why most Forums look like Mickey Mouse collections...

I can recall seeing far more people using their actual photo when I first started posting here, though that was probably because KAM did, and the early adopters followed suit. As more people have joined, so has your usual run-of-the-mill avatars.

I don't think it has much to do with privacy. Facebook & Co. have shown that privacy online isn't a primary concern for most. Rather, as someone else mentioned, it probably has more to do with people wanting to take on an alter ago when posting to forums. That's much easier to do if people don't know who you are.

That, and some people just don't like the way they look, for whatever reason. Then you have those who are just flat out not photogenic and know it. :)
This is a big KEY thing right here man. People follow the leader, naturally, even if they don't intend to do so. By putting yourself in your avatar you are setting the example and have opened up yourself to your users on some "hey I'm not just some mysterious admin guy, I'm also a human, and I'm one of you, and I'm not afraid or too shy to show my face and say whats up, you should too" That's what MySpace Tom did. That's what Kier did and I think that's what we as Admins should do. Kudos to those admins who are not afraid to show their own face on their forum. I have much respect for that. I've noticed that sites whose admins do not have themselves in their avatar usually seem to have "Mickey Mouse collections" instead.
 
I think that's why Google is pushing Google Authorship so hard so that people are forced to put themselves in their avatar and set the example for their user comments. Google wants to lead the web away from anonymity because there's a lot of negativity and trollish behavior associated with anonymity.
 
As per the current XenForo design, when a user decides to "hide his Profile", the user-avatar is still showing up at the Membercard and also within Forum-posts.

So the current implementation of "User-Privacy" in XenForo does not fully cover a user's privacy. This is the whole point of this thread.


I want my users to have the ability to not show their Avatar (which might or might not be a real photo) to "Guests" when the user decides to "hide his Profile".


So the solution is to have a default Avatar showing to guests when a user decides to "hide his Profile".


:)
 
Even if it were the most private forum in the whole world, I'd still not use my own photo as my avatar. I simply don't see the point of doing so.
 
Even if it were the most private forum in the whole world, I'd still not use my own photo as my avatar. I simply don't see the point of doing so.

well, whether the Avatar is a real photo or not is in fact totally irrelevant.

The issue is that the Avatar is still showing up publicly, even if you decide to "hide your Profile" in "Privacy Options".


:)
 
I don't think I would ever force the issue in my community - in a perfect world it would be great if we all had our real photos. But people have a right to privacy and with some of the arguments/fights happening in many forums I can see why not everyone wants their mug shot up. Also in my case many members are companies and so their avatar is their logo.

I like the idea of an avatar where you can have it blank (or something else) to guests and your real photo to logged in/friends.
 
well, whether the Avatar is a real photo or not is in fact totally irrelevant.

The issue is that the Avatar is still showing up publicly, even if you decide to "hide your Profile" in "Privacy Options".


:)
It was more of a general reply to your first post. It also doesn't hide your signature, username, or posted message. All of these could very well include privacy sensitive information - however for most people / boards it does not, and if it does it's done so by members who want to share such information. If you want to put in a suggestion for XenForo, you can do that here.

Aaaaaaanyway.
 
I prefer members (and myself) to stay anonymous, and it's more related to their username than their avatar. If they aren't anonymous, chances are they will regret it and ask me to change their username or even delete their account and posts later on. Forums are not the same as social networks. You really can't compare the two imo. But it can differ between communities.

And BTW throwing your whole (private) life on the internet isn't the smartest thing to do anyway.
 
You care too much about them. If they do not want strangers or "guests" seeing their face, then they don't upload their personal pictures to their online profile. You can not compare an online forum full of strangers to a social-media website filled with your in real life friends, and built to cater real-life interaction. Quite a few of my members have personal photos as their avatars, and they are the members that simply do not care who sees them. A lot of them don't, and unsurprisingly they are the ones that do want to remain anonymous.

Catering to members who want to remain private seems so silly to me, because they are not forced to use their personal photos at all, and hiding content from Google for this reason is SEO suicide.
 
As per the current XenForo design, when a user decides to "hide his Profile", the user-avatar is still showing up at the Membercard and also within Forum-posts.

So the current implementation of "User-Privacy" in XenForo does not fully cover a user's privacy. This is the whole point of this thread.


I want my users to have the ability to not show their Avatar (which might or might not be a real photo) to "Guests" when the user decides to "hide his Profile".


So the solution is to have a default Avatar showing to guests when a user decides to "hide his Profile".


:)

for the record and for reference:

there is a new Addon which makes hiding User-Photos for "guests" a piece of cake (y)

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/hide-avatars-for-guests.1795/


:coffee:
 
It would be nice to use real names and then associate the users account with their Google plus account for authorship reasons and SEO in the search results. You know, that little author photo that sometimes shows up?
 
I don't exactly see the point of this argument.

It doesn't really matter if someone tells you the photo they are using is theirs or not... Anyone could easily post a photo of someone else as their avatar & claim that the photo they're using is really them.

And as digitalpoint pointed out, who really except someone very vain, would really want to always see a photo of them self?!

edit: Upon further thought... I guess you could argue that having your own photo shown on a business website has its values. But even then, who's to say that the photos used are of that person.

This is after all the internet.

I did however use my own photo here once (with my head shaved)

me.webp
 
edit: Upon further thought... I guess you could argue that having your own photo shown on a business website has its values. But even then, who's to say that the photos used are of that person.

that's exactly the point.
it depends on the kind of Forum you run.

believe it or not, but not everyone here is running a gaming-related forum :p:D;)
 
that's exactly the point.
it depends on the kind of Forum you run.

believe it or not, but not everyone here is running a gaming-related forum :p:D;)
Game, social, or business... No way of really knowing if the photo used is really of the person. I mean unless you want to have photo id's to confirm it, but I doubt you'll get many members.
 
Game, social, or business... No way of really knowing if the photo used is really of the person. I mean unless you want to have photo id's to confirm it, but I doubt you'll get many members.

it does not matter if the photo is real or not.

if the user chooses to hide his "Profile", it should be hidden "site wide".
Meaning: not only the Profile-page should be hidden, but also the avatar.

Either you offer "Privacy" to your users or not.
When you choose to offer "Privacy" to your users, then it should be offered "site wide". Not a half-baked solution.
 
it does not matter if the photo is real or not.

if the user chooses to hide his "Profile", it should be hidden "site wide".
Meaning: not only the Profile-page should be hidden, but also the avatar.

Either you offer "Privacy" to your users or not.
When you choose to offer "Privacy" to your users, then it should be offered "site wide". Not a half-baked solution.
I wouldn't mind seeing an option to turn off avatars all together. Either site wide or per user.

Although if you're that worried about "privacy", maybe not uploading an avatar should be your best option. If that's not good enough, maybe forums or any social networking; isn't exactly for you.
 
I wouldn't mind seeing an option to turn off avatars all together. Either site wide or per user.

Although if you're that worried about "privacy", maybe not uploading an avatar should be your best option. If that's not good enough, maybe forums or any social networking; isn't exactly for you.


there is another option:

- show avatar for guests
- show avatar for registered members only


:)
 
there is another option:

- show avatar for guests
- show avatar for registered members only


:)
In message_user_info

Search for

PHP:
	<xen:hook name="message_user_info_avatar" params="{xen:array 'user={$user}', 'isQuickReply={$isQuickReply}'}">
		<div class="avatarHolder">
			<span class="helper"></span>
			<xen:avatar user="$user" size="m" />
			<!-- slot: message_user_info_avatar -->
		</div>
	</xen:hook>

Above it add
PHP:
<xen:if is="{$visitor.user_id}">

and below it (the code you searched for) add this

PHP:
<xen:else />
</xen:if>

You're welcome :)
 
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