How do you imagine other members?

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I find it hard to imagine them as humans. I think of them as some sort of digital abstractions.

I picture them for the most part as they are, from what I've seen of some of the pictures on the pic threads and the occasional physical description. Otherwise yeah I default to the same, digital abstractions.

That's the nature of online forums. We're all just avatars, drifting around out there in the blue light of the night.

I'm a wolfman to some people, a whirling dervish to others, myself to others.

The picture on my avatar is me about five years ago.

Actually I picture you in my head:
The sexy pictures uploaded in the pic thread,
now you are in front of the computer in your bathrobe and with fuzzy hair, typing away on your keyboard.

I don't/can't imagine how others look either, I wasn't even sure if KK's picture was of himself or not until I read this thread.

A guy who used to post here as Bender Rodriguez was not actually a gay Spaniard with a funky robot avatar.
It took a long time for me to figure that out.

I think of Hyperborean as really being into the Siberian Taiga.

As weird as it sounds, I don't think of any of you as people. I just gradually pick up bits of information about you and it's all stored in my head by your avatar. Most people I don't really know much about since a lot of us want to be anonymous to an extent. So mostly it's down to the post, rather than the fact a fellow human has posted it. Or dogs or aliens, who knows?

I think of members as people; they are certainly not amoeba.

I know tidbits about people on WP, just like I know tidbits about my co-workers.

To me, it's the same thing--except that we don't have the advantage of in-person contact with each other.

And, very importantly: One cannot determine whether one is autistic based upon an internet presentation.

I suppose "gathering information" sounds incredibly creepy. It's just general things, like age, gender, country and diagnosis. Nothing stalker-ish.

I usually imagine other posters' appearance and personality based on their posts. Sometimes it turns out that I'm totally wrong. In my imagination some are kind and attractive, others are nasty and ugly and still others are obese and tired. I imagine all sorts of people.

I was actually pondering this topic today when my mind was wandering.

For me, I think of you all as real people behind a screen, but how I 'see' a member depends on what I know about them. Some of you are just intangible personalities to me because I don't know enough to be able to build an image of you.

Unless I'm quite familiar with a member, sometimes I get a bit thrown off if someone changes their avatar.