What use are profile pictures?

A recent comment on the Bunchberry and Fern blog has caused me yet again to question what value – if any – my profile photo has. It said – tongue in cheek – that I looked ‘rampant’.

They were being nice.

I’ve had plenty of worse things said about that picture, which comes from a three-quarter length shot taken 3 years ago:

All this has made me question the value of profile pics at all. Jay Cross was also being kind (I think) when he said it looked nothing like me. Others have simply said … well, I won’t repeat them.

The point is that your photo is a bit like a personal, on-line logo. Ideally you’d use the same picture everywhere to re-inforce the same positive, strong brand image that summed up your personality in a few pixels.

On the other hand, you can just go with the best choice from a bad bunch of snaps, which is what I did, and is what I suspsect most of us do.

Re-examining this photo, though, led me to a terrible revelation. Subconsciously when this photo was taken, I think I may have been modelling myself on a suave alter-ego of the 1970s and ’80s.

So, just who is my smooth doppelganger?