In comment sections or in community pages, it's mostly an ocean of default avatars. Why do you choose to stand out with a custom avatar on this semi-anonymous platform?
Do you use Voyager? Or perhaps another client? Nothing about the user profile is surfaced in Voyager. You have to go to the native webview and open a user's profile to see all that. I set a brief bio there, but until it's exposed in my primary client I don't really see any reason to worry about all that.
I do sometimes check on nsfw boards so can flag users as OF creators vs. amateurs because I have more appreciation for folks doing that for fun than as a hustle. Other than that, it's too much hassle to go checking everyone's profile when maybe 10% of people set anything at all.
Because I'm not an anonymous person. This is my default username for most of my public stuff, and it's how friends and family find me online. I try to be genuine online; I don't care to hide behind an anonymous profile.
I firmly believe in being a decent, respectable person toward everyone, even when I'm anonymous and don't need to be. Every time I've created an anonymous account, it's just ended up turning into my regular public profile, so why hide under a different username?
The profile pic just helps me stand out a bit more for others who know me here, and friends/family trying to find me. I regularly write video game reviews to post to !games@lemmy.world, so it helps me to be more recognized in the wild. My profile pic is my semi-anonymous profile pic that I use on other platforms when I don't want to broadcast my face to everyone.
I consider this one to be my public/serious account, so, eh why not, it adds a face, a personnality. And I think I look cute on it. Due to the origin of my nickname, it's realllly not that hard to find out who I am. Facebook ruined the anonymity aspect a decade ago, so I just live with it. And it's a little bit more recognizable than just the username. For anonymity I have alts.
It has some downsides though, like people telling me I look like I got my dick chopped off. I'm cis, my dick is perfectly intact. Come on guys it's just hair dye lol.
In comment sections or in community pages, it's mostly an ocean of default avatars.
When I joined it seemed like most people had an avatar. I have used this one for years, so why not?
I also like recognizing other Lemmings. Username is alright for that, but the image helps even more. It makes it feel like a small community from the internet of old (forums).
AI garbage drawings were pretty much brand new when I set up my account. So I figured, sure, a lemming astronaut would be fun. And I liked it so I kept it.
As a Reddit refugee (API debacle), I liked not having the same cheesy avatar as everyone else.
We should totally do that again. Fun for the people generating them with different LLMs, fun to see the crazy stuff that shows up, and some people wind up with an avatar that they like.
@Thelsim@sh.itjust.works
I remember that "blank face" image being generated, too.
Also an interesting way to compare different LLMs, because you can see what they're spitting out for the same input.
When I first signed up for Lemmy I was just curious to check out how that feature worked (after I found it while browsing through the profile settings to see what was there).
Completely forgot there are profile avatars on Lemmy. BRB, gotta hop on my desktop to see if I have one set up. Cannot find any settings about it in Voyager ( probably didn't look hard enough or my eyes glossed over it ).
Edit: editing on my browser and I have my favorite Tiny Toons character as my profile avatar. All is good. I don't have many images I use as profile avatars, so Dizzy Devil Ducky it was. At least that;s what I imagine was going through my head.
Easier to quickly distinguish between users with different-colored indicators for different users. There isn't built-in functionality to do that. If there was, I wouldn't have.
I use connect. When I pulled open the sideboard thing I saw a blank space for an avatar so I put in the one I use with this username. I only see it when I open the sideboard though so it's for me, I guess.