looking at their default avatar.

I dunno, I don't think it would make a whole lot of difference. It'd probably be easier to recognise people, but it's not really that hard to look a few inches to the right to see their username. Also, I think disregarding someone's post because of their avatar, whether it's the default or just something you don't like is supremely unfair.

I don't know who you are unless you have an avatar.

EDIT: Also, all users should be required to have xmas hat avatars all year round.

Bingo, what that fuck do I care if you associate my words with some picture, persona, or name. Just fucking read them.

Did... did anyone else just hear that? I thought I heard somebody say something?

Get your hands off my avatar Obama!

Everybody must be forced to submit a pancake recipe of above average quality upon site registration or else...!

I think they should, I just tend to ignore what they say until they have one. I can't remember people's names, but I can remember avatars so if people don't have one I have no idea who they are.

Also I'm with @chavtheworld people should commit to avatars like they commit to usernames. For visually minded people like me it's important. I've had mine for 4 years now.

No, I don't like it ether, but only because I have seen so many posts with the default avatar that are just spam, or trash posts. If people are forced to pick an avatar, then you will probably see some other thing to change.

"If you give a mouse a cookie"

Also forcing people to be active in a community just lowers the community standards. People dont even want stupid people voting, imagine if you were forced to vote, or forced to have kids. It is an extreme example, but the idea still stands.

No. I kept the default avatar through over 2000 posts before finally changing it, because that's what I wanted to do. Forcing someone to pick an avatar is stupid.

No, people should be free to actually give a shit.

I voted "Yes", mainly because I associate a lot of people on this (and other) forums with their avatars, I recognise very few people from their usernames alone, especially if their name is: "xXxS1ckSkiilzxXx".

@mikkaq: I just assume that everyone without an avatar is the same oddly prolific person.

Perhaps you should consider a unique avatar, as your egregious employment of comma splices isn't doing anything for you.

That's true, I tend to just assign a hive-mind to them. That's why I get really freaked out when you see two people without avatars disagreeing with each other.

I've been on this site for 4 years and 3 of those I was a premium subscriber. I added an avatar 2 months ago.

Nope. But I do think anyone besides me who chooses Milky as an avatar should be banned.

I don't care about avatars. At all. It's just a stupid picture.

We should also assign a Star of Some kind to those who don't as well to bring attention to them, cause who wants to sully this community with those lesser "people".

Oh wait....

@chavtheworld: It is indeed. He's rolling around on his back. Although now that you mention it his head is mostly cropped out of the picture.

Edit: Or at least was. Fixed!

Adding another step to yet another registration process? Sounds smart.

@drxlecter said:

That's the point though, I probably won't.

I support Giant Bomb with more money monthly than you do, so in my opinion what I have to say carries more weight than yours.

am i doing this right?

Also can someone start a petition to change the default avatar icon to the Star of David? I'm pretty sure that is the only way to make these people happy.

Yeah, and then they should upload the default avatar anyway.

It would probably a better idea to do away with post counts. It is almost obnoxius how that meaningless number is shoved in your face right after the username.

As for the avatars: No. Because freedom, you know.

Absolutely. Everyone should be required to pick an avatar during registration, and they must never change it. It makes it easier to keep track of who everyone is.

@cloudenvy said:

Surprisingly you're the first respectable person in this thread.

I love people like you, and you know why...

Because the only reason you're pointing out the way i write or even my grammar, is because you have no arguments, you have absolutely nothing to add to this conversation, so you try to attack me personally, but don't worry, i got something to tell you, that's just gonna blow your mind...

I'm not a native english speaker, i never lived in an english speaking country, my parents don't speak english, my friends don't speak english, and i didn't even go to school to learn english, i learned english basically for myself, and...

I can safely say that, i speak and write better english than 80% of the US population...

Now, if you have anything else to tell me, we can continue this conversation in my native language, and that would be Portuguese, because i really don't want to keep bothering you with my english.

If not, well, take care man.

Idk I kinda think these things go hand and hand when it comes to forum avatars. I learn to read a certain user's posts because of their personality/the content of the posts, but then use their avatar as a quick way to ID their posts. If they just use the generic default avatar, that becomes harder to do, and there is a better chance I just skip over their post. My $.02

Edit: Even with what I said above, forcing people to pick an avatar when they sign up is a dumb idea. Let people do what they want.