They perfectly illustrate the Corporate Mindset. I like to imagine they were designed by a conclave of neurotypical and painfully unfunny and uncreative MBAs who got together in a coworking space and brainstormed the most consensual and least offensive avatar tech they could fathom. Likely none of them ever had a passing thought about what makes for compelling character design. Certainly none of them can stomach the idea of emergent phenomenon in communication. And above all nothing must stick out; to them the idea that users would want to make a non-human, cyborg, furry, green-skinned, or whatever avatar is abhorrent. Jane’s quirky facial expression is the full extent of allowable creativity (and even then you know they had a 30 minute debate about including it).
These avatars do a better job of inspiring dread in me than half the shit in Severance.
Tangentially, it reminds me of when we went from Geocities/MySpace/custom reddit CSS/custom youtube pages to “you can change your PP and banner”. … okay? Was a unified design language really worth crushing all visual creativity?
… and now I think it’s a shame that Lemmy and Mastodon’s default clients don’t support (AFAIK) custom CSS for communities/user pages. I think that would be very iconic for the Free Web. Is someone working on this? I feel like someone should be working on this.
Lemmy does come with a standard web interface that you could apply custom css to. If that custom css then federates, other instances could show it on their end.
Might clutter the Lemmy API with stuff that less than half of users actually wants to use though. Maybe it’s better to make a separate system of fediverse user styles with a browser plugin. Then someone on Mastodon could also see it without having to extend the entire ActivityPub standard.
Never thought about them, I guess it is weird that someone would take time out of their day to use the built in tool to create an avatar for work like in teams or outlook
Honestly now: does anybody actually like that style of emojis/avatars? They create a strong negative reaction in me but I am not sure why.
They perfectly illustrate the Corporate Mindset. I like to imagine they were designed by a conclave of neurotypical and painfully unfunny and uncreative MBAs who got together in a coworking space and brainstormed the most consensual and least offensive avatar tech they could fathom. Likely none of them ever had a passing thought about what makes for compelling character design. Certainly none of them can stomach the idea of emergent phenomenon in communication. And above all nothing must stick out; to them the idea that users would want to make a non-human, cyborg, furry, green-skinned, or whatever avatar is abhorrent. Jane’s quirky facial expression is the full extent of allowable creativity (and even then you know they had a 30 minute debate about including it).
These avatars do a better job of inspiring dread in me than half the shit in Severance.
Tangentially, it reminds me of when we went from Geocities/MySpace/custom reddit CSS/custom youtube pages to “you can change your PP and banner”. … okay? Was a unified design language really worth crushing all visual creativity?
… and now I think it’s a shame that Lemmy and Mastodon’s default clients don’t support (AFAIK) custom CSS for communities/user pages. I think that would be very iconic for the Free Web. Is someone working on this? I feel like someone should be working on this.
It’s like the Corporate Memphis of emojis.
I’m really glad that I discovered the phrase Corporate Memphis, because it works really well as an out of context pejorative. E.g.
That could refer to something that isn’t at all like the corporate Memphis art style in a literal sense, but has all of the vibes.
Instance admins can add whatever css they want. I’ve seen since cool ones
Sure, but community moderators can’t. Spinning up my own instance shouldn’t be a requirement to use custom CSS.
Damn that was on point. Thank you for reminding me what I miss about the old web.
This seems significantly harder to achieve here. I believe Lemmy doesn’t have a unified frontend across instances, or does it?
Lemmy does come with a standard web interface that you could apply custom css to. If that custom css then federates, other instances could show it on their end.
Might clutter the Lemmy API with stuff that less than half of users actually wants to use though. Maybe it’s better to make a separate system of fediverse user styles with a browser plugin. Then someone on Mastodon could also see it without having to extend the entire ActivityPub standard.
They are a fake as the people who use them?
They look like they’re designed for young children
They’re made to be inoffensive and generic, in a way that shelters companies from being sued.
Yes they do. You’re sane. Most people aren’t.
Never thought about them, I guess it is weird that someone would take time out of their day to use the built in tool to create an avatar for work like in teams or outlook
I feel the same.