Stealing Avatars: Identity Theft 2.0
Most social bookmarking, social media and social networking sites allow you to include a thumbnail image (or avatar) to go with your profile. For example, when you submit a story on digg, your image appears with it.
The best example is MyBlogLog. It grew to huge success, in part because it showed people’s faces. For the first time you could see who was visiting your blog.
Most people take a thumbnail image of their face and use that as their avatar. You can see mine to the right.
But as Cheezhead points out, those images are essentially small banner advertisements for you. He provides an example on his site, where The Employment Guide uses a small logo instead of a face. 
It’s a great example of trying to differentiate oneself from the crowd.
In the past, MyBlogLog allowed animated avatars, but a few months ago those were removed. They became too distracting and annoying.
But lots of people are getting creative with their avatars. And we’re seeing more people talk about standing out with unique ones.
Tamar Weinberg recently wrote: 11 Tips to Enhance Your Digg User Experience (and Hopefully Bring You Front Page Fame).
Tip #1: Distinguish Yourself by Choosing an Avatar.
So how important are avatars on social media, networking and bookmarking sites?
Apparently important enough that people steal them.
One of digg’s power users is Muhammad Saleem. He’s all over the blogosphere, with his own blog, writing at Pronet Advertising, and guest writing at Copyblogger.
Take a look at Muhammad’s avatar:
Now take a look at DiggChainey’s avatar:
They’re nearly identical.
This makes me laugh and shake my head at the same time. According to Muhammad this has happened to him before, and he changed his avatar to the one he’s using now. I wonder if he’ll be forced to change again…
We all build up our personal brands through the use of social media, networking and bookmarking sites. Those brands are tied to our names, but also to our images. While it’s clear that people are thinking more seriously about their avatars and using them to promote more than just their own face (which can be a good thing), stealing an avatar is in horrible taste. It’s an attempt to leech from someone else’s personal brand. It diminishes the value and openness of the social media community. And it’s a colossal waste of time.
It’s what I affectionately call “scab” marketing. People cling onto someone popular and rip off their bio. It is a form of trickery, as people familiar with the avatar won’t look at the name.
It’s not something that should be done if you’re trying to build a reputable name for yourself!
Well, on sites like digg, it shouldn’t really matter about the picture, it should be the content. In making this argument, you have unearthed a deeper point: Why the hell are people judging books by their covers.
@ob81
I agree with you about the content.
The avatar is useful to quickly identify those whom you have identified to consistently bring good content.
This might be worse than blog scraping.
The fact of the matter is that many readers will not do a detailed content read. They might not have the desire and they probably don’t have the time to do so. They will develop preferences for content submitted by certain people, learn to recognize the avatar/photo, and then use that avatar as a visual cue to attract their attention to that poster. I guess I’m agreeing with Elmer on this.
It’s unscrupulous (and pathetic, IMHO) to steal someone’s image or else mostly copy it for your own, because you’re clearly trying to “steal” their business, so to speak. So I agree with Fortune Fox.
Content should always be king, but we need to recognize that we’re all fighting for the viewer’s attention and these visual cues help. That’s where branding comes in. Yeah, most of this stuff is a hobby to us, but we’re all looking for an audience, right?
The thing is, unless we go through some legal hoops, we don’t actually own our avatars. I can’t claim to own mine, I can only hope that the image that I use will help people recognize me amongst other talented and prolific people.
I agree with you! ob81 you right!
I’ll just stick to my face as my avatar. I doubt anyone wants to try to pass themselves off as me - LOL
Very interesting though - thanks for sharing!
There are at least 4 users on digg who have appropriated my avatar. It was only when one user called himself “mrbabvman” and started leaving nasty comments that I contacted digg administration to have that user banned.
While stealing avatars is clearly in poor taste, I feel that avatars - and the questionable choices people make for their pics - can often cheapen a site.
How to encourage your users to make avatar choices that are mature and representative of their personal brands, in such a way that they add, rather than detract from, your sites overall level of community and legitimacy?
@Mark: I agree with you regarding ownership, and this is where I’m not sure how much of your own brand is tied to your avatar. You can change them easily, you can’t necessarily copyright them (unless you’re using your logo), and they can be copied easily.
The value of a good avatar is standing out from the noise - giving people that quick visual cue. And once people identify you with your avatar, they’re going to see it before they see the name.
I’m sure that’s what this scammer is gunning for.
Thank you to everyone for their comments!
My logo and avatar are one and the same. Stealing it would not only damage my brand, but it would damage my reputation personally as well. I would take immediate action if this occurred.
I’ve also seen people use the exact same avatar. I’d think that it would only benefit the avatar thief in the short run. In the long run he (or she) would be found out and would be worse off than before they “lifted” the popular avatar.
@TheMadHat: In that case it’s definitely necessarily and critical to protect your brand by going after those that steal your avatar. Although the recourse is probably an email to the social media site where the stealing is taking place, in the hopes that they deal with it.
[...] brands through the use of social media, networking and bookmarking sites…. source: Stealing Avatars: Identify Theft 2.0, Instigator [...]
Stealing someone else’s avatar is a bad practice. Some people even do this and assume the identify of their stolen avatar.
I really hope an internet police force is feasible..
cheers!
@Blogging Mix: I don’t think an Internet Police is feasible or reasonable, it’s just too complex. Of course police forces are already online tracking criminals, but for stuff like avatar stealing or being rude in the blogosphere - you can’t have a police for those things. People need to handle it somehow.
When there’s something to steal, it’ll be stolen. That simple, unfortunately.
Haha, very true Carl. I didn’t even know this was an issue.
My old, broken tennis shoes got stolen the other day, so I guess if someone is willing to steal those, they would be willing to steal an avatar!
@Carl: ‘Nuff said I guess…you’ve hit the nail on the head, as sad as that may be.
this is really horrible.. its almost like someone stealing your identity! but I guess thats what the thieves do, they’ll steal whatever they can!
I guess this is much better compared to my case. Someone at MyBlogLog added my blog to their account before I did and now I’m not able to add mine. I mailed the customer service twice but got no reply till date.
I made myself an avatar. Spent a fair bit of time on it. Someone nicked it. I created a better version. More people nicked it. I’ve now seen around ten people using my avatar. It’s sickening!
Come on, the example given is an ace of spades. You can’t “steal” an ace of spades as an avatar for christ’s sake. And its different. Noticably different, to the point where anyone who confuses the two needs an eyetest. They have different colouration, and even a different shape to them. The bottom example is straightline, while the first has a curvature to the tip.
Pedantic? You bet your ass, someone has to be. When it comes to intellectual property, unless you created it, you don’t own it. You don’t own, it can’t be stolen from you. Immitated maybe, but immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
I do feel for people who have spent time to create their own avatar and had it used by others without their permission, but honestly, the example in the article could have been way better and less petty than “omg, this power user has an ace of spades avatar, now this nobody is using a (totally differently styled) ace of spades, THE THIEVING BASTARD!”.
Get over your own egos.
@Ramkarthik: If that’s the case you should reach out to Robyn Tippins. Do a Google search for her name / contact info, shouldn’t be hard to find. She’s the community manager at MyBlogLog.
@Crouchingpanda: It’s not an ego thing whatsoever. But people do invest time in branding themselves, whether it’s with a spade or anything else. You don’t need a unique image or logo to use an image, brand yourself with it and benefit from it.
Was this case coincidence? I doubt it. The person’s trying to leech off the leverage Muhammad’s gained on digg - simple as that. That’s what’s lame.
Ben Yoskovitz, Yeah I should try that. First I messaged her through mybloglog profile but she didn’t reply. If you don’t mind, here’s the profile of the guy who added it to his name.
No, its simply an ace of spades.
An extremely generic ace of spades.
There was even a Motorhead song about it.
Muhammad’s avatar is about as original as his name is, and that’s the long and short of it.
Ben, thanks for the informative post. I wasn’t aware that some people have starting stooping sooooooo low. Stealing an avatar — is nothing sacred?
Bret - I don’t think anything is sacred anymore…sad, but true.
Now the guy above you doesn’t think this is an issue. I don’t think the sky will fall and the world will explode because someone copies on avatar, but I do believe the avatar was copied, it wasn’t just a coincidence.
Check out rlk89, talk about a MrBabyMan rip off.
[...] few blogs, you can see the avatar by the side of the name. Few people steal other blogger’s avatar and make comments. The avatar that appears will be the same as the one which you use in MyBlogLog. [...]
[...] you. Look after your brand, think carefully before hitting submit, protect your good reputation, stop others from copying or damaging it. Be positive and [...]
[...] Stealing Avatars: Identify Theft 2.0 [...]
[...] or what have you. I did decide this year to no longer write news-related posts (about things like stealing avatars, Technorati, etc.) because they add very little value. Lots of people cover the news, but [...]