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Words and Pictures
OK, I have a beef. The new look is more look than new. It seems too much like other places, and too much structure crowds out the content that used to fit on the Coffehouse page. Formerly, the first glance showed three, maybe four, posts by guest contributors or bloggers. Now we see only one, with all content in a single column This will make the top position hugely dominant, and pretty much kill other discussions.
I guess the recommended and new Reader Posts is nice, but all threads are ugly to me now, since the avatar/image next to each comment distracts from the content of the post, and if it's unfilled it is an empty suit, a stand-in, a placeholder that conveys zero info. I have to look to the bottom to find a name.
Many of us prefer anonymity, so expect mostly empty silhouettes, with scattered blank smiling faces in between. I used to post a photo on my personal page, but don’t want to punish readers y having my dumbly smiling face constantly there, without changing to acknowledge that actual conversation. I'll be as inappropriate as the smiling newscaster talking away while the scene behind him is fire or something.
News flash---words convey specific info that pictures can't without hugely inefficient comic-book frames. It's waste of bandwidth. Here's a test of the value of pictures for political news---try watching TV without the sound up. By comparison, try listening to TV without the pictures--99% of the news comes through. ABC even runs an FM channel that uses their news feed. Guess they think it has value.
Lose those dumb photos, make room for more conversation.
Comments (13)
I agree, it would be nice to have an option to "turn off photos," especially if a lot of people don't post them.
On the other hand, it does add a more "personal" touch." But as an option, for people who want it, would be better.
February 3, 2008 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
I must admit, Tom. I'm not thrilled what what you, I think very aptly call, the "avatar image."
But I think I'm already learning to tune it out a bit. If I put up an image at all I'd like a nice zen image of raked sand.
February 3, 2008 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just feel the emphasis is completely backward. The avatar is big, the name is tiny. I told Andrew that I expect only about 1/3 of commenters to have an image, at most, so we'll constantly be seeing empty suits.
One word can still pack a punch (e.g. "change").
February 3, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seems like you already fixed it, Tom. You load a blank image?
February 3, 2008 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see my avatar on my profile page, but not next to a post. Do you?
February 3, 2008 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes to myself. Now I'm getting sick of the darn squirrel.
Maybe rotating avatars? Maybe an utterly neutral design, like a square or circle.
February 3, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've found that if you change your "image" it changes everywhere you posted. I've tried several. And wish I could just stick with this: ♪.
Maybe the software people can allow for something like you suggest. I've looked at "zen circles" on the web... but they seem to have copyrights. I may check out illuminated manuscript letters as well. For now I'm going with the smallest note I could find (with it's attachment).
February 4, 2008 9:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, T,
Checkin' in. Got my reset from Andrew, thankfully.
T
February 3, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm still wandering around, disoriented. My inner curmudgeon is in charge for now.
February 3, 2008 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hello Tom.
What you have said comes closest to how I feel.
I haven't contributed much to the discussions here but I certainly have read a lot of them. I don't know how long I will want to look for conversations in this tiny space between the billboards.
I don't need any pictures. I have listened to you and many others here for a number of years and easily recognize the style and tone of the souls behind the keyboards.
I feel like someone came in the middle of the night and removed a room of my house while I was sleeping.
February 5, 2008 9:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I shall add my voice to "lose the avatars", although this is more a test to see if I actually can comment.
It was 1970, I suppose, when I sent my first email -- might have been a little before that. While I did do early ARPANET things, I had been in the X.25 networking area, so, when it comes to Before-the-Internet-was-the-Internet, I can say only that I was there, did that, but only have the T-shirt from the Second TCP/IP interoperability conference
As the years progressed, I became more and more involved in core network engineering -- paving the Information Highway, if you will. It struck me, one day, when I was in several serious conversations, that, save for an occasional self-reference, I had no idea what my colleagues looked like. It struck me that this sort of electronic communication was the best realization yet of Martin Luther King's dream of a time when his children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. In this milieu, character is expressed through words.
It's been amusing, from time to time, when I meet, in biological form, a colleague whom I greatly respect. Sometimes, my mental image was quite correct. On another occasion, expecting to meet the geekiest of UNIX geeks, he turned out to be someone that looked like he spent all his time pumping iron when he wasn't being a surfer god.
So, I'd rather have the chance to be surprised when I meet someone in person, and have my own mental image. Perhaps another analogy is that I've occasionally been asked, by a blind person, if they might "Braille my face", which didn't just inform them, but taught me things.
If these were truly avatars, our seeming could change at will, as with any competent deity of multiple appearances.
(I could say that this was dictated by Rhonda or Mr. Clark, or even Waffles the squirrel. Does anyone really know for sure)?
February 7, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
We have suspected for a while that you are a composite entity.
February 7, 2008 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reminds me of something I wrote about being disappointed that my Swedish Fish were actually made in Canada. And that my Shaman Life Coach was actually a Scot.
February 7, 2008 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
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