Martin as my brand

[pne]

I wonder whether it’s possible to find out since when I’ve been using Martin as my default userpic on LiveJournal.

I think it’s the first userpic I uploaded, so it became my default then (and has stayed my default most of the time since then, with some interruptions). I’m less certain when this was, though; I know that at the beginning, I had no userpic at all. (And that I used to think 6 userpic slots would be more than enough for me; I now have around 100 or so, though I only regularly use a handful of them.) So I wonder when, exactly, it was that I uploaded him.

Because since then, I think he’s become a bit of my “Internet brand”: he’s my default LiveJournal userpic, my default Dreamwidth userpic, my Yahoo! login security seal picture, and my Gravatar. That’s also pretty much the reason I use him as my Google+ profile picture: because I think that people who know my through the Internet are very likely to recognise that profile as “the Philip Newton I know” (or possibly “the pne I know”) if they see that picture.

So if someone complained, I wonder whether saying that this picture is related to me (and only to me!) about as strongly as a photograph of my face, whether that would be true—I think so. (And I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else use a picture of a green-yellow duck/platypus stuffed animal.)

Comments

[steorra]

That’s also pretty much the reason I use him as my Google+ profile picture: because I think that people who know my through the Internet are very likely to recognise that profile as “the Philip Newton I know” (or possibly “the pne I know”) if they see that picture.

It's certainly how I knew you were you.

[steorra]

According to your LJ profile, you've had your LJ since October 2, 2002.

I did a search on your DW for 'Martin', and you mentioned him as being in your userpic on November 16, 2002.

So at most there was about a month and a half between when you got your LJ and when you started using Martin as a userpic.

[pne]

Thanks for digging that up!

I would have guessed about a month, which is consistent with what you've found. Perhaps "probably sometime in October 2002".

[afuna]

http://pne.livejournal.com/data/userpics sez 2002-11-01T23:23:00Z :-)

[pne]

Wow - thanks!

[afuna]

You're welcome!