If I were to change my avatar now, would anyone still recognize me?

i don’t even know who you are, so it’s all the same to me. :)

Avatars help, but names register pretty strongly. If you could change your name as well as your avatar (you can’t), then it would be harder to find you, but anyone who had you in their fluther would still be able to find you.

People change avatars all the time, so if you feel like it, do it. Some people switch between a number of avatars. It’s not a problem.

I see. Thanks.

Nope, same Fyrius, different picture. :)

you’ll be fine either way i’ve changed mine plenty of times

use your old airow avatar

I change my avatar once in a while and it does not seem to freak anyone out.
Change is awesome.

We seem to be in two groups. Those that change their avatar regularly and those who rarely, if ever, do.

daloon, AstroChuck, bythebay, augustlan, dynamicduo, and others are their avatar to me. I admit, I’d be thrown off if they changed it.

I have thought of adopting what Jeruba does. She’s always Cate Blanchet, just a different incarnation.

Perhaps I’ll swap between chocolate chip, peanut butter chip and m&m cookies.

JP changed his avatar once because people were giving him lurve every time they saw his avatar. After he changed it, the amount of lurve he received dropped precipitously.

People won’t recognize you at first, but they will after they make the connection.

The major factor in whether people will notice is the weight you carry in the community.

@theartfuldodger There is a limit on how much each user can lurve another user thus once it is met.

This means that once the regulars have lurved you the main score does not rise. :)

Gotta love lurve….

I tend to look for both name and avatar, so if you are an active contributor a change in avatar won’t fluster me at all.

Some people change their avatars like they change their socks – every day, unless you are like my son. Then it is about once a week, whenever I find where he hides them and put them in the wash.

Others are like me – I am always my dog. I hope I am consistent otherwise as well.

I was a stylized painting of a flugelhorn for a while. At the time I wasn’t sure if I was feeling very daloonish, and also not sure how this avatar would go over. But, due to the fact that other websites that shall remain nameless (Assville) would not let me have an avatar that gave homage to their name, I feel very attached to this one, and it would take a lot to get me to change. In fact, if I changed it without notice, you would know that something is seriously wrong with me.

@dog, this was before there was a cap.

@Darwin Your dog is great.

What if we had themes sometimes? That would be fun !
I know we had a pot theme a while back.

Themes would ROCK!

As others have said, we’ll still know who you are (if we already do). As for me, I’ve tried changing mine, but Snowman Bono wins out every time.

just, whatever you do, don’t have asmonet change her avatar. every time she does, she breaks Fluther.

My husband (blondesjon) and I used to change our avatars on a weekly basis. We like to choose famous couples or things that go together (peanut butter and chocolate). He really likes the Fight Club theme right now, so it looks like we’ll be keeping these avatars for a while. @cprevite is right, many choose to stick with one avatar while the rest like to change now and then. Either way, we’ll still know who you are.

@jonsblond I like how y’all have couple avatars!

@miasmom Thanks! It may be cheesy but we have fun with it. :)

@eponymoushipster Damn right!

I change mine occasionally, and while I do notice people’s avatars, I adapt to the new ones pretty quickly. I mean we can all identify asmonet and she changes her avatar more frequently than some people change their socks! ;).

I’ve come to recognize some people by their avatars, but when they change them, it’s not that big of a deal. The only thing that it helps for me is when I scroll through long things and I’m looking for a specific user or their quips. I get used to it, though.

I dislike people who change their avatar frequently (except @jonsblond and hubby) because I get very confused. I usually have a moment of “Oh! That’s so and so!”
I choose to keep mine the same, I think people wouldn’t recognize me haha

@casheroo We would totally know it’s you, your user name is so easy to remember. :)

When I see an avatar I’m not familiar with I immediately go to the name.

I go by the name much more than the avatar. A familiar avatar is definitive (I would be upset if Harp weren’t a harp), but an unfamiliar one does not necessarily mean a stranger. Also, someone could spoof your avatar; I don’t (alas) own Cate Blanchett’s image as Elizabeth I.

The avatars that bother me are the ones that are vague, indistinct, and especially monochromatic at their present reduction. Even after I enlarge them to see what they really are, I find them of little use if I can’t make anything of the reduced image.

I mean, the name and the avatar are mere millimeters apart…

and @Jeruba: If you’d be upset if Harp weren’t a harp, are you upset that I am not tits?

I am. Very, very upset.

@Jayne: I will take that into consideration for sure.

@TitsMcGhee, Harp always uses a picture of a harp, and I depend on the harp to look like Harp just because it always does. Your avatar changes. I can’t tell what it is right now (it’s a gray blur to me), but I’m pretty sure it isn’t full, rounded, and convex. That’s ok. We can leave that to daloon.

@Jeruba: Incidentally, I haven’t changed my avatar once since I’ve been here. Btw, it’s a wall that has “DO NOT BE AFRAID” in graffiti on it. I have always found the image to be very comforting…

A friend and sometimes flutherite gave me my avatar; however, I’ve used giraffes for quite some time, now. I love the brightness of this avatar, it makes me smile. I changed it, briefly, but have zero intentions of changing it, again.

There are some avatars that would sadden me to see them go…only to be replaced by other avatars. There are some that just fit the person.

@TitsMcGhee, truly you haven’t? My mistake, then. I must see it differently at different times, because I thought there’d been a more distinct graphic. I know it’s hard to understand faulty vision when you don’t have the problem, as I did not just a few years ago.

@cak, yours is one that just fits, and I was so glad when you restored it. It brightens every page it’s on.

@Jeruba: Nope, I honestly haven’t. I’ve thought about it, but never done it, mostly for recognition reasons too.

@cak – I just realized yours is of a giraffe. I had thought it was a Marc Chagall painting.

I’ve changed mine a few times, and it doesn’t seem to have been a big deal.

@cak I didnt know that was a giraffe either.
I can’t see sh*t…

@TitsMcGhee: if you want to make your avatar more eponymous, I think I could make time in my busy schedule to take the picture. I’m something of a perfectionist, though, and I would most likely need to do a lot of arranging and rearranginge before I got a picture I was happy with. You won’t be bored though. Most people think my conversation is quite…. stimulating.

I have to admit though, I really miss supermouses old avatar Stuart. It always made me smile.

@daloon: Hey, I’ve been told that about my conversation too!

@Jeruba thank you! :)

@aprilsimnel and @chyna—when it was first sent to me, I had to look at it in a larger format. I can’t see, either. :)

@TitsMcGhee, I just realized that your name evokes such a vivid picture in my mind that I see it instead of your avatar. And I’m not even a salivating male.

@TitsMcGhee Well then, I’m sure we’ll get along like a house on fire! Or something.

does anyone else think it’s a little hot around here?

@Jeruba: Oh wow, I didn’t realize it was so powerful!

@daloon: How exactly do houses on fire get along? :P

(Read this quick before it’s flagged.)

@TitsMcGhee, suppose one of the guys around here named himself, say, C**kMcFock and put up an avatar of desert sand. What would you picture when you saw his posts come up?

@TitsMcGhee: ummmm, very well. now where’s that camera?

I’ve been thinking about this overnight, and it occurs to me that for me there is a definite pattern.
—When there is harmony between a name and avatar, such as with Harp and many others (Fireside, miasmom, augustlan, etc.), there is a very distinct image in my mind.
—When the name and avatar differ, usually one is much stronger, and that one prevails. If it’s the name (e.g., TitsMcGhee, PnL, chyna), then I don’t care if the avatar changes. When it’s the avatar (e.g., for me, cak’s brilliant giraffe, eponymoushipster’s weird monkey, jbfletcherfan’s little squirrel), I depend on it and would be put out if it changed because then I’d have to shift concepts.
—When the name and avatar differ without harmony (again, in my own perception), and each is strong in its own right—daloon’s are a good example here—there is always a tension, but either one could change and I’d still have a vivid sense of the personality coming through.
—When someone changes avatars all the time, such as asmonet or the jon-blonds, I pretty much ignore the avatar and look to the name.

Just as a postscript to my prior comment, if someone called himself or herself after any body part (say, ToesMcFoot or eyesNlashes or ElbowJoint) I’d have a pretty hard time not visualizing that image whenever I saw the name.

i can usually figure it out. i do recognize you first by your keyboard avatar, but if you were to change it, i would adjust. for some people, their avatars stick out to me, and others have more memorable names. but i usually remember both. (:

also, i second the love for the jonsblond/blondsjon couple avatars!

@Jeruba i’m not a weird monkey, i’m a supersexy monkey!

Oh, sorry, darlin’. It’s those glasses of mine, blame them.

monkeys cry.

Here. And here.

awesome.

@Jeruba Lurve and hugs for the links. The second one gives me a whole new outlook on @eponymoushipster :)

@Jeruba: Good point, my good madam. I blame my username on fellow flutherite shockvalue.

@TitsMcGhee: Reminds me of the joke where a young actor named Penis van Lesbian is told by his agent that his name won’t help him get any work, so he changes it to Dick van Dyke.

@cprevite: Haha, love it!