Why no avatars?

[SteveDallas]

Once upon a time, there was a professional computer nerd (PCN) who worked at a particular company. As with most companies, this one had made some decisions along the way about what software it would supply for its employees to use. And as is also the case with most companies, those choices were not identical to those made by other companies. (Duh.)

So it was a source of puzzlement to PCN that when new employees would be hired and given computers, many of them would say, "Why don't you have [name of well-known computer program]? We had [name of well-known computer program] at my last job, and it was great." PCN would reply something to the effect of, "Well, we use [name of other well-known computer program that does the same thing]. We've found it's a good choice for us." The newbie would then say something like, "Oh yeah? Well I never used it. You ought to get [name of well-known computer program]. It's a lot better."

PCN found this to be insulting. He also found it to be whiny. All in all, a wonderful impression for a new employee to make. Over the years, he found it to be a good indicator of people who would turn out to be insulting and whiny in other interactions in the company.