Change the word 'Avatar' in something else (like User Picture)

[Grover]

Yes, I know we have the Phrase Manager . And I also state (more or less of that reason alone) that this may be one of the least 'important' suggestions I will ever post , but for discussion alone (and maybe consideration) I am interested how other people look at this:

not sure whether an average person understands the meaning of the word "avatar". This is merely modern "internet language".

Maybe "image" or "photo" or "picture" might be more clear.... ?

Facebook names it "Profile Picture".

The majority of people know what email is, but trust me, not everyone knows what an 'avatar' is. I know this from experience. Profile Picture or User Picture or something along those lines is directly understandable for everyone and the term 'Avatar' is mostly known to people who use forums (or some social networks) and yes, you are right, that are a lot of people.

When I started using some webforums 10 years ago it was unknown to me what an 'Avatar' was and I always felt this term to be a bit out of place really (Some related trivia: Invision Power Board is also dropping this term now, as you can see in the last comment on page 1 overhere).

Obviously, other software's opinions (or that of some users) should not be a reason to do the same or change anything. But... when we look at Xenforo there seems to be a good argument (as there is for the term 'threads', but that's another discussion ) I believe, to reconsider using this 'Avatar' terminology.

The argument is simply this:

An Avatar is (mostly) used/known as the virtual representation of a person. Meaning: not a real picture/photography image of oneself, but an image that re-presents you.

XenForo's vision seems to be (?) to stimulate the use of real pictures of yourself to interact with others. I understand that every site has different wishes/needs and that for one iconic virtual images are more fitting and for the other real-life photos. It can be used in both ways, but if we follow XenForo's social vision, then the Avatar terminology seems to be not that fitting.

User Picture or Profile Picture (as Facebook calls it, where the majority of people IS using a real-life picture indeed) sounds more appropriate for XenForo.

(A reason for me to put this suggestion up, is that a new potential XF business client also want's (no: needs) their platform members to use a real-life picture (as on Facebook) instead of a non-personal 'Avatar' indeed).

Thoughts?

 

[Ray]

When we were using vbulletin, we had "Profile Picture" and "Avatar"
Users would set their "Profile Picture" and expect it to appear in the postbit area. We received at least 200 e-mails asking why their picture wasn't showing, so we had to direct them to the "avatar" link.

Now that we are using XF, we changed the phrase "Avatar" to "Picture" because it's more common and even my 70 y/o grandma knows what a "Picture" is.

Now that most of our traffic is coming from Twitter and Facebook, it's only "logical" to use "Picture" or "Profile Picture"

 

[Grover]

When we were using vbulletin, we had "Profile Picture" and "Avatar"
Users would set their "Profile Picture" and expect it to appear in the postbit area. We received at least 200 e-mails asking why their picture wasn't showing, so we had to direct them to the "avatar" link.

Yes, indeed. I never understood (yes, I know some sites had useful uses for it apparently) why vBulletin offered 2 'User Pictures' indeed. For most sites this is totally unnecessary and in fact actually... confusing indeed.

Now that we are using XF, we changed the phrase "Avatar" to "Picture" because it's more common and even my 70 y/o grandma knows what a "Picture" is.

Now that most of our traffic is coming from Twitter and Facebook, it's only "logical" to use "Picture" or "Profile Picture"

Exactly, this is yet another argument to change 'Avatar' in 'User Picture': for a new XenForo bussiness client I am attracting a large amount of users will come from Facebook. Most of them never used Forums and are really not familiar with the term 'Avatar' indeed. But as I said, we have the phrase manager: nevertheless opening up a discussion about this never hurts I would think.

 

[erich37]

I already changed it at my website from "Avatar" to "Picture" ("Your Picture" in the Profile Drop-Down-box).
It looks and feels sooooo much better!

 

[Dean]

Thoughts?

My current thought is that xf works really and has relatively few bugs since we are discussing the relative merits of avatar vs picture...

 

[Carlos]

An Avatar is (mostly) used/known as the virtual representation of a person.

I hate Microsoft for making this distinction very obvious with Xbox Live. I used to think that avatars are forum-based, now we see it [the word] on other platforms.

User Picture or Profile Picture (as Facebook calls it, where the majority of people IS using a real-life picture indeed) sounds more appropriate for XenForo.

I also hate facebook for making this strong distinction. Surely, they could use "User Photo" or "User Image" or "Profile Photo" or "Profile Image." A "User Picture" feels like it meant exactly that, a picture of the person in the literal sense.

 

[Tomble]

I hate Microsoft for making this distinction very obvious with Xbox Live. I used to think that avatars are forum-based, now we see it [the word] on other platforms.

It's been used in online games, particularly MMORPGs for quite some time, Microsoft just used it on a more mainstream platform. Though as you say more people would have associated it with Forums than Games.

 

[dutchbb]

Yes grandpa visiting your forum and having recently watched Cameron's latest blockbuster will think he can turn himself into a blue alien but I think most people get the 'picture', i.e. no change is needed

 

[Carlos]

It's been used in online games, particularly MMORPGs for quite some time, Microsoft just used it on a more mainstream platform. Though as you say more people would have associated it with Forums than Games.

Some MMORPG's used them, just not the way Xbox Live was "terming" it.

But yes, you do bring up a good point. I'm sorry.