First you need to understand my relationship with Twitter is rather like Waldorf and Stadtlers relationship with the muppets. I sit in my balcony and make smartalec remarks. Because. Sometimes I drop the odd thing in there to indicate my mood. But being me I am not going to come out and say it.
So this morning I put up a post saying this:
Very very very dark grey
— Inky Thehorse (@inky_r) July 3, 2015
and this prompted a question from an entity known as Jenny G (@IwontEverWakeUp) as to if I was a bot.
So I said:
@IwontEverWakeUp problem: were I a bot would be programmed to respond no to are you a bot. So how can you tell? Take that turing.
— Inky Thehorse (@inky_r) July 3, 2015
and then it went downhill. Jenny demanded to know why I had no avatar. Not relevant to bothood if you ask me as all the bots I have seen have avatars..
@IwontEverWakeUp 1) clear batman reference. 2) what would you like me to replace the icon with? I do not put pictures of self on line...
— Inky Thehorse (@inky_r) July 3, 2015
@IwontEverWakeUp why would I make myself identifiable so readily? what would I gain from sharing that information? I maintain a..
— Inky Thehorse (@inky_r) July 3, 2015
@IwontEverWakeUp ...facebook account simply to take pictures and references to me down from facebook. Have never had author photo etc. etc.
— Inky Thehorse (@inky_r) July 3, 2015
@IwontEverWakeUp but to get back to this...what is more important, whether I am a bot or your insane desire to see my face? not worth it btw
— Inky Thehorse (@inky_r) July 3, 2015
@IwontEverWakeUp then what is the problem?
— Inky Thehorse (@inky_r) July 3, 2015
@IwontEverWakeUp oh deary me
— Inky Thehorse (@inky_r) July 3, 2015
Yep. Assume Jenny was a bot trying to get me to add a photo for skynet reasons. have reported her https://t.co/emSnQxbyRU
— Inky Thehorse (@inky_r) July 3, 2015
hoping the embed thing works....
Anyway a bit nonplussed. easy explanation is that Jenny was a bot working for skynets facial recognition software.
but this is not the first time people have asked for an avatar picture, or for a picture of my face. Why is this? I really struggle. I mean we all know that he pictures on avatars are mainly not of the people involved, or are idealised a tad. they give, in short, no useful information. I had assumed the avatar was there to allow illiterate people to identify the tweeter, but as the tweets i give are mainly text that wouldnt help.
In short why do people want pictures there? What does it add? I for one would vote to have the avatars removed from twitter completely as the useless spam they are.
Personally, I like avatars, and put a lot of thought into choosing something that represents me. But we are all different. And you have every right to present yourself as pleases you.
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrible person. Maybe best to block someone like that immediately? I am glad that you reported her in the end.
When one of my interweb alter egos briefly had a Twitter account I used a pic of one of the buildings at Orford Ness as the avatar, 'cos obviously I am actually a knackered shed like structure...
ReplyDeleteindeed you are. all rimed with salt and coated in tar. and starch
ReplyDeleteAs a semi-illiterate (Basically due to drugs and the worst excesses of EDS-related mental fatigue), I use the avatars to quickly work out if a conversation is something I can jump into or not - If it's two or three different avatars going back-and-forth for half a page, I don't get involved, because it's obviously either only applicable to those people, or so involved by now that I'm only going to rehash old points. If it seems to be a free-for-all, I might dip in.
ReplyDeleteIt also helps me work out if I follow someone or not - People change their names more often than their avatars, so it can help me keep track of which name goes with which face, and to quickly look up if someone has just been retweeted into my timeline.
Basically, yes, they're an accessibility feature, not all of us can be as intelligent and focussed as you are, and I suspect you'd hate it if we were because you'd not be able to look down your nose at everyone around you.
Pretty sure that she was either a bot or trying to get a rise out of you. This is why I keep my twitter-bubble small.
"Basically, yes, they're an accessibility feature, not all of us can be as intelligent and focused as you are, and I suspect you'd hate it if we were because you'd not be able to look down your nose at everyone around you."
ReplyDeleteEr yes. Not that I've dared to put it quite like that!!! I am a very visual person, and pictures matter to me a lot. So I like avatars a great deal, especially if they are one-eyed cats called 'waffly'.
I like to see what people choose as an avatar. My current one is of me (non-idealised) but I've also used ones that I think say something about me and what I like--though I'm aware that tends to be a strictly private joke.
ReplyDeleteBUT I don't give people a hard time or particularly care (on my own behalf, though see comments above) if people choose not to use one.
It is (and was at the time!) bizarre to me that someone would come up to you out of the blue and hassle you about it. My background is in psychology (calm down--visual perception, pattern recognition, and artificial intelligence; not clinical) and my take-home message from that degree is that people are weird. Post-doctoral experience has not changed my views on this...
(OK I feel slightly better having finally disclosed that to you in light of recent MH team shenanigans. Though, as I say, not in any way my field--I was still feeling vicariously guilty on behalf of my not-profession. And now I'm kind of hoping you don't get around to reading this...whispering my self-disclosure in a hurricane, that's me).