this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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Propaganda??? I personally like pfps/avatars and think they're an important part of any traditional forum. Identity is important in communities and I think they help facilitate that. I just wish that I could adjust the size of the on Kbin because they're way too small for me. ๐ฅฒ But you should always have the option to hide them as well.
Exactly. They're a way to get to know people a little better by seeing what they chose to present to the world alongside their username.
Reddit's number one, two, three,....,ten, reason for existing is anonymity. That's what set it apart from all other social media. People on reddit are their content, nothing else. What you post is everything, and the human behind is irrelevant. It saddens me that the new "alternatives" immediately went in a different direction.
Yeah, I have a very different perspective haha I very much prefer to connect to real humans and for that to be a focus, which is why I made an account here. I never, ever posted on Reddit unless I had an issue I needed help with as a last resort before seeking out an irl resource, mostly because it never felt like a community to me; it felt like you were reading random people responding to each other in the same vain as Twitter. This is my first time actually posting anything publicly since I was active on a a particular forum from like 2013-2015. But I can understand your perspective all the same.
I'm with you. Anonymity is great, but I also miss the old days when you would become familiar with your forum community, and felt that little spark of joy when someone you recognize or value engaged with your post. The only time I experienced that on reddit was in r/stalker (video game series, not a group of savvy human stalkers). There was a particular user that I really got on well with, bearing the same faction patch/flair as I did. Every now and then I'd see him in the wild and drop a reply to say hello. A small conversation would always follow.
Beyond that, I never really recognized or paid much attention at all to usernames at all, save for blocking Gallowboob and his constant front-page content. I think so long as avatars aren't overtly political or inflammatory, they're pretty harmless.
I personally give zero fucks about anonymity (I know for a fact that it's possible to find my real name from this username), but I do understand that a lot of people are very keen on anonymity for a wide variety of reasons.
Yeah, I noticed them on Lemmy and thought they might be a good way to remember people I interact with. There were too many people on Reddit, so I hardly ever bothered looking at user names. The avatars stand out better and remind me of forums.
If anything, I think they help counteract propaganda! They make it easier to see that, say every comment pushing a certain product or point of view in your favorite community are all being made by the same handful of accounts, which is a red flag an influence campaign might be going on.