Hiding Icons

[Andrew12]

speaking of icons:




<--- My official 2 cents!

 

[toastface_grillah]

SINCE THIS WAS INSPIRED BY ME,I think I should dignify this with a response.

I'm having real issues with being American right now, as well as a denomination/faith at all right now. Serious, serious issues. This all plays into my political party, of course.

Ironically my age is still there, I felt it was relevant. I may put my gender on there soon enough, but I want some guy to hit on me for the lulz first.

Sorry man, I've read wayyyy too many of your posts to mistake you for a girl.

I thought about hiding my age when I hit the big three-oh, but I realized that a) it didn't really matter, and b) I didn't really care.
I didn't bother putting up a political party icon because none of the parties really capture my political views (In short, the best kind of hope and change involves armed revolution).
The rest? I put up a few when I first became Toastface, and never really thought about icons after that.

 

[Quintus Poppaedius]

I hide the Republican icon because, well, everyone hates us.

LOL - that's about how I felt back when I lived in Cleveland. My only sometimes complaint about the icons is that I wish I could display my state flag instead of the national flag, but that's just a really minor issue.

 

[ahzmort]

i put it all up there that i have an answer for. if someones going to make assumptions about me based off those icons, great. chances are that person is going to find another way to make assumptions about you & probably isn't going to be worth your time anyways. just weeds those people out so i don't have to bother with them.

 

[crishmael]

No, he knows the consequence to his action if he continues to try to contact me.

Thank you though Chris!

No problem.

 

[white dove]

Why do you hide age, gender, faith, country, political party, or marital status icons?

I hide the age one because I don't think my age is important to discussions I have here.

Bingo. None of that is important in any way to the discussion (unless I'm married which.. a few people really know that I'm not). To lie about that is just deceitful. Anyway... How I am defined is not (not "knot" as I'd just typed) in who I claim to be, but rather who I am, what I say, how I conduct myself. By my fruit you will know me.. and if you don't, then I either have a lot of explainin' to do or you need your ears de-waxed.

 

[GQ Chris]

I hide the Republican icon because, well, everyone hates us.

Dude don't be scurred.

 

[GQ Chris]

I kept most things out. I think its cool to see where people's beliefs are. The Republican party doesn't define my whole being, I do however have very Conservative core beliefs though. Also, I have grown to really love the Reformed Protestant Churches, and Theologians. Haters gonna hate no matter what. C'est la vie.

 

[GQ Chris]

I edited everything the other day because I'm not sure how often I'm going to be on anyway. And then I started getting PM's by someone I didn't want to have contact with so I shut off my PM's and Visitor board to anyone who is not a friend. I also turned off reps. That's why I did.

A CF Stalker? That sucks.

 

[K9_Trainer]

My age and faith are not relevant to any discussion I may participate in. Hiding them at least makes ad hominem attacks a bit harder for people to come up with. They gotta be more creative

 

[MacFall]

I've wondered that too. It seems to me that a public forum is a weird place for someone who doesn't want to share general information like that to hang out in.

 

[Im_A]

I've wondered that too. It seems to me that a public forum is a weird place for someone who doesn't want to share general information like that to hang out in.

It makes perfect sense.

This public forum is not the same as a public place in real life. Plus, even in a public place, most people don't go on giving everything about themselves.

No reason to treat CF any differently.

 

[Apollo Celestio]

This person really isn't getting the point when I told them to leave me alone on here. I hope this will stop it.

I'll probably stay.

Do I need to dropkick a creeper?

Anyway, I don't know if I hide anything.. none of it is of major consequence since I have plenty of people who know me here.

 

[Niels]

I think religion, country, gender, and political affiliation can be pertinent on a site like CF. We often discuss religious issues, gender roles, politics etc. It's neat to see a little about where folks are coming from. It wouldn't occur to me to label somebody a "flag waver" or whatever just because they list what country they're from.

 

[Wren]

I think religion, country, gender, and political affiliation can be pertinent on a site like CF. We often discuss religious issues, gender roles, politics etc. It's neat to see a little bit about where folks are coming from. It wouldn't occur to me to label somebody a "flag waver" or whatever just because they list what country they're from.

Just to clarify, I do not see anyone who has their country's flag showing as a "flag waver." I was just saying that I wanted to hide my flag and it made sense to me since I'm not ultra-patriotic and don't feel anything towards the US flag (and don't want to pledge allegiance to it or anything like that) anyway. I realize that other people have their flag icon up for simply showing their country, but I feel that stating I'm located in Wisconsin is good enough. And I don't judge people for the icons they do or do not have showing. Curiosity is all that caused this thread.

ETA: And since I'm talking about the flags, another reason I have mine hidden is that I just see the flag (for myself personally, I don't assume things about other people) as political right now and I'm so very frustrated with US politics.

 

[Stravinsk]

Hmm...I'm not aware that I am hiding anything. I just checked my User CP and none of the boxes for privacy are checked yet my country of residence doesn't show up. I guess that doesn't matter - since I consider myself an American living abroad.

I'm curious why people hide pictures though. I mean - are you afraid of people connecting your thoughts with your face? How do you deal in offline life since you cannot hide without masks or paper bags?

 

[mjmcmillan]

I'm not sure "hiding" is the right word for it. I don't have an icon up for marital status because they don't have one that fits. I'm divorced, for what it's worth.

No political party really fits either. I used to identify as Republican, but these days the Illinois Republican party can hardly be differentiated from the Democrat party. Both seem to be pretty good at running us into the poorhouse, and really little else. Right now rising taxes are driving businesses out-of-state and that means jobs are going with them.

Other than that, I'm showing the icons that fit.

Add-on: Flag waving brings up something of interest. Here, we don't have that feature. On another board, I know a couple of people who have flags waving as their avatar. One Scotsman won't waste a chance to tell you he's staunchly UK to the very core of his being, and the Union Jack fluttering in the breeze is his avatar.
Another guy has an American flag in the wind as his avatar.

 

[Wren]

Hmm...I'm not aware that I am hiding anything. I just checked my User CP and none of the boxes for privacy are checked yet my country of residence doesn't show up. I guess that doesn't matter - since I consider myself an American living abroad.

I'm curious why people hide pictures though. I mean - are you afraid of people connecting your thoughts with your face? How do you deal in offline life since you cannot hide without masks or paper bags?

Part of it is self-consciousness. Sure I can't hide my face offline, but here I can, so yay! And it doesn't help that you have some CFers who are lacking in tact and have made (harsh) comments of certain types of looks (and I'm not even talking about weight, though that applies too), which makes one not so eager to share their picture to those types of people. At least offline, if people were going to make rude comments, they could see if those types of remarks would apply to those in hearing range and wouldn't make them or they would get my negative body language, which should stop them (I'm expressive ).

The other thing is paranoia and privacy. I don't want lurkers (logged in or not) to be looking at me and possibly saving my picture to their computer. There are some real disgusting people in the interwebs and it's not like they all stay away from CF.

And I just hate getting my picture taken, especially since I'm better looking off camera. If I do get one that I like enough to share, I'll post it on facebook where there are privacy controls. I have shared my picture here before, but I don't see it happening again.

Offline I don't like people looking at me all that much either. In crowds or largish groups, I have skills (and a short body) that allow me to blend in, if that's what I want. Obviously there are plenty of situations where people will be looking at me offline, but not always so closely and if I can control who views me, why shouldn't I?

 

[Niels]

I generally avoid posting photos of myself online for the same reason why I avoid posting my real name and specific age. Privacy. Although it's true that nothing is totally private on the web, it's nice to have a degree of control over how and where I divulge things that might be used to identify me in real life.

ETA: And since I'm talking about the flags, another reason I have mine hidden is that I just see the flag (for myself personally, I don't assume things about other people) as political right now and I'm so very frustrated with US politics.

That's essentially why I set "Indy" as my political icon, although I suppose leaving it blank might send a similar message. Beyond the state level, I'm very dissatisfied with our country's leadership. It can be especially frustrating when the future candidates, as chosen for us by the elites, don't seem any better.

 

[GQ Chris]

Beyond the state level, I'm very dissatisfied with our country's leadership. It can be especially frustrating when the future candidates, as chosen for us by the elites, don't seem any better.

I decided to keep the Elephant, both on CF but especially in real life because it ruffles the feathers of the most annoyingly proselytizing and pushy liberal people. Having grown up in the San Francisco bay area since I was a small kid, I grew to think opposite of what they think in every respect, religiously, politically, relationally... they pushed me to the opposite of the ideology that they tried to indoctrinate me with.