An image would indeed be easier, which is why I really like it that images can be added to bio pages. I for one always imagine humanodon's drawing when I read his posts, it gives a face to a name.

But at the same time there's the problem I've encountered on many forums: I stop reading the usernames, and remember the image alone. People have disappeared for me because they changed their avatar. And in general they're ugly as hell.

Let's get our goals clear. What I think the site will benefit from is a better way to foster relationships and connections, both existing and new. One way this would be achieved is to make them more recongnizable, e.g. avatars / images / anything visual. Have you seen this amazing idea before? MIT created a way for everyone to have their own version of their logo, using algorithms to generate 40,000 deviations.

I'm not saying we should do the exact same but it is an interesting way to make people recognizable in a large operation. Another example: in WhatsApp groupchats, every person you chat with has a colored name. As I chat more with people, I started to quickly distinguish people because of that visual detail. After a while I stopped looking at the names above the messages and knew by the colors who wrote it. The first weeks here my mind tried to do the same, since I didn't have a lot of lightblue names. But I quickly made mistakes, e.g. confusing you with theadvancedapes because of the long, lightblue name that both start with the.

Another way to foster connections is through the information you can know from someone else: right now I can only see how many posts I shared of you (19). It is where my idea for previous conversations comes in. There is a plethora of data that you can show to others. Which one is valuable is something to think of. Preferably, viewing someones profile, you would be able to assess who they are in relation to yourself. Maybe a number that says how many posts you shared that they shared as well.

I'd love to hear more thought & discussion on this.

I like veen's thoughts. To add some more: how about being able to set a profile image, and if you hover over someone's name for > 1 second, a little 180x180 profile image pops up. (greater than a second so it doesn't pop up while you're mousing through a page.) Furthermore, how about a popup box when you click someone's username that has all of the info that normally appears in the left column of the profile page, so you can view someone's info without leaving the current page. You could then click their username from the popup or something to view their full profile with posts, shares, comments, etc. This would be similar to how the Twitter webpage (not mobile app) works when you click on someone's name.