Avatars

[DancingBear]

Instead of having people pick whatever they want as an avatar.. Why not have specific avatars unlockable/achievable for doing things around the site? Like, uploading a picture or doing dares or posting.. I'm sure you can think of other things xD it would eliminate the possibility of people posting inappropriate things as their avatar and it would give the people who like graphics something to do? I dunno like a volunteer graphics team (similar to volunteer mods)?

There could be a writer avatar that people could win monthly for best story, or a best gallery, or blogger, etc. People would be able to choose between the ones they have accumulated and once you have all of them, you would get the "Avatar Collector" avatar :P

[princessjessie]

i dont like this idea as lots of people would have the same avatar also many people user there avatar as a reflection of there personality and i dont think it would be fair to make you have to "unlock" them. also some people post all over the site in different subjects so making them out to only be a "writer" wouldnt be very fair.

sorry i just dont like this idea

[DareBear]

Originally Posted by princessjessie

i dont like this idea as lots of people would have the same avatar also many people user there avatar as a reflection of there personality and i dont think it would be fair to make you have to "unlock" them. also some people post all over the site in different subjects so making them out to only be a "writer" wouldnt be very fair.

sorry i just dont like this idea

This exactly.

Avatars can say something about you so I don't think it would be great having a specific one.

You can identify someone by it as well. A lot of people would be having the same avatar if you had to unlock them.

[wsedrf69]

A few things to consider with this proposal: Who awards points or unlocks for these avatars? Is it the mods, or a new set of volunteers? Is it done in software? Are the criteria quantitative or subjective? I suspect that a lot of the things you might want to recognize people for (writing good posts, helping people, etc) are difficult to track automatically.

I agree with Jessie, a person's avatar is one of the fundamental ways for someone to express their personality on the forums, outside the content of their posts. It also serves as a way to recognize people visually, serving as the local equivalent of both a face and a clothing choice. I think using it for a different purpose is less than ideal.

I do, however, have two alternate yet related suggestions:

It sounds like what you're proposing is an achievement system for getDare, like those that are becoming common in the gaming world. This is a fun idea (although potentially a lot of work for the staff to implement), and doesn't require overloading the avatar. An achievements page on the user profile could show them off, and users could select a single achievement/badge to display below their avatar when posting.

For those who want to design avatars I'm sure there would be great interest in a thread/service offering custom-designed avatars to match people's personalities.

[MasterPain]

well having good posts marked with achievements, and a anniversary achievement and stuff but why need all that fluff?

if you want achievements go play xbox..

if you want a webfourm thats about dares/tasks and having fun come here.. then you will get people complaining about "why does ____ ______ have this achivement and i dont fix it fix it fix it fix it...."

[yours_slave]

Originally Posted by DancingBear

Instead of having people pick whatever they want as an avatar.. Why not have specific avatars unlockable/achievable for doing things around the site? Like, uploading a picture or doing dares or posting.. I'm sure you can think of other things xD it would eliminate the possibility of people posting inappropriate things as their avatar and it would give the people who like graphics something to do? I dunno like a volunteer graphics team (similar to volunteer mods)?

There could be a writer avatar that people could win monthly for best story, or a best gallery, or blogger, etc. People would be able to choose between the ones they have accumulated and once you have all of them, you would get the "Avatar Collector" avatar :P

I don't think it's a good idea as well as other users. Sorry.

It's a great thing that this site provide users to choose their own avatar. If the getDare restricts it, I don't think users will like it. Personally I don't like it. Sometimes it may cause users not interest in this site at all (Some do really like changing their avatars once in a two days!)

The questions is, why do we restrict it? I mean, what's the point of reducing customization while the getDare staff can provide it?

Just think, what will happen if Facebook did this? Do you think they will have the same popularity? Usually, if a site is going to restrict something, specially customization, without any reason, that means the site popularity will go dramatically down. IDK. Just do it once and see the results...

[Star Shadows]

I don't like this idea at all actually. I love my avatar, and I think having your own personal avatar is great, as it allows users to spot people in an instant, I think as much as they are a hassle they a necessary part of the site. It is also really hard to sort out id imagine.

[Slenderman - Doctor]

I don't think it's practical for avatars but the concept is actually rather good!