My avatar of jelly fish is a photograph I took at the Monterey Bay Aquarium a year or so ago.

I borrowed this picture from the Wall St. Journal :)

You know, I went avatar shopping the other day. I kept waiting for that Aha! moment where I would see my avatar image and we would run into each other's arms, happily together forever. Alas, we did not meet that night.

So I choose instead to keep the nameless shapeless outline of a vague man for now, biding my time until the right avatar comes along.

After all, there is a high bar around here for avatar-coolness. The indomitable Ric Flair, the ever-prescient dude from Conan, and my personal favorite, Kyle Reese.

To name only a few.

Say it Loud: I'm Avatar-less and Proud!

If posters who consistently have productive, interesting things to say have an avatar, we're able to pick their comments out of the crowd more easily as we scan threads; if unproductive posters have an avatar, we can skip over their comments unread more easily (comments that are intended to disrupt will be less disruptive).

You could go so far as to require the "Trolls" (said with tongue-in-cheek "affection") to adopt wild-haired troll dolls as their images. Or force the "patriotic" among us to use flag pin avatars (the better to call out those who refuse to display the flag pin as unpatriotic!!!)

We could adopt the multi-ribbon system to show our support for the troops, breast cancer research, HIV/AIDS research, Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong, Stephen Colbert's Tek Janssen, PETA, the Sierra Club, Earth Day, various music genres, carnivores, vegetarians, breathairians, bikers and biker babes, hikers, Star Trekkers, Galacticans, hot or not-so-hot chicks, McDreamys or McNightmares, prequels versus sequels, Kenny is better than Spenny, South Park fans, dog people versus cat people, favorite superheroes (and heroines), cars over trucks over SUVs over hybrids, NASCAR or NBA, golf or tennis, beer or wine...

You could tell at a glance if a particular poster fits your desired demographic and only read those you know you will agree with before you read them because you approve of their avatar/ribbon national identification system.

We should make it mandatory. So if you post here and at HuffPo or Taylor Marsh or Politico or NYT or Kos or WaPo or TNR or NRO or CNN or ABC or FOX or MSNBC, we should be able to identify you right away.

It should be a crime to post comments that conflict with your selected avatar/ribbon official identity. If you select right-wing, patriotic, biker babe, hot-chick, cat-loving, troop-supporting, cat-lover in one place it should be against the law to post something out of character -- or worse, change your character to suit your post.

But alas, this is unproductive and lacking an avatar... we could just skip on down... next comment please...

Mine is from a favorite horror game/anime called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When The Cicadas Cry, or When They Cry ~Higurashi~ in dub). This actually wasn't the shot I wanted to use, though. I was thinking of a creepy face shot of Mion instead, or the one with Rena hugging Keiichi. This one was the best one available on Google, though, so Rena in the doorway it is. ^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSHwOtStRgc

My avatar is at 0:33. The ones I wanted to use are at 1:09 and 1:58 (although a close third was 1:35).

I dug mine because it pretty much says it all in one little package. I originally started posting here back when the USAtty scandals were the all the rage (literally and figuratively). We came here to vent on the insanity of it all, it was just unreal. Plus I am slightly tech geeky so it fit.
It turns out that the color is really quite handy. I can, like you said, easily scroll through and identify any new replies to my comments.

So note to the avatar-less: don't stress, pick something simple..come toward the technicolor light. :)

Should I exchange my photo for a fanciful avatar? Discuss.