[Idea] have user-name-based avatars to easily identify unknown users

[janmegert]

currently all unknown users have the same default avatar so its difficult to keep them apart in a list of commits

just give those avatar-less users some individual name-based avatar like in Git-Extensions or just some initials with name-based color

[outofambit]

Hi @janmegert and thanks so much for suggesting this! i'm going to mark this as an enhancement and we'll further prioritize/triage this idea. Thanks again!

[shiftkey]

just give those avatar-less users some individual name-based avatar like in Git-Extensions or just some initials with name-based color

@janmegert are you able to share screenshots or examples of these alternatives?

[janmegert]

Screenshots of how they solved it in Git-Extensions and Azure DevOps:

I guess they generated an individual avatar/color/initials based on the user name - and i just like this feature as it helps a lot recognizing users throughout the applications.
In GitHub Desktop unregistered users just get all the same default avatars so far

[billygriffin]

@janmegert Thanks so much! Would you mind sharing when and how frequently you're seeing this occur and how it's impacting your workflow? In the history tab, when I don't see commit attribution to a user, I still see their name next to it so it's still fairly apparent who it is, but I'm curious how it's manifesting for you and how broad the impact would be for others.

[shiftkey]

@janmegert friendly bump on this question from Billy:

Would you mind sharing when and how frequently you're seeing this occur and how it's impacting your workflow?

[janmegert]

We have several users/accounts which are not GitHub registered. Sure, the user name is displayed and it is apparent wo it is. However, if you're looking for some contributions of you or a specific user in history you can just better recognize them looking for an avatar rather than text. I just thought it's a nice feature in similar apps so i brought it up to you guys --your decision

[shiftkey]

Dropping more-information-needed because it looks the last comment indicates our Gravatar fallback is being used, and those users may not have something set.