Hi Simon, will you be asking Paul Flinders, Helene Wright, Timothy Cole and others the same question - Just Asking,
Yes of course Dan if they reply to me like you did !!! Anyway - do you have an answer? I have to say I find it just as baffling that SF even allow you to be a member if you donât load a personal photo. Itâs either a rule or it isnât ??? Personally I couldnât care less 
Iâm rather with Dan on this one - it would be so easy but rather dishonest to use another personâs photo - itâs not exactly hard to find images online.
Choosing an avatar indicates that I a) havenât just forgotten but b) donât especially wish to have my image âout thereâ (I photograph badly anyway) and c) wish to be honest about that fact.
None of us know that the images posted are actually of the people who they purport to be - generally I assume that they are but they might not be.
Point of clarification, is a photo âa requirementâ of membership or âpreferredâ as part of the forum etiquette?
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Oh, further thought - what of people like Nellie (and others) whoâs photo is little more than a scene with a distant human figure?
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Hi Simon - Been a member since 2016 with no photo - This recent clamouring for my photo in particular has me baffled. And pleased to hear you couldnât care less one way or another?
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For myself distance is like a filter, I donât particularly want all of my wrinkles on show!
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Spurious - just sign up with Facebook using your FB profile picâŠeasily verified.
Just as easily a photo of someone else.
OK ok okâŠwe can always find reasons NOT to do something. Personally Iâve got nothing to hide so am just not arsed about my photo being used. 
Cannot understand the comments âI respect my privacyâ. Unless you are a very well known âcelebrity/famousâ what do you think is going to happen ?
Are you afraid that someone on here might recognise you in a street in France ? " In all the towns and villages in France you came into mine"!
Are you afraid that someone might actually meet you and horrors of horrors actually want to talk face to face ?
I put up my photo almost as soon as I joined , I have nothing to hide and I like to get a sense of the people I am replying to.
You could of course download any old photo of someone else but I think that says a lot more about you, to think of doing that rather than being honest !
The rules are there, surely if you donât like them there is an easy answer âŠ
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Spot on Ann!
Do you normally do your shopping in Intermarché or wherever looking like your pic - I have a feeling you would be unrecognisable sir - Looks like a disguise to me!
Dan I DO!!! That (cropped) pic was taken in a golf cart with my wife - I quite often wear a baseball hat and sunglasses. Itâs a thing we golfers do - even when walking around IntermarchĂ©!
Hereâs a slightly less âcroppedâ version - enjoy!
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Great that you have gone to the trouble of putting a photo of yourself on SF, Now in my opinion when one reads and looks at your posts they will be treated with more honesty and respect, shame that the others on here who have plenty to say but refuse to play by the rules do not agree.
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Hang on - if I donât want to put a photo of myself on the site I shouldnât be strong-armed into doing so, I canât see that it is actually in the terms of service and the system allows three choices - the âsystem assignedâ initial in a coloured circle, a âgravitarâ or a photo.
Some of the images are fairly poor or show a very tiny image which is no more useful than an avatar.
I can live with âencouragedâ, but forced is beyond the the pale as far as I am concerned.
As to whether I am polite or make posts which others might value Iâll let the record speak for itself.
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First of all, thank you Stella and @vero for the sterling work youâve been doing encouraging people to upload profile pics.
Secondly, thank you to everyone else who has done so. You are what makes SF unique and such a nice friendly place to hang out.
Thirdly, we removed it as an official requirement as we didnât want to be seen as draconian and assumed that most people would have the sense to use photos , knowing that if you donât, quite simply, it spoils it for everyone else.
And finally, âI value my privacyâ ? Really? Youâre not an A list celeb avoiding a stalker Dan!!
Quite honestly anyone who runs any kind of business is going to have a public profile and if people really want to be anonymous, they should stay off the internet.
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To be fair Dan needs no more reason that âI didnât want a photo on this siteâ. Neither do I especially - FB is the sole exception, I donât âdoâ photos on other forums (fora?) either.
Yes, you could argue that is inconsistent but thatâs how I wish to allow access to my image.
Iâm glad it has been removed as a requirement - one can still encourage after all 
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Why Facebook only, is it because you have to be seen there, and you cannot live without it so why not on SF.