Random rant

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Yahoo allows you to create an "avatar" — basically a cartoon representation of yourself — on your account.

Despite the wide array of apparel, hairstyles, backgrounds, accessories, and so forth, I was disappointed that I could not add a Van Dyke to my face. (A Van Dyke is a goatee with a moustache.) There are only two choices for facial hair, both of which are attached to certain faces: one is a five o'clock shadow with a face that looks like he's about to machine gun a crowd, and one is a face with an artiste-looking tuft of lower-lip hair who at least doesn't look like he's up for killing anyone but who doesn't smile either (and doesn't fit my facial features anyway).

And so, if you see me on Yahoo! Answers, you'll find I am uncharacteristically clean-shaven.

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I also find the avatars to have limited choices. For instance there is no "gray" for hair color and no other way to age your avatar, so mine looks the way I looked 15 years ago.

Yeah I noticed the aging part, too. They all look 22.

I suspect what's going on, because I've seen people with more complex avatars than appear to be possible under Yahoo, is that Yahoo! 360 offers fancier avatars. There are several questions in Yahoo! Answers to the effect of "Why can't I put a beard on my avatar?" with answers like "Choose the face with the beard" or "Go to ..." giving a place that has no beards under Yahoo.

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