Avatars, you hate em, right? Well, you are stuck with using an Avatar whether you like it or not! Why, you may ask? If you don’t upload your own unique Avatar, then you are defaulted to that ugly colored circle that contains the first letter/digit of your member name.
How to choose an Avatar:
First of all don’t fret too much over this. You can use your own picture (as some do) if you don’t have privacy concerns. Or just choose anything that is graphically appealing. Silhouettes or images without backgrounds look especially nice. Round images work well because your image will get cropped into a circle. If you end up not liking your Avatar, then it’s very simple to upload another and Voila, all of your old posts are switched over to your new Avatar. It’s like changing your Hat. Other ppl will quickly get used to your new Hat.
Go to OpenClipArt and do some searches of their vast library of free stuff. Or, do a Google search on “Free Avatar” for some ideas. I’m not going to discuss property rights but be careful if you are a business.
Here’s how to upload an Avatar:
It’s easy. Login first. Click your current Avatar in the upper right corner of your display and then click the preferences/ so you can scroll down to edit your Profile Picture by clicking that edit-pencil next to your Profile Picture. Don’t forget to Save Changes after you upload your Avatar.
Here’s an example of how to make a custom avatar:
Started by downloading this image from pexels.com to my computer. Note that the CC0 License = ✓ Free for personal and commercial use and ✓ No attribution required. Tip: Click through small icon images to get to the largest image size.
Used Lunapic online editor to
- Browse my computer and open the image
- Edit/Simple Crop Tool/Select Circle (drag and/or use handles)/Click Crop Image button
- Save the result back to my computer (right mouse click/Save Image As)
Voila! It’s easy, eh? Oh, don’t worry about the checker-board background after you crop. That just means no background. Don’t worry about the large size. It will be shrunk when you load your avatar. You could do more customization; maybe using the Text tool to add your initials or similar?