poll Profile Pictures: What do They Mean to You?

[Koloss17 She/They]

So this is something that I have wondered recently, as I’ve been more active on the Shard. There’s quite a few here who change their profiles a lot, and quite a few others who just have one profile picture that they keep through the ages. There’s also the thing of changing profile picture for special events, such as the recent green pfps for stress awareness. 
 

This post will serve two purposes: one, to gather data on Sharders’ profile shifting habits (anonymously), and two, to ask a few more in-depth questions.

One habit that I have found myself in is associating the Sharder with their profile picture. Now, this isn’t that surprising of a thing, but where it goes sideways is when communicating with Sharders that have the base picture. While it can just be someone that is literally a blank slate, as in a 12 post newbie on the Shard, it could also be someone like @cometaryorbit or @therunner, who are certainly not a blank slate in influence and reputation on the Shard.

Is this a common experience? And for those that have a profile picture, what does it mean to you?

Edited June 2, 2023 by Koloss17

[cometaryorbit]

I just never came up with anything that seems really suitable. It's not something I ever really thought about, honestly.

If I did have a profile picture it'd probably be one of the Stormlight-relevant gems, probably emerald since Truthwatcher is the order I'm closest to.

[therunner he/him]

Basically the same reason as cometaryorbit, couldn't find one that would 'fit', and at the same time it is not too much of a big deal for me personally.

I'd probably get something Kelsier-related, since I like the character quite a bit.

[DramaQueen she/he/neopronouns]

I feel like my pfp should give...kind of a sneak peek of me as a person? And throughout my time on the Shard, who I am and what I want to have represent me has changed.

My first pfp was Shallan, then my RP character Queen (who is basically literally me, just in a different world) as drawn by revelryintheart, and now I've just kind of been using picrews I like. During Ookla season, I was Ookla the Blight and had Amity Blight as my pfp, but other than that, yeah, picrews. I try to make them as accurate to how I want to appear as possible. My appearance and perception of myself changes sometimes, so my pfp changes, too.

[Kasimir he/him]

Where the Sharder has a base pfp they default back to more often than not, yeah I associate it with them.

I don't really recall what my first Shard pfp was. I was a big Assassin's Creed fan back in the day though, so I swapped pfps to anything I was into or felt like. I remember having a Ratonhnhaké:ton pfp, one for Arno Dorian, I swapped to a pirate Assassin's crest for Ookla season when I was Ookla the Piratical, I tried a couple from Shadowrun but wasn't a fan of them long-term, then went to a bunch of wuxia ones. Eventually, I ended up with this, which was an avatar I was using anyway for the Tyranny game. (This is one of the base images, just edited a bit as the OG image was too small.)

I guess I don't feel the pfp has to mean anything. I just go with what I'm feeling or an image I like. But I've stuck with this one so often (I think for the past three years) that it feels more 'me.' I've swapped recently to some pfps like Vikemon but it just feels weird to me now to see another pfp so I swap back real fast. I guess I've sort of 'settled' in now, one way or another.

[Frustration]

A pfp is in my opinion the same thing as a username, just an easy way to tell people apart, that's part of why I haven't changed mine since I got an original one, it's become so tied to my profile, that changing it would just confuse people.

[Robin Sedai she/her]

It's an easy way of telling people apart, which also means that I find it harder to recognize users with the default profile pic. Mine don't really reflect my personality or interests or anything, they're just pictures I like. I've stuck with the witch for a while because it's confusing when people change a pfp they've had for a long time.

[The Isochronism he/him]

I need a good pfp, as I don't currently love mine. I want something that's not generic, yet easily recognizable, and that means something specific to me. My current pfp fulfils two of those criteria, but I'll probably change it soon if I can find something better.

on top of that, I don't really even like my username. I wish it was something more unique, and felt less like a blank slate. But there's no changing that now.

Edited June 4, 2023 by Bondsmith-Edgedancer

[DramaQueen she/he/neopronouns]

26 minutes ago, Bondsmith-Edgedancer said:

I need a good pfp, as I don't currently love mine. I want something that's not generic, yet easily recognizable, and that means something specific to me. My current pfp fulfils two of those criteria, but I'll probably change it soon if I can find something better.

on top of that, I don't really even like my username. I wish it was something more unique, and felt less like a blank slate. But there's no changing that now.

You can change your username, actually! Not super often, there's a limit, but yeah! Somewhere on your profile, I can't remember exactly where.

[The Isochronism he/him]

4 hours ago, DramaQueen said:

You can change your username, actually! Not super often, there's a limit, but yeah! Somewhere on your profile, I can't remember exactly where.

That's really interesting, I didn't know that.

[The Sibling she/her]

I feel like it's fun to change your profile pictures around a bit. I get that it's sort of confusing, but I feel like each person's picture represents them and people change all the time, so it makes sense that the images they choose would change too. I don't want to totally confuse people, so what I've been doing is just changing my sort of base picture a little bit. last month it was green, and this month it has a non-binary flag because pride. I sort of like the idea of changing it up a bit monthly. I have no idea what to do for next month though... What does confuse me is when people change their names. I like my name, and i don't really plan on changing it. Then I'd have to change my signature, and I'm never doing that. I guess that's why member titles are smart, because you can change them without confusing people. 

[The Stormfather He/Him]

I just keep my pfp as the double eye of the almighty and the radiants because I like the symbol so much.

[+robardin he/him]

I like to have a profile pic/avatar on most message boards I am active on, but didn't have an obvious Sanderson or Cosmere-related one until a few years ago when my wife bought a few boxes of those yellow marshmallow Peeps around Easter time.

I imagined the little guys as the original Bridge Four crew, so of course designated one of them as Kaladin and had my craft-capable kid use a toothpick and food dye to put a shash glyph one that one, LOL. (They haven't read TWoK yet but yet may someday; only the original Mistborn triology, plus Warbreaker, TES, and Elantris, so far!)

[Duxredux he/him]

I'm similar to cometaryorbit and therunner. Nothing has seemed to fit, though admittedly I haven't looked too hard. I've debated doing a sketch of a duck wearing a monocle in GIMP, but never seemed to find the time.

Then I decided to try stable diffusion. Apparently the internet is adamant that ducks do not wear monocles. I had as hard a time finding a duck with a monocle as when I once tried Captain Picard with hair (something about his iconic baldness just overrode every other aspect of the prompt). These were the best I found.

That said, when people change their names it can cause issues. Reading some of the threads from the Ookla phase is seriously confusing because the quotations retain the name at the time of any quotations. Trying to guess who was Ookla _____ based on the major contributors was a pain, especially on mobile.

Found a glowing green rock if you want it @cometaryorbit, though you could probably just run your own prompt through stable diffusion until one tickled your fancy.

Couldn't find anything for Kelsier though.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Duxredux
added thought

[Koloss17 She/They]

19 minutes ago, Duxredux said:

I'm similar to cometaryorbit and therunner. Nothing has seemed to fit, though admittedly I haven't looked too hard. I've debated doing a sketch of a duck wearing a monocle in GIMP, but never seemed to find the time.

Then I decided to try stable diffusion. Apparently the internet is adamant that ducks do not wear monocles. I had as hard a time finding a duck with a monocle as when I once tried Captain Picard with hair (something about his iconic baldness just overrode every other aspect of the prompt). These were the best I found.

That said, when people change their names it can cause issues. Reading some of the threads from the Ookla phase is seriously confusing because the quotations retain the name at the time of any quotations. Trying to guess who was Ookla _____ based on the major contributors was a pain, especially on mobile.

Found a glowing green rock if you want it @cometaryorbit, though you could probably just run your own prompt through stable diffusion until one tickled your fancy.

Couldn't find anything for Kelsier though.

The world deserves more dapper ducks! If anyone disagrees, they’re wrong!

[Biceratops]

I just picked one I liked and left it at that. 

Profile pictures should be one-and-dones, in my opinion. They're there to tell people apart at a glance, so changing them around too often just makes it that much harder to tell who's speaking. 

[The cheeseman Don't you dare go Hollow!]

Mine is a statue of Alfred the Great, first king of the Anglo-Saxons. It's a connection to my heritage as a descendant of the British Isles. As you can see, I changed it green for May (mental health awareness) and still haven't changed it back. For a while, it was a piece of WoT art that depicted Rand's madness.

Normal statue:

Spoiler

Green statue:

Spoiler

Rand al'Thor:

Spoiler

 

[Argenti he/him]

My friends and I gave some random history guy a glow-up

 

[The Sibling she/her]

I just realized that when I chose my profile picture I actually posted a thread asking people for their opinions and someone suggested what is now my picture. I feel like I should go back and see who it was. Anyways, it's almost the end of pride month and I want to change my picture again. I was wondering, is July the international month of anything? Or is it special in any way?

Edit : It was @S. Stormy Thank you so much for your great idea!

Edited June 25, 2023 by The Sibling

[S. Stormy she/her]

14 hours ago, The Sibling said:

Edit : It was @S. Stormy Thank you so much for your great idea!

My pleasure to be helpful! 

[Guest Ψιτιsτηε Βεsτ]

For me I think of different sharders by what they post. If they post super insightful stuff or if they always have jokes, that is how I think of them. As for my pfp, I just picked a a picture that I really like (and I’m sure you’ll recognize) that I would have others imagine when they think of WitIsTheBest. 

Edited July 14, 2023 by WitIsThe Best

[Mat he/him]

I definitely vibe-read pfps, and recognize sharders primarily through them. I made my pfp using the twinborn symbols from my second ever SE game, which has become the main reason I visit the site, so I'd say it's significant  I once tried to chance it to red fuzzy dice with a bowler hat, but it felt wrong. I've grown so used to it, and it's migrated away from just the shard.

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

I think it changes from person to person whether or not I do. Certain people that don't change very much, I definitely do (Like Kas or Mat up above), but most other people I recognize almost completely off of usernames. 

As for my own, I tend to be pretty stable with it, only really changing it this year for each secret novel. And Bald Brandon. I'm probably keeping Bald Brandon from now on. Well, after the Year of Sanderson at least.

[Aeoryi she/her]

When I returned to the shard, I wanted to leave behind my old self. I changed my username and Pfp to more accurately represent me, as well as change my profile fields, removing most. I redid my about me page, and I think it actually made a difference to my behavior on the shard.

[Treamayne]

On 6/2/2023 at 6:53 PM, Koloss17 said:

Is this a common experience?

I do find that distinctive pictures aid recognition; but when the pictures change regularly the User Name is what I pay attention too. When both change (like those Ookla people who changed their name and profile pic at the same time) - have to open their profile to have a hope of identifying them (usually by going to "See activity" and paging back to before the name change to find a quote with the old name). 

On 6/2/2023 at 6:53 PM, Koloss17 said:

And for those that have a profile picture, what does it mean to you?

1. I use the same user name and profile picture everwhere it is possible to do so (forums, discord, etc.)
2. I like tigers (and this one happens to have my screenname built in - even if the Shard's circular frame truncates it a bit)
3. (subtle) Those that play MTGO will recognize where the screenshot came from (kind-of like a reread bonus)
   • When they have MtG questions like @Koloss17, they know they can PM me
   • PS: I really preferred the MTGO v3.5 version of that Avatar. . .