Let's talk icons.

[sockpup]

Specifically, RP icons. RP is a huge part of fandom, so that belongs here, right?

I hate, hate, HATE icons that are blurry, have bad aspect ratio, are badly cropped, or (and this one's just a pet peeve) aren't square.

But what I hate even more are ridiculous icons that don't even seem to belong to a character. The type you'd see on a mun's journal.


Not only are these on an RP account, the same mun has them on more than one account. For different characters.
The above icons also belong to an account with a few other... special icons. Mildly NSFW, click if you want to see: 1, 2, 3


Come to think of it, no one's used icons like this on their OOC journals since 2001, either.
And here's another example of someone who can't choose icons to save their life.

Come on. All I'm asking is that you put a little thought into your icons and don't just slap random crap up there. Have icons that are actually of your character. Is that so hard?

Comments

[sykriar]

Holy.

Crap.

People actually USE icons like that now? FOR RP???

HAVE I BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK?

What is wrong with people? Those are so unbelievably tacky that even when they were popular they were still the worst.

I mean I can't say I'm the best RPer since I'm relatively new to the whole thing but my god. That is a whole new level of bad.

[lilacsigil]

Why does an icon have to be square? (Though I must admit my default icon is my only non-square icon!)

[sykriar]

I'm pretty sure it has to do with internet norms that developed over time. It also may have to do with how much you can fit in it being a square. Although to be honest I'm just guessing. XD

Anyone have facts on this one?

[(Anonymous)]

I must have really lucked out with RPs because I've never seen those kinds of icons used! Those are terrible.

[sykriar]

You and me both. I really want to find people who use them now just for the shock value.

[haruka]

I can't see using icons like that for RP, but I'm pretty anal about my own icons.

For that matter, while I love screensnapped-sourced icons, and make most of mine from those, why did it ever get popular to have icons that show only half a face? I don't mean the ones that also have words on them, but just ... half a face. I want to see what a character looks like, the whole face, darn it!

I agree on non-square icons, but that's just another anal thing for me, as I like using the whole 100 x 100 space, and don't like having to squint to see a picture (or God forbid, read tiny, tiny text.)

[sykriar]

In all honestly I actually find some of the half-a-face icons to be artistic if placed right, but most of the time I find them incredibly confusing due to editors using really generic characters for them.

I'm pretty anal about my icons too. I only have 100 x 100 icons in my folder and I don't think I'll have anything but.