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The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

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Re: The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

#41

Post by huhtenberg »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #6
prakash wrote: post #3

You are not alone, Gabriel. Visual association beats textual and this makes sense. One thing though, the images would increase the bandwidth to the site, and maybe even hamper performance.

On the user side, you could presumably turn them off. As for server performance, Y Combinator should be able it.

I assume you meant "turn them on".

Adding a visually intrusive feature and enabling it by default is not the best thing to do, especially when the understated appearance is the feature of the website.

Re: The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

#42

Post by GHFigs »

stcredzero wrote: post #33
epi0Bauqu wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly the problem I am describing. They are making their own portraits, but they aren't sticking to their usernames, at least for me. A visual icon would help. It could be small, 25x25 as someone suggested.

Maybe you could write a Greasemonkey script? You could have randomly generated avatars like Miis. Then you could also assign an image for specific posters that you feel are better indicative of their personalities.

That's basically what Gravatar has recently adopted (http://blog.gravatar.com/2008/04/22/identicons-monsterids-an...) for non-users, and it is equal parts tacky and useful.

I'm not sold on the idea of something like this here, but even a very small icon (like 16x16 or smaller--very small) or bullet of color would would make threads easier to keep track of.

Re: The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

#43

Post by petercooper »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #35
stcredzero wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you could write a Greasemonkey script? You could have randomly generated avatars like Miis. Then you could also assign an image for specific posters that you feel are better indicative of their personalities.

Where would you get the images? Just generate them randomly?

Identicons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identicon

Re: The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

#44

Post by petercooper »

MetaFilter ( http://www.metafilter.com/ ) is an amazing demonstration of a cohesive online community that doesn't use images to represent users. MetaFilter users tend to be very familiar with each other (more so than other large online communities I've been in). While I agree images can be good, they certainly don't seem to be essential.

IRC is another example. People build up personalities and tie nicknames to them pretty easily without graphics.. and IRC can get very emotional at times.

Re: The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

#45

Post by Tichy »

How about a Twitter group that actually follows back? It would be nice to see what HN readers are up to at a glance, and Twitter has pics.

If nobody else wants to do it, and there is interest, I could set it up. I have no autofollow script yet, but I would ask Twitter support to enable it.

Edit: I already follow @newsycombinator, so if that would add autofollow it would be great ;-)

Re: The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

#46

Post by jcl »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #35
stcredzero wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you could write a Greasemonkey script? You could have randomly generated avatars like Miis. Then you could also assign an image for specific posters that you feel are better indicative of their personalities.

Where would you get the images? Just generate them randomly?

If the purpose is -- as you say -- to "start associating usernames more with their set of comments", then random images should suffice. If the purpose is to have a visual item of personal expression added to each post, I suppose you'd need each person to choose one for themselves.

Re: The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

#47

Post by thorax »

deathbyzen wrote: post #7

The current layout of HN doesn't lend itself to avatars at all, IMHO. They would break up the page in awkward ways. If avatars where implemented they should only be 25x25 or something similarly tiny.

If we added them, I'd say make them 16x16. People could use favicons for their sites (if they so desired).

Re: The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

#48

Post by [deleted] »

andreyf wrote: post #16
epi0Bauqu wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly the problem I am describing. They are making their own portraits, but they aren't sticking to their usernames, at least for me. A visual icon would help. It could be small, 25x25 as someone suggested.

25x25 is pretty big. I think it would be clever to make it 15x15 or 10x10...

[deleted]

Re: The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

#49

Post by epi0Bauqu »

jcl wrote: post #46
epi0Bauqu wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where would you get the images? Just generate them randomly?

If the purpose is -- as you say -- to "start associating usernames more with their set of comments", then random images should suffice. If the purpose is to have a visual item of personal expression added to each post, I suppose you'd need each person to choose one for themselves.

Well, a random image may not suffice for that purpose. I just don't know. Maybe for it to work, it has to be some sort of recognizable image. But random images would at least be worth a shot.

Re: The case for pictures next to usernames on Hacker News

#50

Post by kashif »

kashif wrote: post #39
epi0Bauqu wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly the problem I am describing. They are making their own portraits, but they aren't sticking to their usernames, at least for me. A visual icon would help. It could be small, 25x25 as someone suggested.

I agree. I think we can all give links to our blogs, or make a community on facebook. Actually, I am just going to do that and submit a link for those who are interested.

Here is a group for facebook. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14841858677
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