Was it an ode to Alphabet ?

[Charby]

I like the new default icon but I would have had appreciate a notification that my profile was changed...sure it is not a big deal but I felt Digia was acquired by Google...;-)

[kshegunov]

@Charby
It kind'a helps distinguishing posts from people without pictures, though. :)

[Charby]

@kshegunov I agree it is overall a good move!

[jacmoe]

I think what happened is that NodeBB has removed (or is going to remove) Gravatar from the core and make it an optional plugin.
And the default, built-in NodeBB avatar is indeed letters on a coloured background. :)

[tekojo]

Points to @jacmoe for the correct answer.

And looks like making changes on the plugin requires a reload of the forum. It does gather the gravatars fast when restarted, but for some reason will not do it on the fly when changing settings.

Now we are back in the land of silhouettes. But if the letters are preferrable they can be set back on.

[kshegunov]

This post is deleted!

[kshegunov]

Either way is fine with me, but I personally liked the letters mostly because they made somewhat easier differentiating between people's posts without reading the name - the letter icons are big and colorful.

@tekojo, could the new-theme behavior - with the alphabet - be switched on or off easily (or on a per user basis)? A poll might be useful to ascertain whether users would like letter default icons, or the generic silhouette?

[tekojo]

I'm pretty sure it can't be done on a person to person basis, but a poll could be done.