Are We Our Avatars?

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Yes, I found it very intriguing, though I am more of an Erycinae (ground-boa) fan myself.

No. I don't have orange hair nor do i have gigantic eyes

I only wish I had the head of an Ibis.

I like the mix. Being face blind I would never remember mug shots. Mostly I identify people by the sound of their voice, and I do not run speakers.

Pictures and people do not match for me. Most of the image just slides about in my head. The otherside is as a portrait photographer many people have said the pictures I took were of the real them. That I captured the best angle of the flesh, and the spark of personallity.

Avatars are information rich, screen names, and the range of comments. TheMachine1 is a precise knowledge of technology+ Alf. Replies are factual, to the point, and with humor. I did see a picture, some Rasputin in training, but I am not generally good with pictures. I can learn more from the voice than from looking at an image.

Graelwyn was a dissappointment, I had a strong image of a narrow brimmed high conical hat. But most pics were indoors, and I do tend to see past lives. Also, seeing several sets of pictures I ask, who are these people, and have a hard time seeing them as one. I have the same problem with the mirror.

I identify bodies by voice, outline, gait. Minds by content. A functional concoiusness has little to do with gender or age. For example, WP is very mixed, but I have a stronger bond with the lot, than all of my life before. This is my wavelength. Content still varies, but I feel closer to those far from me, than to those near me in the world.

I was always the best read person I had ever met. A recent mention of Karel Capek was so well covered that I could think of nothing to add. Here I am ordinary.

My avatar is a BMW motorcycle engine. The design started after World War One, and was continued and improved. This is the 1960 version. Many have gone over 1,000,000 miles. It is a perfection of the Machine Age. It is applied knowledge. In power per weight, efficent conversion of fuel, durability, machine art, function, it is the best use of metal by apes ever. It is also silent.

I relate to applied intelligence. I have the finest cameras, Olympus OM4T, microscopes, also Olympus, ever built. I do have the motorcycle, it is 44, and still in factory standard bore. I would think it will last several hundred more years.

The production methods used were common, the materials a better grade, but not to extreme. What sets these things apart is intelligent design, understanding the field, and the function. The motorcycle is mostly crude technology, what lasted on a farm wagon, the welds are not ground and polished, but where it counts, in motion and transmission of force, a perfection of machine.

Those concepts have more to do with my identity than my image does.

AS an aid to Graelwyn, I am using a Microsoft natural keyboard. It is a classic pre-USB Hub model. P/N: 59758.

Cute avatar Natalie. Although I prefer emerald tree boas.

I like Rattlesnakes the best.

In my story (long story, both the actual story and the one behind its conception), I made up a fictional snake called a Slichin (Sly-kin), combining my favourite features of a snake: The Rattlesnakes Rattle, the Hood of a Cobra, the Spitting Venom of some other snake I heard about and the speed and colour of a Black Mamba.

I've not found that someone's avatar stops me being able to connect, or that a photo helps although I am surprised sometimes, if I feel like I've got to know someone a little online, that they don't actually look like my mental image of them. That takes a little getting used to then when I do see a photo - it clashes with my imaginary view of the person. (How dare people not look like I imagine them too! LOL)
I must admit though that if someone keeps the same avatar for a long time, even if it's not of a human I think of them as that avatar, which is very strange now I come to think about it.

People freak out when I show them what I look like! I guess some people expect me to look like my avatar!

Is not connecting on an intellectual level connecting with them as a human being? I suppose the impression of getting to know someone through their words and ergo their ideas may not always be an accurate one.

With regard to the topic heading... The changing Avatars of Quatermass and Ahayes, for example, or the relatively stable one of Anubis, may be memorable, but its usually the words that give some sort of clue to what the person might be like (they could admittedly be being deceitful, but a little trust is required here). Incidentally, the images used for your avatars are beautiful. Is the photograph on that site where your music is you at some stage? With the flowing dark hair, I mean.

Do they really?

im ok 50/50 with the face of person as avator, at one point i had my face with a beard and mustache as an avator and even thoguh it was funny i just wanted a change toward my interests(the one i have now)

for all that have joined wp after january 24,

no, im not silver, i dont have a skinny arm, im not 6 and half lbs and not 26+ years old

the true me is about 5 foot something, about 100 to 115 lbs, 22 years old with long hair and im white.

I tend to be able to talk better with people with video game and animal avatars... even if its a cartoon animal or an imaginary animal. I don't have trouble recognizing them as people because in most cases the animal in their avatar would be unable to use a computer... Video games are easy to put a voice to or a sound because of the sounds the games make... its harder if you don't know what the person sounds like to put a sound to the name and that makes them harder to recognizeas people. Pictures of people are confusing because it could possibly be a picture of someone famous and I think its them, they can also be a bit creepy if you look in their eyes...

I usually imagine people as their avatars though... <_< it is a little scary when someone changes it.

i don't mind if their avatar is a photo or just some pic...

but i have trouble when ppl start avatar flippin... then i can't remember some of their posts. like, if starbuline didn't kinda stick with a central theme for her avatars (she switches a lot!)... then i probably wouldn't remember half of what she's said

Are we our avatars? From a personal point of view I hope not

Actually it's an interesting question for me, because I don't have an avatar HERE but in all the forums I used to go to (mainly fantasy fiction related) I had not just avatars but fully fleshed-out roleplaying type characters. As did everyone else I knew. And we were all certainly our characters... we used to have conversations on the subject, "How do you see me in real life?" "I just see you as your character, a robot/an anthropomorphic mouse/a dragon/whatever..."

I tend to see people with personal photos as avatars, as kind of boring

My first avatar was a 8-bit Mega Man image, then I chose a LocoRoco avatar.

Now I have a sleeping chocobo as my avatar, I like to sleep, but I don't think I'm a sleepy chocobo

I wish chocobos were real

I think I conect with what the person has written more than with the avatar. The avatar helps me recocnize those I've spoken with if I've forgotten their names.