# Improvement: Avatars should not be used as post thumbnails

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/improvement-avatars-should-not-be-used-as-post-thumbnails/55909>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Created:** [2017年一月17日 16:21 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improvement-avatars-should-not-be-used-as-post-thumbnails/55909 "2017-01-17T16:21:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ljpp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ljpp/32/96506_2.png) [@ljpp](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ljpp)\
**Post date:** [2017年一月17日 16:21 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improvement-avatars-should-not-be-used-as-post-thumbnails/55909/1 "2017-01-17T16:21:03Z")

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Not sure if I formulated the title quite correctly - sorry, not my native language.

I dislike the fact that user **avatars** are used as post thumbnails:

- Avatars are often quite “creative”
- Hardly ever related to the topic content

###Examples:

Here is a tweet (in Finnish). It’s a part of discussion regarding the usage statistics of major Finnish forums/online communities.

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/d/e/de45613846b5a5dee14ca548d88282b952e8ef53.png)

That is freaking Ozzy Osbourne!

It’s there as there is a link in that tweet to this post and it’s the user’s avatar:

> **[Tykkäämiset ja muut foorumin tilastot](https://tappara.co/t/tykkaamiset-ja-muut-foorumin-tilastot/3853/74)**
>
> Sampsa Kurri listasi isohkojen suomalaisten keskustelupalstojen päivittäisiä viestimääriä kootusti. Päiväksi oli valittu 15.1. ja viestimäärät oli seuraavat: TechBBS: 3611 viestiä FutisForum 2: ~2390 viestiä MuroBBS: 1485 viestiä ...

Now if you open that link, you’ll notice that in that post there would also be **a discussion related image** available.

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/0/3/0377d77ae3e4634f5b462c2eafbe9ca3017c3c16.png)

Now that would make sense as the discussion on Twitter and the forum is about usage statistics.

###Proposal:

Post content images could/should be used for thumbnailing, instead of the avatars. What do you think? Technically feasible?

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**Author:** ![Falco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/falco/32/179432_2.png) [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)\
**Post date:** [2017年一月17日 16:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improvement-avatars-should-not-be-used-as-post-thumbnails/55909/2 "2017-01-17T16:58:28Z")

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> [@ljpp](#):
>
> I dislike the fact that user avatars are used as topic thumbnails:

No, avatars are used as **post** thumbnails.

Here’s a link to your **topic** on [Facebook](https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fmeta.discourse.org%2Ft%2Fimprovement-avatars-should-not-be-used-as-topic-post-thumbnails%2F55909%3Fu%3Dfalco).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ljpp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/ljpp/32/96506_2.png) [@ljpp](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ljpp)\
**Post date:** [2017年一月17日 17:08 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improvement-avatars-should-not-be-used-as-post-thumbnails/55909/3 "2017-01-17T17:08:31Z")

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Thank you. Corrected. What do you think about my proposal in general?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Falco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/falco/32/179432_2.png) [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)\
**Post date:** [2017年一月17日 17:25 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improvement-avatars-should-not-be-used-as-post-thumbnails/55909/4 "2017-01-17T17:25:23Z")

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> [@ljpp](#):
>
> Thank you. Corrected. What do you think about my proposal in general?

Sounds in line with:

[https://meta.discourse.org/t/difficulties-with-facebook-sharing-and-opengraph-tags-wrong-images-excerpt-contains-image-text/22744/34?u=falco](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difficulties-with-facebook-sharing-and-opengraph-tags-wrong-images-excerpt-contains-image-text/22744/34)

[https://meta.discourse.org/t/difficulties-with-facebook-sharing-and-opengraph-tags-wrong-images-excerpt-contains-image-text/22744/51?u=falco](https://meta.discourse.org/t/difficulties-with-facebook-sharing-and-opengraph-tags-wrong-images-excerpt-contains-image-text/22744/51)

So a post would behave like a topic, first image gets to be the `og:image` with fallback to `default opengraph image url`.

A PR in this area would be welcome.