more confusing is when people are using the same avatar as someone already here (recent was SHODAN which belong to Fenixp and someone else.) no avatar does not bother me as i'll just check the name...

cause normally i associate people with their avatars so i don't read the name but know who is who by just looking at the pic.

well that is the whole purpose of an Avatar: To easily identify a poster

I didn't have an avatar for a long time, I think I only got mine a few months ago, but I had to choose something that was fairly unique, and that I would like.

Yep, the Avatar is from Master of Magic. Did try another Lich picture once. Was to dam big.

It's hard to have something that's completely unique. In the user name contest right now, I mention my old user name. My first avatar on the forum I used to go to was Uncle Sam telling people to shut up basically. When I became moderator, I cam across a skull picture that said on it "Mod Power". It was a simple black and white thing. Well, I tried to mess with it some, someone decided to help me out and basically make a messenger skull of death in front of a portal to hell. Good times.

Maybe I should go dig that up again for this site. But then the actual mods might jump me.

I usually tend to go with avatars that match my user name. I used to go by a few others in the past, but I pretty much only use the one I have here (or variations thereof) on user boards since I've finally settled on a permanent nick. Because I tend to mumble a fair bit (not intentionally) I view it as quite appropriate.

As for my avatar, once I settled on the name the obvious choice was Mumbles as played by Dustin Hoffman in Dick Tracy. I had a hell of a time finding a good pic though - like the one I've appropriated - but it was definitely worth the search.

I actually had a random avatar from Tex Murphy that I picked up off the site just because I couldn't stand the sight of my avatar being blank, at least until recently. But then, this is coming from the guy that had "New user" under his name for the best part of two years because I was too lazy to change it.

The one I have now is Vulva from a very cool British TV series called "Spaced".

I tried to like that show, but I just couldn't. I really enjoy Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, yet that show just left me feeling cold. A bit too bizarre for my tastes.

Similarly, I much prefer Edgar Wright's work after that. He certainly did a phenomenal job on Scott Pilgrim.

I used to have an avatar from BASS, but some other people used it, so now I'm avatarless. It looked better before they added drop shadow though.

I don't really want to. I rarely post and that's either to help someone, ask for help myself or state an opinion without any real intention of inciting a debate. If someone bothers to reply something I posted it should be for the content of my post, not my colorful avatar. If someone ignores my posts because of my avatar, my nationality or the size of my shoes that's up to him, I'm not bothered. This is intresting because I was going to make a similar comment, but then it occoured to me that GOG's biggest trolls are also some of the most frequent posters. :)

And then you started to every once in a while talk without going into "goblin army ruler" mode, making it even more important to take a good look at the name. Your posts are otherwise, generally, quite... distinct and easily identifiable.

I'm like that, too. I'd love a notification function like "this user changed their avatar recently, this is what they looked like previously", because it always confuses the hell out of me. People without an avatar get lumped into a huge grey mass for me (which is quite undesirable in forum mafia, for example).

Which is why I don't change my avatar, ever. And I'm actually really fond of that lizard fellow, too.

I've never used an avatar anywhere. I just don't have a preference for any particular avatar over the default one, so I don't bother to change it.

In other words you think less of people simply because they don't have an avatar ?

Right....