[buddypress-trac] [BuddyPress Trac] #5758: Rename "Avatar" to "Profile Photo"

[buddypress-trac]

#5758: Rename "Avatar" to "Profile Photo"
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 Reporter:  sooskriszta   |      Owner:
     Type:  enhancement   |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal        |  Milestone:  2.1
Component:  Text Changes  |    Version:
 Severity:  normal        |   Keywords:
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 At the moment, we use the term "Avatar" to refer to primary images
 uploaded by members. This might partly be due to the fact that BuddyPress
 pulls "avatars" from Gravatar.

 I propose that we rename this to "Profile Photo"

 There is a definite desire to encourage users to upload profile photos
 #4132 The gravatar connection is tenuous.

 "Profile photo" is better than "Avatar" for several reasons:
 - Profile photo is universally understood and translatable. Avatar is not.
 - Profile photo does, somewhat boringly, exactly what it says on the can.
 Avatar can be a bit ambiguous, childish or nerdy (depending on the
 context).
 - Profile photo has "photo" in the term. We want to encourage those.
 Avatar has the connotation of a graphic or illustration (check out my
 avatar on bp.org and contrast it with jjj's profile photo). And no, I'm
 not talking out of my a## here. The likes of Yahoo! allow both
 [https://messenger.yahoo.com/features/displayimages/ profile
 photos]/pictures/images and [https://messenger.yahoo.com/features/avatars/
 avatars] They are by no means alone in this regard. Compare
 [http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp7/people/update-my-profile-
 picture Live profile images] and [https://live.xbox.com/en-US/avatareditor
 Xbox avatars].
 - Profile photo is the near-universal terminology and has higher usability
 even for people not intimately familiar with the English language. What do
 I mean by near-universal? Here are some users of "Profile Photo" (or
 similar): [https://www.facebook.com/help/timeline/cover Facebook],
 [https://support.twitter.com/articles/127871-customizing-your-profile
 Twitter], [http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5 LinkedIn],
 [https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1057172?hl=en
 Google+/Blogger/Youtube],
 [http://help.meetup.com/customer/portal/articles/927960-mobile-change-
 your-profile-photo Meetup], etc.

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Ticket URL: <https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5758>
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