January 5, 2021
Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. A little earlier, we already learned what a nickname or nickname is, and also discussed how a nickname differs from an account. It is clear that these questions arise only for Internet newcomers, but it is not so easy to find a detailed answer to them.
Moreover, all these terms and concepts (ava, avatar, nickname, nickname, password) meet a newbie almost immediately in all places (forums, blogs, social networks) where user identification and authorization are used.
It’s not immediately clear, for example, what do the admins of the social network want from us when they offer to upload our avatar (userpic)? But then your nickname and avatar will essentially become your business card online and it makes sense to immediately approach their creation wisely and with all your inherent foresight. Well, I will try to help you with this to the best of my humble ability.
Photos of items
If the avatar depicts a thing, it is important what it is. People often post images of prestige attributes. This could be an expensive car, a stylish phone, jewelry, etc. From such an avatar we can conclude that the person is pragmatic, interested in prestige and material success. But if a social network user constantly displays such avatars, this already indicates an unhealthy bias towards materialism. The world of things turns out to be so important that it displaces the person’s personality.
And if, for example, the avatar depicts the attributes of work (diaries, desks, a computer with a cup of coffee standing next to it), then the person clearly values work highly, is probably hardworking, but feels like nothing more than a “working cog.” His individuality is suppressed by his work.
It is also important to keep in mind that the user may use their account for business purposes. In this case, avatar-things are not evaluated based on character. For example, if a person provides the services of a realtor on a social network, it is understandable why a house is depicted on his page.
What is an avatar on the Internet?
With the spread of the Internet and the development of network communication using the word “avatar”
gradually they began to call it a userpic - a small picture that is placed next to the nickname (network “name”) and serves to better identify the user.
A well-chosen avatar reflects certain qualities of the user - appearance or character traits, religious, political or ideological views, as well as other features - or is simply a funny picture.
Avatars can be different: still and animated, photographs and drawn pictures, or even just inscriptions. During the communication process, each user has the right to change his avatar as many times as he wants, or register with the same image everywhere.
It is not at all necessary to use an image along with a nickname, and some Internet users get along just fine without it. But for most, a funny picture has become an excellent opportunity for self-expression, reflecting the inner world of a forum member or social network member.
Animal photo
Animals are another popular type of avatar. Here the situation is similar with objects. A person puts on the page the animal with which he identifies himself. He endows himself or wants to emphasize in himself those character qualities with which this animal is traditionally associated. For example, a cat means independence, a dog means friendliness, a snake means a cool mind, a jaguar means aggressiveness, a fox means cunning, a lion means dominance, a wolf means loneliness, etc. A person may already have the traits of the animal chosen for the avatar in reality, but it is possible that he is still only striving for them.
Images of small animals reveal the infantilism of the individual. People who choose photos of cute and defenseless puppies, kittens, rabbits and other babies feel insignificant and weak, are unsure of themselves, and need care and protection. Such people seek the protection of strong and authoritarian persons.
Movie character
The hero of the movie on the avatar shows that the user projects his qualities onto himself. As in the case of animals, it is not a fact that a person already has similar traits to the character on display, but perhaps only wants to be like him.
Here, an alarming signal would be associating oneself with negative heroes (for example, the Joker, Freddy Krueger, Frankenstein). Villains in their avatars speak about the suppressed negative aspects of personality, incomprehensibility, conflict, asociality, and dissatisfaction with one’s life. Communicating with such a person will most likely be difficult.
It is also worth noting that by identifying oneself with a certain character, a person can, to one degree or another, repeat the events of his fate (for example, a feat, saving someone, loss, spiritual rebirth, etc.).
What does the word avatar mean?
The meaning of this word is approximately known to everyone, but few know where it came from. The fact is that the word "avatar"
borrowed from the ancient Indian language Sanskrit and means the descent of a deity from the highest spiritual spheres of existence to a lower, earthly level.
Let's say the powerful god Vishnu had as many as ten avatars - Krishna, Rama, Buddha and others. We can say that an avatar is the earthly incarnation of a deity.
Everyone remembers the wonderful American film “Avatar”, where a disabled paratrooper was given the opportunity to incarnate in the body of a blue-skinned inhabitant of a wonderful garden planet. In this incarnation, he found his freedom and met happiness - the avatar turned out to be more preferable for the main character than the original appearance.
Another, more mundane meaning of the word “avatar” is a symbolic designation of personality, which a person uses in a number of cases when he does not want to speak under his official name or demonstrate his appearance.
Moreover, just as a deity on earth can have several avatars, a person can use different pictures or symbols to communicate with different interlocutors, which help him more clearly express certain character qualities.
Cartoon hero
All of the above about movie characters on avatars is also true in relation to cartoon characters. The image of a cartoon on a social network profile indicates the real or desired similarity of the characters and life events of the person and the displayed character.
It is important to add that cartoon avatars are mainly chosen by teenagers. If behind the guise of a cartoon character there is an adult, this may speak of him as an infantile, immature and frivolous person. Although, if the picture shows a character from a very old cartoon, this may also indicate a bright nostalgia for one’s childhood.
Cover
Dimensions: 1590×400 px, visible area for mobile version 1196×400 px.
This is an elongated horizontal image in the community header; it is not clickable.
Cover of our group vk.com/prcyru
The cover is not required for the community; if you do not install it, the group avatar will open in full format on the right.
Group without cover
General recommendations for the cover
To prevent the quality of the cover from deteriorating, the VKontakte administration advises uploading an image with a size of 1590×400 px. But in the mobile version, the entire cover does not fit on the screen, the edges on the right and left are cropped at 197px, so all data, texts and images that cannot be cut are better placed in the visible area, this is 1196x400 px. And on top, about 83 px, is a strip with indicators of communication, charge level and others.
Cover diagram with markings
To avoid marking the areas yourself, we have made a template in psd format with guides demarcating the areas. It can be downloaded.
The inscriptions fit in the visible area, the settings icon overlaps the text only for community administrators
Part of the title on the cover was cut off
Many people advise putting arrows on the cover that encourage you to click on subscribe or write a message.
The arrow points to the submit button
The arrow points to a button with a message
We advise you to first look at what devices the audience primarily uses to watch the group. This information is available in community statistics:
Screenshot of PR-CY group statistics
If the audience more often watches the group from mobile phones, then such an icon makes no sense, because in the mobile application it is shifted and points to the avatar thumbnail, and not to the subscribe or message button.
The arrow points to the avatar
Arrow points to empty field
Dynamic cover
Dimensions: same as regular cover.
VKontakte has introduced a dynamic covers feature, which means that the cover will have changing data and be updated after a certain period of time. This cover is convenient because you can display almost anything on it: city portals may need time, exchange rates, traffic jams or weather, groups that hold promotions or organize events will benefit from a countdown timer, and displaying avatars of the most active Users can be encouraged to leave comments or like posts.
An example of displaying avatars of active participants on the cover
New subscriber's avatar on the cover
For a dynamic cover, you need a regular picture on which inserts with avatars, weather, etc. will be attached, a script linked to a group, and hosting with CronTAB support where the script will be installed. If you set the cover to update too frequently, every second, for example, you may need an anti-captcha.
Pyotr Samokhin talked about how to write a script yourself on HabraHabr. If you don’t want to figure this out yourself, there are paid design services to which you can connect a group and customize the cover with the necessary applications for a small subscription fee.
The functionality may be different, for example, the design of the community may completely change after clicking on the subscription. Additional functions are developed separately, you can write something yourself, you can find groups in the search on VKontakte itself, where they develop and sell such applications.
Animated cover for mobile
Dimensions: vertical photos and videos 1080×1920 px or others in a 9:16 ratio.
In January 2021, all groups were given the opportunity to design a separate cover for mobile viewing. It can include up to five large photos or videos without sound, which will work like a slide show. It looks like this:
Group cover in mobile view
Click on group cover in mobile view
This feature can be enabled in Community Settings:
Group settings
Next, a window will appear with adding photos to the slideshow for the animated mobile cover:
Adding photos
What size of materials to choose:
For photos, we recommend a resolution of 1080×1920 or another in a 9:16 vertical aspect ratio. Video size is the same, duration up to 30 s, size up to 30 MB, MP4, H.264 video codec, AAC audio codec.
Scenery
By choosing a landscape as an avatar, a person communicates the importance for him of the right atmosphere that reigns around him, and can also convey information about his internal state. How harmonious this state is depends on the specifics of the landscape. The picture may show a peaceful village view, a paradise bay on a tropical island, or a gloomy typhoon over the city. It’s easy to draw conclusions about the mental state of the owner of the social network page.
Also, the common idyllic summer views on the profile picture can indicate a person’s desire to step away from the everyday hustle and bustle and finally relax.
Movie "Avatar"
Popular science fiction action film, co-production of the USA and Great Britain. Created by director James Cameron from his own script. Starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. Every dollar invested in the production of the film brought the authors three dollars. Filmed in New Zealand. Work began in 2006, ended in 2009. The world premiere took place on December 10. “Avatar” arrived in Russia a week later. The first film to gross more than $2 billion at the box office.
Selfie
The “selfie” genre, depending on how a person looks in such a photo, can indicate the following:
- The person is narcissistic, self-obsessed, selfish. An additional indication of such a character will be an indecently large number of selfie avatars.
- A person explores himself, he is interested in his untapped potential, he seems to wonder what he is really like, what emotions he experiences, what he is capable of.
- A selfie can also be an indicator of suspiciousness, hypercontrol and distrust of others. “I’ll take my own photo, I won’t trust anyone.”
- If the selfie is a reflection in the mirror, the person is clearly concerned about how he looks in the eyes of others and strives to show his best side.
According to Tranquill
You will be interested: “Publicity” - what is it? Difference from the term "public relations"
What does "Hail, Caesar" mean? This winged Latin expression is found in the ancient Roman historian of the 1st-2nd centuries. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, who described the life of rulers. According to his testimony, this is how gladiators going to fight in the arena greeted Emperor Claudius, who ruled in the 1st century. Moreover, the translation of its full version looks like: “Be glorious, Caesar, we who are going to death salute you.”
At the same time, some sources report that the ancient Romans addressed each other with the word “ave” in everyday life, thereby wishing each other happiness and health. They did this when they met and when they separated. They had an expression: “Live happily with a calm spirit.”
Without avatar
The absence of a profile photo, on the one hand, may be due to objective reasons. Perhaps this is a famous person, an employee of the “authorities”, a credit debtor or another person who needs incognito status. On the other hand, an avatar may be absent in closed, unsociable people with many fears and a strong sense of insecurity. Such people can perceive the world and other people with hostility and try to “keep a low profile.”
It is also worth taking into account that the avatar is missing for those users who simply do not intend to communicate on the social network, who looked here for some reason for the first and last time.
As you can see, it is quite possible to create a psychological portrait of a person based on their avatar on a social network. When analyzing your avatar, pay attention to the first associations that arose when you saw it, and remember that the person relates himself to the person depicted in the photo. But do not forget that the character of any person is infinitely complex and diverse, so do not limit yourself to just one analysis method.
Do I need to install an avatar and how to do it?
A userpic is not such a mandatory attribute of an account as a nickname (i.e. you don’t have to upload an ava), but without it your profile will look somewhat unfinished and boring. Avatars themselves create convenience, because without reading nicknames they allow you to visually quickly understand who wrote a post on the forum, added a comment on a blog, or contacted you in an online game.
You can set up an avatar in your personal account of the site (forum or blog) where you previously registered. You can usually upload pictures of future userpics to a forum, social network or blog in several ways.
- From your computer by clicking on the “Select file” button (although it may be called differently on different sites).
- You can specify the URL (what is it?) of a suitable picture that you found on the Internet. To find out, you will need to right-click on a picture you like on the Internet and select the “Copy picture URL” menu item.
- The site itself may offer you to choose an ava from the images already available in their database (although this is rarely implemented anywhere).
Where can I get a picture for a future avatar?
If you don’t yet have suitable pictures for avatars on your computer and you couldn’t immediately find anything useful on the Internet, then try going to a specialized resource where you can choose an avatar that suits you from a variety of options (but first, be sure to read the second part of this article).
How to find such a site? Just type the word “avatar” into the search bar and go to the resources that the search engine gives you. You'll probably find something suitable there. If you're too lazy to look, you can immediately go to these collections of av:
- https://99px.ru/
- https://avatarko.ru/
- https://avatarmaker.ru/
- https://allavatars.ru/avatarki.html
In the end, you can create an avatar that suits you in a specialized editor. You can also bring the image at your disposal (30 free stock photos to help you) to the desired format (100 by 100 pixels and another that is required).
For this, for example, the simplest free viewer FastStone Image is suitable, or an excellent free analogue of Photoshop, or Photoshop itself, but downloaded for free (mind you, legally).
But once again I want to draw your attention to the fact that a userpic is your face on the Internet. Approach your choice consciously and be sure to read the block below about “fortune telling by avatar.”
