Why no avatars?
 

?

Because our opinions are distracting enough.

Because they have chosen not to have them. I asked the same question--you might want to do a search.

Because they are unnecessary and make our eyes bleed.

We are the board other boards aspire to be.

If I had my preference, there would be no smilies either.

People would have to, you know, like, talk, and shit, about stuff, and whatever, you know.

A smilie is worth 10 words.

I need smilies because my sarcasm throws people off.

I think they're fun, though I see the reason for not using them, language-wise. It's like a teacher who once said good writing negates the need for exclamation points. Formal writing, sure, but I am so animated when I speak that sometimes I feel it doesn't come across here in casual writing land if I don't spiff it up a bit. Someday if any of you actually talk to me IRL you will know exactly what I mean.

Avatars can be too much, imo. At other boards (GAME sites, I'm not cheating on the Cellar, I swear) they take up so much space and are distracting. Some of them flash and jump and you can't escape them; I was afraid I might go into a seizure.

:lol:

...while an avatar can erase them.

Avatars would be nice.

But paradoxically (is that a word?) the plainess of the Cellar's format is oddly efficient.

Once upon a time, there was a professional computer nerd (PCN) who worked at a particular company. As with most companies, this one had made some decisions along the way about what software it would supply for its employees to use. And as is also the case with most companies, those choices were not identical to those made by other companies. (Duh.)

So it was a source of puzzlement to PCN that when new employees would be hired and given computers, many of them would say, "Why don't you have [name of well-known computer program]? We had [name of well-known computer program] at my last job, and it was great." PCN would reply something to the effect of, "Well, we use [name of other well-known computer program that does the same thing]. We've found it's a good choice for us." The newbie would then say something like, "Oh yeah? Well I never used it. You ought to get [name of well-known computer program]. It's a lot better."

PCN found this to be insulting. He also found it to be whiny. All in all, a wonderful impression for a new employee to make. Over the years, he found it to be a good indicator of people who would turn out to be insulting and whiny in other interactions in the company.

I like not having avatars. They are nice to quickly know who posted but it helps make the site look more professional.

Yay Pierce...

And after all, we're not out for people who need to quickly know who posted. Read the names with your eyes. Respond with your brain.

the brain processes pictures must faster and more efficiently, though. Mindmaps are fabulous for knowledge recognition and retention!

My vote, again, no avatars.
The only way I would want them is if we could make a rule that they could only be, actual, photos of ourselves (not drawings, paintings, photos of our kids, lies, etc) but it would get out of hand, many would lie, bitch, whine more than now, bla, bla, bla... so, no avatars.