Thread:Extension talk:LiquidThreads/Avatar storage/Avatar visibility/reply

Well, first off, no one said anything about requiring a photo ID for an avatar. In fact, most of the designs I use only have photos for Foundation staff (which are already public); I try to include at least one example of an abstract or non-identifying image.

Whether or not to control how avatars are display is something that being discussed. The current plan is to include a mechanism for users to hide all avatars for themselves (but not one for individual users to restrict access to their avatar).

We've discussed an idea of requiring an "opt-in" to view avatars (so that people are not surprised by what could potentially show up there, for instance). In the past, on other sites, I have designed avatar systems where you must be logged in and you must have opted into a "view adult content" in order to see any user-created content. Most wikis have a policy of non-default censorship, however, so that method is unlikely to be implemented (we'll have the opt-out).

Opt out is interesting to us because it gives us statistics about usage. For example, if 70% of users turn avatars off, then the feature clearly isn't considered useful, required, or desired, and we'd likely cut them from the product. However, if the numbers were opposite, the feature might end up being emphasized. We're very data driven in that way.

What you are suggesting (fine-grained permissions) is an interesting idea: each user can provide a series of privacy rules regarding their avatar. It's something I hadn't examined. At first glance it approaches a "facebook" style permissions set (show my Foo to the following types of people...). However, I must say that in practical application I think it's unlikely to gain enough popular support to warrant development time: anyone can create an account in order to see your avatars, making the permission bit pointless.

Outside of Wikimedia Foundation wikis, as an extension to MediaWiki, I don't see a problem with any of those things and would probably enjoy someone hacking support for it into the codebase.