Ask Lemmy

Avatars are a psychological trick useful for building up sunk cost fallacy and making a user more likely to personally identify with a product. I don't have social media avatars for the same reason I don't have "nabisco" tattooed on my asscheek.

My what?

Avatars aren't info. They just clutter the screen. They very, very rarely are interesting. At worst, they show something inappropriate. They require moderation. They don't match any aesthetic of the site.

I literally didn't know they were supported and never see them anyway.

Accounts come and go, but shitposting is forever.

why would I set a custom avatar?

It is irrelevant.

because it doesn't matter at all

I don't care enough

When I first set up my account I could not find where to add an avatar (I didn't really look that hard) I figured I would get back to it later and only remembered about it from this post.

On Voyager I can't even see avatars or custom usernames

I don't even see or care to see avatars. Its just clutter imo.

My reader doesn't even show avatars

I don't even see it on voyager. I don't know why I would want an avatar anyway.

Lemmy has avatars?

Heck, I was salty when the old site added avatars. I already ignored names and was weirded out by "popular redditors" culture before avatars, and it was annoying to see a logo next to a name coloring my perception of the comment. I'm here to read comments, not to look at avatars

I gots one, they're just fun

Because a lot of people don't see a benefit in being recognized when pseudonymously interacting with strangers. And in some apps they aren't displayed at all.

Most clients dont show them

I don't see the point. Even on my monster screen they're only 6mm² so if it's anything other than simple line art it's just a small meaningless square of digital noise.

I don't see avatars in my app and I don't really care to. Never had them in early reddit and that's what I'm trying to replicate.

My app either doesn't show them or it's off by default. I didn't know there were avatars but I'm not interested in them either since I'm reading on my phone and prefer a minimalist view.

Even though I tend to comment somewhat frequently, I prefer to be just "another voice in the crowd" I don't really want to be more easily recognized lol

Almost every app for Lemmy I have tried does not even have them visible by default and require you to manually turn them on. If their only experience is using an app, they might not even know you can have an avatar.

Because having a pfp is gay

There are avatars?

I had no idea Lemmy even had avatars until I read this post. So I went into my profile out of curiosity - even though I already had "Show Avatars" checked, I've never seen a user's avatar on here before. I did upload one for my own profile though for the hell of it.

I hid them to keep the comment section clean looking

I have avatars disabled

In voyager your can’t see avatars. A lot of people use voyager.

I find both avatars and display names annoying and distracting. If they're enabled by default, I turn them off.

Lemmy is a place I prefer to be as anonymous as I can while still participating so I don’t set one for myself and I use voyager the vast majority of the time so I don’t see anyone else’s. I personally don’t find profile pictures/avatars add anything to the experience for me.

Because I don't care about it and it makes no difference. They only show in your profile and I don't look at my profile. The only people that do look at your profile are the people going there to try and find something to use against you.

I haven't cared about stuff like that since I was 15

I disable avatar display on all my clients. Reddit and it's siblings like Lemmy have historically been less person-focused than other websites, and many of us like to keep it that way. While it can be neat to recognise people, I only need their user handle to do so and I only check if necessary. It's nice to take a comment at it's value without regard for who said it. Reddit's push towards personifying their users is part of why I left.

One of the harsh lessons in software is learning that users sometimes have different wants and expectations than the developer. Gold-plating is a constant temptation, and it usually leads to frustration and resentment.

At the end of the day, if 60-70% of people don't care, either do it for the 30-40%, or do it for your own enjoyment, or put your efforts elsewhere. In any case, don't fall into a pit of resentment just because lots of users are approaching a platform differently than you.

There are avatars?

Why do you bother with an avatar for your Lemmy account?

We can set avatars for profiles? I don't even see avatars.