How do you conceptualize and recognize fellow jellies? Is it their identifying markings? Their distinctive calls? What role does scent marking play?
So a good lot of us have hung around here long enough to feel like we know each other, at least a bit. But for the most part we’ve never seen each other. We probably don’t know what each other look like, and it can be pretty catch as catch can as to if we even know each other’s gender or approximate age. So how does this work mentally?
When you recognize a jelly, what is it that you recognize? Their name? Their avatar, their overwhelming “themness”? To recognize anything at all you need an internal concept of the thing recognized. So how do you conceptualize a person you’ve never seen, but about whom you’ve accumulated a nebulous cloud of information? Is it consistent or does it vary according to the person in question? Has your internal concept of other users ever been altered significantly by unexpected information?
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By user name and, sometimes, avatar.
Not exactly the same as, but similar to how I produce (human) faces to cars.
When a Jelly announces (haha) him-/herself on a thread, their avatar, their past responses (if I can remember them/some), their general attitude (in words), plus my fantasy, make that I see a certain ‘personality’.
It depends on the jelly. Some never change their avatar. Some people often use a photo of themselves as their avatar. Some I recognize by user name. Often I recognize a jelly by their response, as well, as I have gotten to know most of you over time.
Yes, I have been wrong about my assumptions of gender, age, location, etc. Sometimes I am way off base.
Often I just recognize them by username and avatar, though there are a few that I can recognize by answer as well.
Part of my reason for asking this is that a section of my brain thinks Muppetish is a fraggle. And Cate Blanchett means “Jeruba” as far as I’m concerned.
They look like their avatar and my mind makes up voices for them because I have to hear a voice to understand what I read. Just as the avatar obviously is not necessarily what the person looks like, the voice I create has nothing to to do with the way the person really sounds.
I’ll have to listen more carefully to the voices I hear.
I recognize you by your fabulous plumage, @fundevogel. xD
based on @Sunny2 response, I am going to find and avatar that looks more like me.
@Mariah And that’s why I never have and never will change my avatar.
But I have to say, it’s pretty cool to be able to recognize you by your own face. If that is your own face…
I usually identify jeliies by their name, and sometimes avatar. There are a couple whose writing style and tone I recognise as well.
Well at first it’s the initial stuff that gets presented, like user names and avatars. After a while though, well it’s hard to explain. I recognize them by their habits, how they post, I’m reminded of their likes/dislikes, hobbies, whatever history they’ve shared, and that sort of forms the ’‘themness’’, or the feel I tend to automatically get from them, based on how I conceptualize them. I see their name or avvy, and the rest that I’ve come to know or imagine or recognize triggers and goes, so it’s this user. It happens automatically, and is pretty hard to explain.
For the people I don’t know that well, it still happens, but the ’‘scent’’ isn’t as strong, I guess. As for assuming things like age or gender and all, well yes, it happens. And I stay with that, again automatically, unless and until more information is divulged, which then takes place of the assumptions and becomes part of the scent.
Also they should make a horror movie called The Scent.
^She’s one person I recognise by writing style and tone.
I don’t think I would trust myself to identify anyone by style alone…though I could probably identify a few of you when you comment on one of your pet topics. If there’s a scintillating treatise on some sort of monster I’ll wager @Symbeline is behind it.
Didn’t fluther scramble the avatars of everyone one April Fool’s? I just barely caught it, anyone remember what posting under those conditions was like?
@fundevogel Ha yeah, zombie essays…:D The April Fool’s thing. Fluther doesn’t do that. It’s some few people that get together and agree to sport all the same avatar, usually that of one user they decide to honor. Last year we did the same for YARNLADY on Easter. We all had her avatar lol. And we totally spammed all questions and made a buncha nonsense questions dealing with squirrels, yarn and scarves…I bet Auggie wanted to destroy us all. XD
On certain occasions, people do stuff like that on here. It’s kind of like an inside joke, or like, just part of the wacko side of Fluther’s mythos and culture.
I bet I could guess who several people were by style and content. That would be an interesting experiment… maybe for a new April Fools prank we could have no avatars or user names. What a mess that would be!
@Symbeline We did have an April Fools day when all of our avatars were of Ben, Andrew, and Tim I think. The site did it. Some people loved it and others absolutely hated it. It was interesting, for sure.
@augustlan Really, when was that? I remember when a bunch of people took AstroChuck’s avatar on April Fool’s. Ah, sorry for the misinformation lol. Prolly was either absent or not around then.
@Symbeline It was several years ago, probably before you joined… I think. The AstroChuck and YARNLADY pranks were definitely member driven, though. :D
@augustlan Wait no, I think I vaguely remember the Andrew/Ben…or people talking about it, maybe. I den remmeber…I certainly remember the YARNLADY one though, haha. Imma stop going off topic now. >_>
@augustlan “maybe for a new April Fools prank we could have no avatars or user names. What a mess that would be!”
That would be so cool. I’m imagining what the communtiy feed would look like.
someone received a great question. 7 sec ago
someone was just followed. 2 min ago
someone received the Perfecto Fish award. 5 min ago
It would be even more fucked up if ’‘someone’’ was replaced by ’‘nobody” lol.
I think it would be really cool, except for the trouble of responding to particular posts. It would be like:
@you You know, you. The one who wrote “this-whole-big-thing-you-wrote-so-I-can-specify-who-I’m-talking-to”.
Haha!! That would be hilarious.
@augustlan Maybe rather than no names you could replace our real names with randomly generated names that we use to @ each other. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think even when people have changed their account names the @‘s directed at their old name still jumps to their posts so it could work. I think.
Man if you guys do that, I better have a cool name, like Berserker or something.
And yeah, @fundevogel, I do believe that whatever the username and how shortly ago it’s been changed, Fluther doesn’t recognize the change and just @‘s it to the account (and therefore the post) the name belongs to.
That must have been the weirdest sentence I ever wrote on here…
Well it’s kinda messes things up if you demand a particular pseudonym in advance @Cunobelinus. Now everyone will know who you are. Zombie posts or no.
This whole discussion makes me wonder if I do have quirks or a style of typing or speaking that sets me apart.
@fundevogel When I start talking about zombies, even Shakespeare knows who I am, even if I was born without a name and he’s dead. :D
Point taken, Berserker it is. You realize, I’m just going to call you that from now on right?
Avatar. And when people have the cat, I assume it’s a troll because most trolls have the cat avatar lol.
@Blackberry I know! I’m always tempted to warn innocent new users with that avatar that it’s got history.
I use a range of things to recognise who is ‘speaking’. Not that I have spent much time really thinking about it but for you @Fundy, it is your avatar. It is so distinctive but yes, as others have said, @Symbeline has a very distinctive style. As do some other jellies. Other people I look at their name. It isn’t something that consciously happens.
I change my avatar all the time so I hope nobody is relying on that to identify me.
Your name was always memorable to me so it hasn’t thrown me went you’ve switched your avatar. I used to confuse papayalily and PiedPiper (shame). They both used lilies as their icon and I was always second guessing which one I was thinking of. It looks like papaylily’s left though…boo.
Scent.
Jeruba smells like daisies.
You, my dear Bella, always smell like a rose. Alas, parting is such sweet sorrow.)
I recognize Lonelydragon by the freckles on her face in her avatar.
I’m sad today… I’m missing some jellies I used to easily recognize and whose answers I sought out. I noticed their absence and… they have been Neptuned :(
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