I’ve now reconsidered <a href="http://johnb.github.io/2009/05/28/the-avatar-must-die"event_item">my earlier plan</a> to get rid of my avatar. Why? I’m so glad you asked. Three reasons:
I’m now identified with the avatar. I recently contacted a guy that I hadn’t corresponded with in a while and he said “Oh yeah – I remember you. The guy with the big rock man thing”. So if I get rid of the avatar, I might lose some of the people that would otherwise “recognize” me online.
The Games will blow over but the avatar is still, in my opinion, pretty darn cool. Ya don’t see huge multi-ton monoliths every day.
Time and inertia. I have very little “spare” time in my life and my plan for changing the avatar would likely have taken some time to get right (a series of ~10 images shifting from the rock man to my own smiling face). This is time that would take away from whatever projects I’d otherwise be working on.
So, I hope you like it – you’ll keep seeing it on twitter and other places.