Cannot Avatars be protected.?

[vivandorron]

Surely there must be some technological way that Abers can be protected from their Avatars being copied and used by others.

At the moment it seems a simple matter for a troublesome person to make a minor alteration of a username and it has been proved to me, by a few respected AB members, that an Avatar can be copied and placed above the altered name; so as to pass as being genuine

Consequently, I am quite perturbed by the thought of stolen identities and would welcome further opinions on the matter.

Ron.

[vivandorron]

ABerrant ...You've summed up matters.

In my opinion, it's a pity that AB decided to use Gravatar when, it could have set up its own system and have had full control of matters.

Ron

[ABerrant]

With respect, AB should expend more effort on moderation/editorial control instead of bells and whistles.

[hc4361]

Then AB would be responsible if ABers breached copyright law by using images they are not entitled to use.

[vivandorron]

Sorry to disagree with you hc4361.

AB could do the same as Gravatar and publish a User Submission which placed all liability onto the shoulders of the user.

Ron

[vivandorron]

Thanks to all of you who contributed to this thread.

It does seem that we must all trust to luck and hope that we are not impersonated by imposters in the columns of AB.

Best wishes.....Ron.

[jno]

imposters can come up with very similar avatars, but the usernames would have to be different. Yours would be hard to impersonate.

[China Doll]

Sorry to be tedious but with regards to my previous answer;

b) how can you steal an identity from an annonimous (sp) site?

I still don't see the relevence.

[vivandorron]

Sorry folks for my delay in responding to further comments on this matter......It's been one of those days where Viv and I went shopping this morning and this afternoon I had to prepare and cook an evening meal for family; who ( thanks to whomsoever a non believer does) have now gone back home.

Thanks jno for your words of comfort, although I still think it would be easier to alter my username than it would be yours.

China Doll...Please do not think that I have disregarded your views on the issue concerned. The truth is that I feel you have a fair point but,as you are being so literal about matters, I am finding it difficult to contest the case you have submitted.

Perhaps therefore you will tell me what your reaction would be if you saw your Avatar with a similar name (perhaps.. Chino Doll ) printed beneath it. Would you not regard this as stealing your identity.

Kind regards ..Ron

[jno]

Ron, the typeface used for usernames used to be slightly different, I think, with the result that O and 0 (that's capital o and zero) looked alike; likewise capital i and small L; so it was possible to call yourself China DoII and you couldn't tell if that was the same as China Doll unless you copied it over to Word and turned it into a different font. This is still the case in the body of a post, I think, but not in the usernames under the avatars. So that was real impostering. Calling yourself Chino Doll might irritate CD, but nobody who looked at the name properly would actually be fooled.

[China Doll]

^^^ What jno said...

[Jan1957]

It has been done lots of times but people aren't easily fooled. Someone did mine as Janl1957 but it was noticed very quickly. Doesn't worry me in the slightest.

[Jan1957]

Oops meant Janl957.

[THECORBYLOON]

Someone was impersonated recently and the typeface used under the avatar appeared to be the same but was not, a capital "i" was used in place of a lower case "L"

[jno]

oh, and just to add, you can report someone if you suspect they're an imposter. This used to be one of the specified reasons for reporting; that seems to have vanished, but as far as I know the Ed will still take the report seriously. Just tick 'Other' and write in 'imposter'. I would probably do this if someone started calling themselves Chino Doll. I imagine CD would too.

[jno]

oh, is that the case once again, TCL? They did change the typeface to prevent that but they must have changed it back again. Pity.

[jno]

... is that the 'case'.... see what I did there... accidental, I'm afraid.

[vivandorron]

Guess I'll have to accept that Avatars cannot be protected and hope that I am not put in the position of having to report to the editor that someone is attempting to impersonate me in the columns of AB.

Thanks again folks.....Ron.