Dogs & cats as avatars (split from: Prayers & best wishes

[hakerdefo]

Our main dev is from Greece

Okey-Dokey! I got it! The main reason i thought salix is a distro from greece is that the names of most of the wizards, warriors and moderators sound greek! By the way may i ask a stupid question? I can understand many people using the images of dogs as their avatars in puppy linux forums but i've noticed that many in salix forum use images of dogs and cats as their avatars. Any reason behind it?

EDIT by thenktor: This thread was split from Prayers & best wishes to the flood affected people of greece

[mimosa]

Speaking personally, in my case, I followed some exampes I saw here. I didn't want to use a photo of myself ... and I was rather new to the concept of an avatar. Since I named myself after my cat (actually not the same one) I thought, why not? And she is rather charming, don't you think? That is Lucy, who looks a lot like Mimosa, except that Mimosa is white-and-tortoiseshell.

[thenktor]

Speaking for myself I prefer person's photos as avatars. I like to see who I am talking to.

[mimosa]

I think you are right. There is a poetry to the alternatives, but that practical aspect - having a visual notion of the real person - meets a real need in virtual communications. To the extent that our online activities are important to us, they should ultimaltely be anchored in our RL selves. Actually, that sounds rather normative, but I mean: other things aside, it is surely a Good Thing. For example, maybe it makes people less likely to forget themeselves and be obnoxious. If noone has written a thesis on it yet, the time can't be far off

I don't think I'll be changing mine (old habits die hard) but I might put a link to my new Google + page on the signature line, and put a better photo there, too.

[zAchAry]

Wishing you well

[mimosa]

Indeed.

By the way, this thread is crying out to be split into two or three parts. Let's all try and keep a bit more on topic in other threads as well as this one.

[hakerdefo]

@mimosa: lucy for sure looks cool. And speaking of keeping to the topic, you are right but hey we are in salix pub and don't you think a bit of wandering off the topic should be allowed in this particular section of salix forum?

[mimosa]

You are right

[thenktor]

For example, maybe it makes people less likely to forget themeselves and be obnoxious.

That's what I wanted to add: I think it's harder to get rude when you look at someone's smiling face

PS: I've split the thread.

[mimosa]

Thank you Thenktor!

Off topic:

Btw the past simple and participle of split is irregular: just "split"

split, split, split