Is it a bad idea to use a "real" picture as my avatar?

Go for the gold my dear.

It is up to you/personal preference.

Some split the difference by showing only part of their face or obscuring it in some way (via lighting, etc)

No, I do.

Unless you are in the witness protection program – go for it.

Plus you can be creative and obscure yourself a bit with lighting, angle, etc. And there’s always Photoshop – or even a baby picture of you.

<—- I hope it isn’t a bad idea.

peedub – lurve for the contents of your picture. awesome.

One thing…I won’t let my children use real pics of themselves online. As long as you are an adult, go ahead and do it :)

Put a picture. Let people know who you are and what you look like and express yourself.. This page is for Flutherites (jellies?) to put a picture of themselves. Do it.

If you have a JellyShirt, be sure to add yourself to the Flickr group. I’m the one all wet and covered in sand.

@richardhenry: <<snort>>

<-Only a fool would use a real picture of themself.

I didn’t know about that Flickr group, I’ll need to snap a pic somewhere.

I think if I changed my avatar, people would get confused.

I just uploaded to the page 90s_kid mentioned. Neat idea!

I had the idea that became the Photobucket page. Yay! I mention it again because I just love it when folks share what they look like.

This place already feels like community. People seem more real, less digital, when I can see them.

@Trustinglife: Totally agree. Photobucket though? Blergh. I don’t want to make an account. Anyone fancy moving it to Flickr? :)

Sure – I’m all for Flickr.

Flickr is fine and all, and I have no special love for Photobucket, but you really want to have people post a photo again? I wish you could have intervened when we were discussing it!

<== Or try a real picture with few distinguishing characteristics. People you already know will recognize you. Others have little to work with.

Krose made the page…I think :S

Thanks everyone! It won’t let me load the picture. I guess I’ll try on another computer tonight.

added a little something to Fluther photobucket (may or may not have been a good thing, ha!)

wondering why that was voted as a ‘great answer’ lol!

Because it made me smile :) I like to see new pics of our users!

Ah, okay. :)

Me too. The video was weird, with a strange clicky sound but whatever.

Nobody would recognize me from my picture because it’s 30 years old! Bwa-haha!

…And I just changed mine to my real picture for once.