I couldn't think of anything clever, so I chose my high school graduation picture.......
dorm, in terms of voices, I don't hear actual voices in my head but there are most definitely voices in the literary sense. There are some duplicate avatars, and Craven has some in his rotation that I still identify with the person who first used them even though they've moved on (like littlek). So sometimes I'll be reading something and think, because of the avatar, it's someone else, and pretty much invariably I'll stop at some point and say, "Hey, that doesn't sound like..." So that's one kind of voice.
I agree with Sozobe, I do identify an avatar with the typing voice of the person who I saw use it first. It is kind of fun, picking up that it wasn't Roberta, wasn't JLNobody, but was Shoesharper who said "such and such". I am always shocked, very slightly, and pleasantly, by seeing someone use my original cherubic avatar. I think Fiona is using it now..
On real voices and meeting people. I have talked with Kara, and she has the world's best voice, really beautiful. I've met several a2kers, when I was going on trips to the areas they live in and we met up. There is a moment of strangeness and then a short period of acculturation, oh, say ten minutes, and then bang, since you know the person from interactions on the forum, and have absorbed the newness of seeing them, quite suddenly you have known (them) forever.
On phonies, I agree with Phoenix, they tend to be discernible among the majority of nonphonies, and in any case do generally drop off the forum planet fairly fast. Even Gus, whom we know as a constructed caveman pope through his many posts, has a swell real human under his gruff persona.
Voices are always different from what I think they'll be, as are appearances, often.
I've talked to and met a number of A2Kers and I'm inevitably wrong, wrong, wrong when it comes to things like - here are some of my goofs which have fortunately been cleared up, either on the phone, in person, or through photos:
* sozobe's a blonde. Nope.
* Craven sounds like a slacker or a surfer dude. Nope.
* cavfancier is really chef Tyler Florence. Nope.
Etc. :-D
But I'm a lighhouse. Really.
Blonde?? Really?
(Maybe it's an identification thing. I thought you were a brunette. While you're the blonde, and I'm the brunette.)
dròm_et_rêve wrote:Montana wrote:I grew up in the Boston area, so all my non computer friends are there. There are a few that I still talk with on the computer though. I don't have any friends where I live now, so all my friends are here on the computer.
Wow... when did you move to Canada, Montana? Do you prefer it to Boston?
What wonderful things computers are (when they don't need rebooting 
); it astonishes me sometimes to think of the people whom I wouldn't have known, were it not for the Internet...
I prefer it much more here than I did in Boston, but that's because I've always been a country girl at heart. Some people love the city, but I love the country, the ocean and wide open spaces :-D
Computers sure are a wonderful thing. Without my computer I know I would be quite lonely. This box is my social world and that works just for for me. I have met such wonderful people on the net, especially here at A2K.
I think that's exactly what it is, you kind of assume people you like are going to be a lot more like you physically. Hmm, if I had time, energy and inclination, I'd be interested in a study of this.
It was weird for me when I first heard someone's voice - I had shared so much with that person, and talked so feely, that for them to become not a sort of mental presence, but an obviously physical one, with a real gender (I mean, we generally KNOW people's genders online - but with the guys, especially, for me, I do not have the sort awareness of gender I have with most men in real life - until I get to know men in the real world really well, then, unless I am attracted to them, it disappears again) seemed quite overwhelming. Took me a while to get used to voice chat.
It was funny when I spoke to a number of Abuzzers together - can't remember how many of them are on A2k - on the phone. They were all American, except for one Canajun (!), and we couldn't get over how we had real accents to each other - of course, the voices one hears in one's head as one reads posts have no accent - (ie they speak in YOUR accent!)
sozobe wrote:Blonde?? Really?
(Maybe it's an identification thing. I thought you were a brunette. While you're the blonde, and I'm the brunette.)
It's true: I have had huge blonde curls until I was five. Later, I still had two blonde strands of hair - one left until now
Roberta's avatar made complete sense to me, since she has an enormous cat. But she is a little mysterious, (yes, Boidy from da Bronx can be mysterious) and her green eyes make it perfect for her.
Phoenix, I'm glad you cleared up why you don't have a phoenix avatar. You are another one who surprised me when we met in person. You are petite and FUNNY and adorable. I had always thought of you as being a little reserved and proper. HAH. Hee, hee, hee.
Will any of you be able to come to the San Francisco gathering on Apr. 1? A great group of people will be there. Look for the thread under North America forums.
Walter? Please?
I chose my avatar for the same reason as frank. I chose OCCOM BILL because "Occom's razor" is my preferred way of solving problems and, of course, my name is Bill.
geepers, what kind of problems can preferably solved with a razor?
LOL!... Just in case you weren't kidding... Occom's Razor is a philosophy: "all things being equal, the simplest solution must be the correct one".
Gotcha! What goes up must come down.
Ta.
Ceili
The lil red devil is the fiesty part of me.....the sassy, opionated, warped sense of humor that I tend to show at times....
Hmmm, if I hadn't already picked the nun (gone bad), a fiesty lil' devil would have been perfect.
