It's amusing when people judge you by your HA... especially in cases like my own, where I have a male HA but am female. XDDD It doesn't mean I want to be a guy... in fact, my HA rarely is meant to depict me as a person, but more my personal tastes. I like to make both gendered HAs of every style because it is fun and sometimes even a challenge. An HA doesn't really reflect WHO the person is, but it MAY reflect what mood they are in (a fun HA for a fun mood) or maybe their preferred tastes at the moment... but to base someone's true personality on an HA? Yeah... I don't know about going THAT far.

I totally agree that people should NOT be MOCKED or anything DEMEANING because of their HA, but I guess I could see how some characteristics of a person can be seen on their HA.

I think because your HA is supposed to, like, put a face to you. It's the visual representation of you , instead of just text. Does that make sense, lol? It's like putting a face to the person behind the screen, so it's natural to judge someone based on what we see.

To insult or ignore someone based on their HA is just sad though, lol.

Some people just take HAs more seriously than others. Plus, people are judged for pretty much everything - HAs, pets, profiles, forumsets, friend lists, post count, achievements... everything. I was once told, by someone who wanted one of my pets' names, that I don't deserve that pet because their treasure wasn't full and I don't RP and I don't have overlays or any of my pets. I thought it was pretty funny xD If someone is going to judge me for something like that, I probably wouldn't want to have much to do with that person anyway :P

For me, HAs are only one of the many factors I use when "judging" someone. I mean, if you put it together, it must reflect at least a little bit about you.

I think you somewhat can. By seeing your HA I can tell that you have a 'funny' personality, and you don't care what people think of you. You threw together a bearded flat chested lady and even boasted about it in the avatar forums. There's two options here, one, you dress your HA realistically in which case you yourself are a bearded flat chested lady, or, you're just having fun. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're just having fun.

I judged you by your HA. You can easily tell what people are more dedicated to their HAs than others and a lot of other things factor into judging people when seeing their HA too. Usually when you see their HA you see their username, their post count and their achievements too. You can also see their forumtext when you're on the forums.

It's possible that the person who spoke down to you... however they may have done so, didn't understand that you were kidding. Just saying though, it's VERY easy to judge someone by their HA. Even though the saying goes don't judge a book by it's cover doesn't mean people aren't going to. :P

I get your point, but will people think of me as a nice sweetheart? chuckles

Like others have said, it's like playing dress-up. Different outfits, same personality. I'll admit, I have a really /bad/ habit of judging by HAs. I often do that, but then I usually backtrack and stop myself. I have to constantly remind myself not to do that. Granted, I'll read the post next to it.

^ This. I think you saw me about to speak and took the words right out of my mouth. :P

For real? That's incredibly strange imo, but on the bright side, one can laugh at those people knowing that they place so much importance on a couple of pixels XD

I dunno, people will judge on everything. Those that actually treat others badly because of avatars though, don't really deserve to be talked to anyway. Don't let them get to you Selphie =)

If someone constantly makes cluttered avatars, does that not indicate that they are cluttered? If someone sticks to simple avatars, does that not indicate that they're more fond of simplicity? I don't get how it can be completely ruled out. You can judge a person by the way they do so many things. Why can't HAs be used as a starting point to judge what kind of person one is? That's just the way I feel. C:

I guess you have a point there. But at least you're being kind about it and giving me compliments. Other people don't do this. They use avatars to talk down to people and insult them.

By the way, I think some of you have misunderstood me. No one has spoken down to me. To be honest I couldn't give a shit if someone had a problem with one of my avatars. I've just seen it happen to other people on the forums and I know that some people are going to get hurt and upset by this. I really do think it's wrong. People will use anything these days if it means getting one over on someone, including an avatar.

I think you can definitely judge someone by their HA. I mean my HA is not a reflection of what I look like, but every single one of my HAs tells something about me, what I like, my style etc.

You will never see me with a grotesque HA, or a sexy porn HA. It's just not in me to put that out there. I put out cute well matched HAs, even when I am making a zombie theme, or something a little more risque will even be cute.

But like others have said. When you post in the forums the HA is not the only thing being evaluated. There is forum text, post count, grammar, spelling, chatspeak count etc.,

I personally take all that into consideration before I dub someone not worth my time.

Taste applies to the internet too. :(

Not that I would be rude to someone who has an unattractive avatar. There are other aspects of one's personality aside from how they dress, both offline and on. It does say something about you though, however little.

After reading this thread I just have to think what my avatar has to say about me :P Pink...thing. White...hairclip? XD

i judge by ha's. i'm not really ashamed by it, though, my judgment is never really mean. thouhg i don;t assume that is what they are irl, i usually infer certian things about them by their ha.

for example, when i see someone with a really good ha, like a chic-style matching one, i assume they care a lot about fashion on subeta, therefore this must translate irl. if i'm in a thread where we are talking fashion, i can expect that person to be very trendy (that can be good or bad) both onsite and off.

i also sort of tend to like with people with more original ha's. i'm more likely to send a comment (like a hey what's up) to someone with a cool ha with items i like in it than not.

this is essentially the same as finding similarities in music taste, etc. it's in to way mean, but subtea ha's do show some personality and i think they help see the interests of people.

I do somewhat know what you mean in the rest of your post. But that's like saying. "If you think you're unattractive, be a recluse. No reason to go out and make anything beter. just deal with it and stay to yourself"

I sometimes make pink and bright colored HA's when I don't have anything like that in my closet and hate the color pink. I just found a way to match some pixels that might look good.

I'm sure people judge me based on the fact that I always try to look my best. In fact I know they do. I judge people too, I'm human, its gonna happen. I'm sure everyone does it and you can't stop it, its just a vicious cycle.

"What does an avatar have to do with a person's overall behaviour and personality? Most newbies have not-so-great avatars. To some people they don't really bother with avatars. It doesn't make them any less of a person."

You seemed to have not even bothered to respond to what I replied, so I might as well repeat myself on this same topic. When I didn't recognize her, her post count was low, her username, and all of the other factors I mentioned before were there, her avatar did not help. It was just another factor in deciding that she is most likely a troll.

Basically everything Jill said, you're wonderful and I don't have to say it myself.

OMG OMG OMG Does that mean my personality is a super cool sky pirate? Because I would be TOTALLY okay with that. c:

///

This reminds me of a customer I got today, who claimed he could figure out people on the spot. And when I told my checker there were some soda boxes in his cart, he goes on about how I'm just trying to keep him from stealing and that I don't realize he's a very honest man. And he goes on to tell my checker several stories about how honest he is.

...

It took all of me to say, "HAVE A GOOD DAY 8DDDDD" instead of punching him. c:

Assumptions based on anything = fail.

Ikr? 99% of the time, you DEFINITELY can't judge someone by their HA. -.- My HA looks like Michael Jackson. If you say Michael Jackson and I are alike in anyway, I'll kill you. I also think it's silly when people think if your HA is a boy, you're a boy, and vice versa. My friend Otar is VERY much a girl and she always makes boys, and some of my guy friends enjoy making girl HAs. I'd also like to say, that I make very different HAs. I'll make something bouncy and fun one day, then the next I'm bloody and grotesque, and maybe the next day I got lazy and just threw on a whole lot of items from the same MCT. Idk, the bottom line is judging someone's PERSONALITY by their HA is dumb.

Oh, and one more thing: OMG OMG OMG! Does this mean my personality is Michael Jackson? :( I dun wanna be MJ, cuz then I'd be dead. Waah.

I totally agree with you. Sadly, people do this in real life as well.

Mocking people... hilarious. This would be me judging you for taking the topic way out of context. I don't think when someone judges another person based on their HA they do it so literally... like... someone dressed up as michael jackson is OBV. MJ. : I would personally just take it as you're dressed up like him to show you care. :x