Designing a Forum Avatar

Your avatar on a forum is the main way that people on your forum will recognize you and get a sense of your personality. After all, you can't either show your face or use your tone of voice on a forum, and there are only so many different emoticons. Therefore, designing a forum avatar is very important for establishing your internet presence. In this article, I will discuss a number of different options you can use when designing your avatar.

Option 1: Use Your Own Face

You can use your own face as an avatar. I don't recommend that you use any more than a face on a forum, as you'll usually be too small to really see. Don't use your own face if you want to stay completely anonymous. While a facial recognition search engine doesn't exist yet, it will one day and everything put up on the internet is there forever thanks to sites like archive.org.

When using your own face, you should decide how professional you'd like to look. If you're engaging in any professional activities, I'd suggest actually wearing a suit, so that you look as professional as possible. For other cases, wear clothing that best suits the personality you want to convey. If it is a sporting forum, wear sporting clothes, for example.

Option 2: Use Something Cool

In general, I'm not a big fan of "cool" avatars, for the simple reason that they basically say, "This board is beneath me." However, you can choose something cool, if it really does reflect something about your personality. For instance, if you are someone who is a little nebbish but good-hearted, an avatar of Martin from the Simpsons would be appropriate. Remember, though, that whatever you pick, the avatar represents you, not something you like.

Option 3: Using Something Symbolic

If you wish, you can also pick something that symbolizes you. For instance, if you are on a religious forum and are devoted to Saint Francis, you could use a Franciscan cross. Alternative, if you have a family or clan crest you could use that. In addition, if you represent a particular company with a logo, you could use something that symbolizes your logo.

Be aware, though, that if you use something symbolic, you aren't really reflecting your personality as much anymore. However, when you use a symbol, it has the same effect as a crest on letterhead, making your posts seem more formal.

Reed Gladwell, M.A., is a prolific internet writer, having been writing online for almost fifteen years. His current site is called Clothing Design Software, where he has written an article about computer-aided design software.