Avatar Blues

[Sultan Bhargash]

On April Fool's Day I switched to an avatar of George Bush in middle eastern garb, with a title of "the biggest fool of all" and the location of "fixin' to retire". I was quickly banned, and the gracious moderator involved (he can identify himself if he cares to) allowed me to come back to the fold under the following conditions:

1) your avatar, title, and location will be something standard of Civ related.
2) your signature block will no longer be used for debate topics and political statements.
3) You are free to participate in any forum but the rules regarding trolls, flames, and spam will be strictly adhered too without further warnings and reminders.

Ask yourself what you think my primary role is here at Civfanatics and then ask yourself how you will be working to pay back the resources you have wasted associated with this behavior breach.

Let's just not have these behaviors in any way.

Needless to say, I've been working hard to pay back those resources, sweeping up the forums and doing odd jobs. And I began to move away from the Civ related avatar of choice (the guy with donkey which I really do fancy and would love to have being my primary identifier the way the partisan works for rmsharpe) and bring in the old sultan avatar, and recently Colin Powell.

And then yesterday, Gay Hitler. I was then reminded of my agreement not to vary from the course of punishment prescribed. In further conversation, I was told that the purpose of avatars is not to be switching them all the time to make points or jokes.

I understand not trolling, and I can see where Gay Hitler and possibly middle east Bush went over the line. I wanted to find out the general opinion about avatar changes/including humor in titles/etc. Is the avatar, as my moderator suggests, solely for the purpose of establishing an identity, a thing that should be relatively static, or should it be okay to switch around? Am I not taking the forums seriously enough, or are others perhaps taking it too seriously?

I'm doing this at the suggestion of allies, not to stir up trouble for anyone but to encourage discussion of this important point to keep it out in the open...

Below find the first avatar that got me banned, in the next post I'll show you the Gay Hitler...

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Exhibit B:

 

[Padma]

Personally, I prefer a poster pick an avatar and stick with it, changing very infrequently. To me, the most important thing about an avatar is visual identification of a poster, so when they change every couple of days, I lose track of who is posting.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

And I miss your fractal Buddha avatar, Padma...

I do see the point in consistency, but there is a part of me that says that as long as username is consistent, the burden is on the reader to figure out who is speaking; or just put me on the ignore list and you won't have to bother?

 

[SirJethro]

What is the real harm done in changing an avatar frequently for humor or to make a point (as long as we follow TF's golden rule to "keep things civil")?

 

[Padma]

Originally posted by Antonius Block
And I miss your fractal Buddha avatar, Padma...

But you'll notice, I've only had that one, and my Basset, since we got custom avatars. And I don't plan on changing anytime soon.

I do see the point in consistency, but there is a part of me that says that as long as username is consistent, the burden is on the reader to figure out who is speaking; or just put me on the ignore list and you won't have to bother?

I wouldn't put you on ignore, you have too many "interesting" things to say!

And I certainly wouldn't force anyone to keep one avatar. As long as it's within the site rules (no trolling, etc.), it's just my personal preference to *not* have to look back to the left to see "who posted this?"

 

[cgannon64]

I'd prefer posters stuck to avatars. BUT, I don't think they should be penalized for switching, and I think mild political statements are alright in Titles, Avatars, and locations. Mild statements, not flames or trolling.

And I think a poster has every right to try to be funny in his avatar, sig, and title, and switch as much as he/she wants to.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Originally posted by Padma
... And I don't plan on changing anytime soon.

Sure? Not even if you were offered a shiny new basset...

 

[Toasty]

, to all the people complaining about rapidly-changing avatars, I'll try to keep this one for a while ...

I think avatars are just like clothes...you can wear what you want, however long as you want, but if you wear something offensive in someone's house you might have to put your shirt on inside out.

 

[anarchywrksbest]

Hehe Bush in arab-garb

 

[Immortal]

political statements in signatures, titles and avatars only feed the flames of the great conflict we have seen the past little while.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Great conflict? I missed that one. Surely don't mean citizens of Earth vs. FL2?

And it's easy for you to say, I have no idea what your location means...

And Toasty- yes, please settle down...

 

[Immortal]

Islamic Republic of Iran

There was no great cotastrophe, but its been an ongoing bubbling scene of conflict and anger in there for a while now.

 

[Hitro]

Originally posted by cgannon64
I'd prefer posters stuck to avatars. BUT, I don't think they should be penalized for switching

I agree. It's something that has to be tolerated, unfortunately.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Originally posted by Immortal

There was no great cotastrophe, but its been an ongoing bubbling scene of conflict and anger in there for a while now.

Since ever looked in, actually, that's what adds to the appeal!

 

[Toasty]

Originally posted by Antonius Block

And Toasty- yes, please settle down...

I'm an avatar polygamist .

 

[Perfection]

Here's a good one for you

 

[china444]

I switch back and forth from three avatars:

Spam
Pennybags
Ninja turtles

and I think people identify me by those three, especcialy the spam

 

[Mojotronica]

I think that your switch f/ Sultan Bhargash to Antonius Block was more confusing than a change in your Avatar... Still getting used to it.

I like clever, topical Avatar/title/sig changes... But I think that Avatar changes should be brief. For the most part, posters should pick an Avatar and stick w/ it. And the Avatar should be unique, if possible. (Not one of the std Civ-related, except of course for Cro-Magnon and rmsharpe -- if they changed it would be freaky-weird...)

Titles and sigs are more a more appropriate place for frequent changes. I like cgannon64's constantly evolving, very topical quotes, and he's only changed his Avatar once -- very subtley -- that I can remember.

Just my opinion.

 

[Toasty]

Does it really bother people that much for my constant avatar changes?

I always seem to know which posts are mine ...