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Topic:
The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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TuskenTommy
Registered:
Jul '06
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Date Posted:
6/20 9:35pm
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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I've always used icons as a way of who's who. But i'm not very happy with mine so touche..I do think "Jedi Marine" everytime i see your lil red guy. I admit i do consider changing it for the fun of it. Plus i get sucked in for atleast a solid hour looking at all of em..But i'm the kind of dude who wills tick with one for the long haul..But if someone PM'd me and said" TT, check out this awesome Tusken Tatooine icon". I'd probably be all over it etc...
I like checking out posters icons btw. I like that Bond Lightsaber one and many.....cool post JediMarine.
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Ris_jSarek
Registered:
Feb '05
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Date Posted:
6/21 3:47am
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
- Date Edited:
6/21 3:50am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Ris_jSarek
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Jedimarine posted:
How do you feel about your icon...is it a image you hold as a reference for yourself...or is it just a decorative feature...something to personalize your comment space?
It's a bit more of the latter. I certainly don't visualize myself as a Z-95. ;-) Though I did pick the avatar for self-referential reasons . . . one of my first RPG characters, one of two that I still think of as "me in Star Wars" even though I've made dozens of characters since then, got his start flying a Z-95.
Jedimarine posted:
Do you look at other people's icons as being signature to them? Do you find yourself "thrown" when someone changes their icon?
Yes, and like some others, I also get thrown when the signature icon of a notable poster gets picked up by someone else. Even more disconcerting is when they pick YOUR icon. There have been several times where I've been reading one of "my" posts, wondering how come my writing was so off-form, only to realize that it wasn't me at all.
SuperWatto posted:
Do you get that - that you somehow subconciously start thinking users look like the icon they use? For instance - when I think of Havac, I imagine Obi-Wan behind a computer screen.
Yes, I do. That's one reason I'm a starship here; I figure it helps people avoid that particular subconscious trap.
For some reason, I don't follow that rule over at TOS, where I've always used Pelly (well, I've always used it when my Hyperspace was paid up, at any rate). I think it's because there aren't any good EU ships in their icon inventory.
Most websites I visit, I use some version of this image of Sarek of Vulcan.
Robimus posted:
Here's a question we could add: Do you use the same user name on every online forum you frequent? I do but I'm guessing lots of people have a different name for every different forum.
Most places, I'm just "jSarek." Apparently, way back in November 2001, I signed up under it. Years later, having forgotten I'd ever signed up here before, I tried registering using that name again, and for obvious reasons I couldn't. Thus, I had to use my "back-up handle." By the time I figured out how to access the old account, I'd already built up a fair-sized posting record under this name, so I decided to stick with it.
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http://churchofbrad.com/jsarek/ Proud recipient of Halagad_Ventor's MOO (Master of Obscurity) Award, Brett_Bass's Spiffy Crown™, and Thrawn McEwok's "Ohh...? Interesting..." Award™
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EECHUUTA
Registered:
Mar '07
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Date Posted:
6/21 8:14am
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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The one I picked I think goes along with my screenname the best. 
But if I were to change it, I might go along with a Maul one. 
Do I use the same username everywhere? Mostly if its Transformers, and then it tends to be a varient of Starscream. I am Starscream in a bunch of places. 
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Carnage04
Registered:
Mar '05
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Date Posted:
6/21 2:29pm
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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The Icon is utilitarian for me in two ways....
One...it helps me find my last post in a thread where I am having a discussion. I scroll through fast until I see my icon and it acts as a bookmark. "Oh yeah, this is where I left off. I'll ready everything after this." I used to use a Tie Defender (Because Tie Defenders are cool and nobody else had it.) I started noticing someone else with the same icon and it confused me so I changed it. Yeah, I like Lord Nihl but more importantly I find it easy to pick out when scrolling fast.
For other people, I certainly use it as a quick reference if I should read the post. Some posters I find very insightful and will read almost all the time. Some I am ambivalent or don't know and will usually check out what they are all about. Some Posters...well.....I just keep scrolling.
I hate when Havoc changes his Icon because I get tricked into reading his stuff. 
-----signature-----
Carnage
I Finally decided to use a signature after 3500 posts!
3500 posts * 7 Characters = 24500 keystrokes wasted
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Randy1012
Registered:
Jan '07
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Date Posted:
6/21 2:41pm
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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Robimus posted:
Here's a question we could add: Do you use the same user name on every online forum you frequent? I do but I'm guessing lots of people have a different name for every different forum.
I tend to use this same name a lot, usually just because I can never think of anything better, or more appropriate to whatever forum I'm posting on. I've thought about changing my name, but I doubt that anyone would notice or care either way. 
-----signature-----
What can I say? I'm a talented individual.
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Sinrebirth
Title: Hierarch and Chancellor of EUCity
Registered:
Nov '04
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Date Posted:
6/21 2:50pm
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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Stealing the handy quoting from Ris_jsarek... and great thread, Jedimarine. 
Jedimarine posted:
How do you feel about your icon...is it a image you hold as a reference for yourself...or is it just a decorative feature...something to personalize your comment space?
More of the fore than the latter, to a degree. Before this, I had the icon of Palpatine - as my favourite Sith - the moment after he's been singed in RotS. When that grew far too monotonous for Excellence, and everyone started taking it, I swapped to Xanatos.
I chose Xanatos because he's Pure EU - no films, no games, no adult novels, no comics. I've never really read the children books, and know of Granta Omega and Xanatos by Wookiepedia, but Xanatos is the unknown child of the Skywalker 'Jedi Family' Tree, as a brother of Obi-Wan and unknown uncle to Anakin Skywalker. He was given the opportunity to end his fathers reign and he did the opposite - he took over Telos, and his son continued as a threat even without the Force.
I most certainly identify with it, and it quite irritates me to see someone over in Games using it all the time.
That being said, I tend to flick through Darth Traya or Ovan from the .Hack// saga on other boards, as I identify with them moreso as personalities to my own. The Lord of Betrayal and the Rebirth.
Jedimarine posted:
Do you look at other people's icons as being signature to them? Do you find yourself "thrown" when someone changes their icon?
Ex shall forever be that damn NR symbol, and generally I look at the icons to a degree, rather than the post. There are many of us who use the same icon for years. Nothing amused/irritated me more than when the users over in the EUC started copying each others avatars and signatures. When you see six people with the same avatar and signature as you it's more confusing than anything.
SuperWatto posted:
Do you get that - that you somehow subconciously start thinking users look like the icon they use? For instance - when I think of Havac, I imagine Obi-Wan behind a computer screen.
Sadly, yes. But I have managed not to imagine you as Watto. Ulicus is definitely his icon, in my minds eye though, for example. Don't see how that quite works for me and this eye, mind you.
Robimus posted:
Here's a question we could add: Do you use the same user name on every online forum you frequent? I do but I'm guessing lots of people have a different name for every different forum.
I was Sinreborn somewhere else, and continued with the 'Sin' theme with my current name, regardless of it's apparent lack of Star Wars significance. I have been known as 'Twilit Exaggerance' in some places, mind you, for novelty sake.
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Sey's Sinre  The Missing Chapters of LotF: Invincible http://boards.theforce.net/Message.aspx?topic=28933751&brd=10477&replies=10 Chapter 2.5 is up now! Featuring Wedge, Dician, Niathal, Daala, Valin and Syal!
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QuinineVos
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
6/21 3:14pm
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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My use of the "young Dooku" icon has simply been a hopeless attempt on my part to distract from my choice of what I think is a stupid username.
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Manisphere
Registered:
Aug '07
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Date Posted:
6/21 3:16pm
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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Randy1012 posted:
I tend to use this same name a lot, usually just because I can never think of anything better, or more appropriate to whatever forum I'm posting on. I've thought about changing my name, but I doubt that anyone would notice or care either way.
That's the sad thing with being a newb. I started using the Darth Plagueis icon as soon as it appeared but as I saw Arawn Fenn using it I felt I should switch. Fenn had board seniority in my mind cause he's known here by everyone so I figured if he took Plagueis, it was his and I had to find something else.  So I did.
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Carnage04
Registered:
Mar '05
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Date Posted:
6/22 3:09am
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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QuinineVos posted:
My use of the "young Dooku" icon has simply been a hopeless attempt on my part to distract from my choice of what I think is a stupid username.
Bah, your user name is fine.
Of course, I once had a cat that I named Ubiquinone (if you don't know already, a molecule related to Quinine) so perhaps you don't want to trust my judgement when it comes to names.
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Carnage
I Finally decided to use a signature after 3500 posts!
3500 posts * 7 Characters = 24500 keystrokes wasted
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Ulicus
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
6/22 5:16am
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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Sinrebirth posted:
Don't see how that quite works for me and this eye, mind you.
Well, I just see you as Xanatos in his entirety.
Despite the fact you posted a picture of what you actually look like in the Social thread.
Naw. Once someone has removed the "online mask" I tend to see them as they really are. Or at least as they appeared in whatever picture. Watto is always wearing sunglasses in my mind's eye, for example. Jello always looks serious....
Manisphere posted:
That's the sad thing with being a newb. I started using the Darth Plagueis icon as soon as it appeared but as I saw Arawn Fenn using it I felt I should switch. Fenn had board seniority in my mind cause he's known here by everyone so I figured if he took Plagueis, it was his and I had to find something else. So I did.
You should have stuck it out. Arawn will always be "Blue chin scratching Yoda" in my mind.
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beccatoria
Title: 181st Imperial Discussion Group host
Registered:
Dec '06
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Date Posted:
6/22 6:02am
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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I go by beccatoria most everywhere. I think the only time I ever consciously chose a different name was when I signed up to a Farscape board, though the reason for changing escapes me at the moment...
In some ways I think I should maybe be a bit more diverse since it means that it's always easy to find me, and something I like about the internet is its anonymity. Then again, I'm also usually not very bothered when people do find me elsewhere on the net - it's not like they're showing up at my front door with my real name. It's often kind of fun to find people elsewhere. Like I knew Charlemagne19 on another board years ago, and had no idea he was a poster here, so that was kind of awesome to find out.
My handle is, for the record, a mashup of my first and second name. In a sign of what I hope is toddlerhood cuteness rather than mental deficiency, at the age of two I apparently couldn't say my own name properly and used to introduce myself as "Becca Toria". It stuck.
So over a decade later when I first got myself an email address, it seemed like a good name to pick. It was unusual enough it wasn't taken, strange enough it felt like an anonymous internet handle, but still mine.
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REMEMBER: CLOAK OF DECEPTION DISCUSSION STARTS IN SEPTEMBER!
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princess_of_naboo
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
6/22 8:41am
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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I don't have the same name here and everywhere else. Mine just wouldn't fit well in the outside world.
I use my icon basically because its theme matches my user name.
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Jedimarine
Registered:
Feb '01
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Date Posted:
6/22 5:04pm
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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So I guess the next question is:
Who do you most identify with his or her icon?
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GO SEE "THE DARK KNIGHT"
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Ulicus
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
6/22 5:25pm
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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McE.
I can't help but picture a blue ewok in a grand admiral's uniform.
With the addition of a kilt.
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Havac
Title: Lit Mod of War
Registered:
Sep '05
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Date Posted:
6/22 6:30pm
Subject:
RE: The Pragmatics of the Icon: A question on forum usage
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I go by Havac everywhere, pretty much. And while I don't visualize people as their avatars, I don't visualize them period. I do associate their icon with them, though -- but as something that appears next to their posts. dp is the Luke icon next to his posts -- but I don't have any vision of him sitting on his computer.
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