Identicons

Identicons are the general idea of visualizing users consistently across webpages and probably visits, often by hashing something identifying (e.g. username, IP address, or such) into an image.

They are probably most often seen in forum comment threads, where they make it easier to skim for the same poster.

While there is no guarantee that two values will look distinct, this is often still true due to a combination of the avalance effect in the underlying hash, and mapping the result to a whole bunch of different visual components.

How to & libraries

This article/section is a stub — probably a pile of half-sorted notes, is not well-checked so may have incorrect bits. (Feel free to ignore, or tell me)

Online generation:

• vanillicon: http://vanillicon.com/3018c7f60a04c2a6d932be4ef0b81a9c_100.png

• Gravatar has an identicon implementation

http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/3018c7f60a04c2a6d932be4ef0b81a9c?d=identicon&s=128&r=pg

other types (the d= argument) include wavatar, monsterid, and retro

• unicornify: http://unicornify.pictures/avatar/3018c7f60a04c2a6d932be4ef0b81a9c?s=128

Libraries:

See also

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identicon
• http://digitalconsumption.com/forum/Visiglyphs-for-IP-visualisation

See also 'online generation' above.