How many of these concerns remain if the Forumâs ânormâ is to use a non-photographic image?
This lets you have a bit more color/âwarmth without bringing anyoneâs âlooksâ into play. And it gives people a bit more ability to express personality without worrying about what people think of their haircut/âclothes/âvibe.
I ask because itâs my strong preference not to use photos of myself in digital settings unless Iâm forced to do so, but I enjoy non-photographic profile images in the context of e.g. Twitter, Reddit, and Goodreads.
Of course, weâd probably end up with a site where some people use photos and others donât, but I think this is a much better arrangement than âeveryone is encouraged to use photosâ.
(In a practical sense, some of the people who have told me the Forum feels a bit cold and unwelcoming to them are people whose contributions seem extremely valuable to me, though of course that doesnât say much about the average value of a counterfactual contribution from any given person who spends more time here because it feels warmer.)
You donât see profile pictures on journal articles, or court documents, or computer code.
Profile pictures are common on Github, but thatâs pedantic; I acknowledge your larger point.
More to the point, a lot of the places where journal articles and the like actually reach bigger audiences in communities like ours â blog comments, Twitter â use profile pictures. Do you think âacademic Twitterâ and Substack and the old SSC comment section would be/âwould have been better without profile pictures? (I donât have a strong intuition either way, as I always process profile photos in those contexts as âfun decorationâ rather than âsocial relationshipsâ.)
How many of these concerns remain if the Forumâs ânormâ is to use a non-photographic image?
This lets you have a bit more color/âwarmth without bringing anyoneâs âlooksâ into play. And it gives people a bit more ability to express personality without worrying about what people think of their haircut/âclothes/âvibe.
I ask because itâs my strong preference not to use photos of myself in digital settings unless Iâm forced to do so, but I enjoy non-photographic profile images in the context of e.g. Twitter, Reddit, and Goodreads.
Of course, weâd probably end up with a site where some people use photos and others donât, but I think this is a much better arrangement than âeveryone is encouraged to use photosâ.
(In a practical sense, some of the people who have told me the Forum feels a bit cold and unwelcoming to them are people whose contributions seem extremely valuable to me, though of course that doesnât say much about the average value of a counterfactual contribution from any given person who spends more time here because it feels warmer.)
Profile pictures are common on Github, but thatâs pedantic; I acknowledge your larger point.
More to the point, a lot of the places where journal articles and the like actually reach bigger audiences in communities like ours â blog comments, Twitter â use profile pictures. Do you think âacademic Twitterâ and Substack and the old SSC comment section would be/âwould have been better without profile pictures? (I donât have a strong intuition either way, as I always process profile photos in those contexts as âfun decorationâ rather than âsocial relationshipsâ.)