HN Explorer

22 comments

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mixmax
We used to use a picture of a monkey.

Worked great as well.

Olgaar
But I would like the monkey!
Electro
Perhaps there was many creationists on his website, they hate the monkeys.
dmoney
A site I was on a while back used pictures of baboons. From behind.
ericwan
Someone may still like a monkey, but no one would like Cheney.
pibefision
This is not a great idea. There are many people out there googling your name, and they will think that you choose that avatar.
robg
Thus the incentive to change it. I like it!
bayareaguy
I get incensed when I see incenting used this way.
kul
incenting is a word? i always thought it was incentivizing. in any case, both are ugly words.
jamesbritt
I guess "motivating" would be too obvious.
aston
It's not really a word, but it basically is. Just like irregardless.

Language moves on, no matter how much it annoys us.

zach
It's a perfectly normal word, if you talk like this:

"Once you incent knowledge workers to leverage their core competencies, you empower them to impact the bottom line."

ivankirigin
Maybe it's a pun. Pissing users off with their profile pic to make them want to change it.
mechanical_fish
Given that the more established alternative is incentivize, which is at least 50% more awful, I welcome this newly abbreviated word.
vixen99
You mean it could be as much as 60% more awful?
henning
Or if your typical user is a MySpace retard, your site will become known as that weird place where everyone has a boner for Dick Cheney.
staunch
Republicans use social networks too. The challenge would be to come up with some universally disliked person to use. I nominate Mr. Bean and Peewee Herman.
rms
There aren't very many Republicans that still like Bush and Cheney...
Shooter
I like Mr. Bean...and Herman was okay in the Cheech and Chong movie, at least. I think they should use Emperor Palpatine...oh, wait, they're using Cheney? Nevermind.
omakase
i understand the problem, but shouldn't the incentive be a service users _want_ to use and share with their friends?
mwooller
Inciting the user to check for words that do not exist.
samueladam
I have a better rule.

People with pictures can see other profiles pictures otherwise they get a message explaining the rule.