Now this is a personal preference only, but one thing I like about on-line is the anonymity, with these avatars I think it is better not to use a photo of oneself. It diminishes the mystique of a personality. Male, female, young, old, pretty, pretty ugly, the only time I have every felt I gained from seeing a photo of someone's real world self has been when the person is indisputably and tremendously hot... even then sometimes I think I lost by it. Then there is the issue of the pretty render girl avatar. I like not knowing whether someone is male or female, but I find it disorienting when guys use sexy hot babes or women use sexy hot fellas for their avatar... personal hang up I guess. What about those third and forth and n'th sexers right? I guess I like though if a male puts up a sexy male like Casette has or a female has put up a sexy female like avatar for karen1573. I guess I am lookist as only the pug-ugly can be :) I guess I like the avitars that revel the character but not the identity? I kinda favor non-anthropomorphic avatars but ernyoka1 has a nice one, I am seeing some other I guess. I dunno... are avatars a good thing?