Why no avatars in this forum?

[seeker5]

Anyone know why Steve has chosen not to allow avatars? I'm just curious about the philosophy behind it. I'm not seeking a change, I think it's kind of interesting that we have no avatars here. It's like there is more emphasis on the spoken word and the signature to remember who people are then viewing a picture.

[The David]

I've wondered that before, but have never really thought to ask. It does kind of seem like a 'conscious' thing to do.

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by seeker5

It's like there is more emphasis on the spoken word and the signature to remember who people are then viewing a picture.

I think you hit on it..

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by seeker5

Why no avatars in this forum?

It's a good question. I have an equally good, and somewhat lengthy answer. Hopefully it’ll answer any questions you have (or scare you away from asking such questions in future, lest I make another response like this one ).

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Pre-launch decisions
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Before the forums were officially launched, the moderation/admin team "hashed out" various issues we felt where important when it came to the forums. Avatars were one of them.

Our general consensus was that, without the necessary tools and systems in place, the positive side effects associated with avatars were outweighed by the negative side effects (relative to this discussion forum/community).

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The reasoning behind our decision
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Basically, you could sum up our approach to avatars as "avatars for smart people".

Seriously though, what we are aiming for is to ensure that these forums remain a high quality resource for those who have a serious interest in the conscious pursuit of personal growth/self improvement. The very purpose of these forums, as stated in the Forum Rules, is for members to help each other learn and grow, so we do our best to create and maintain an environment where that is facilitated as much as possible.

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Nothing is set in stone
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That said, it's quite possible that we may revisit this matter at a later date (especially with me around -- I'm a fan of making system-wide improvements like this). I can't give you an exact time frame, nor do I make any promises that any changes will be made even if we do revisit the decisions we made when it comes to avatars, but as always, we are willing to listen to genuine feedback from the community when it comes to the forums. That doesn't mean we'll necessarily act on that feedback, but you're free to offer it and, time/resources permitting, we will definitely take any reasonable feedback into consideration.

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Some personal thoughts
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I'll go out on a limb here and say that if the community shows particular interest in having avatars in some form (ie. perhaps you could create a thread with a poll to gauge the interest levels), it's more likely we'd consider this matter over the others that we could address. Again though, no promises (and I say that not to be vague or evasive, but to give you a reasonable understanding of the current state of things).

At the moment avatars are honestly not a high priority in terms of “things to look into”, and I personally prefer the forums without them. I believe it gives the Pavlina forums a very different look and feel to the other discussion forums on the internet, and I feel it is very well suited to the type of community the Pavlina forums encourages.

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Upload a personal photo for your profile
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In the mean time, you still have the option to add a personal photo of yourself via the profile picture option. That way any users who view your profile will see the photo you uploaded. Please do keep the Forum Rules in mind, though.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to express them.

[seeker5]

Hi Bruce, Thanks for the explanation.

I agree avatars aren't a pressing need, not like allowing independent editing of your own post for more than 24 hours .

Things may even be better here without avatars - reminds me of the days of newsgroups. I'm actually not "for" avatars, so I'm not going to start such a thread. I rather like how things are now. I was just curious for the explanation behind it as I assume Steve & the mods thinks everything out, especially IT stuff. Thanks.