I figure carry on as if they're just away from their keyboards.

It’s also strange to read old posts with new avatars.

Maybe we should have an avatar history in profiles.
(For one thing I really miss one of Miles Newlyn's... :-)

hhp

Well, there are old avatars I would prefer to associate to people (for example, I don’t really like baseball caps ;-), but I think it’s up to the owners to decide how they would like to appear to the rest of the community.

I had a baseball cap on in my first avatar here. They're so old hat now.

I tried a number of different hats, but the baseball cap seemed to best solve the problem of fitting a head into a square without chopping off the top. However, in response to baseball cap antipathy, I’m switching to straw.

I’m switching to straw

Much more classy! ;-)

someday, we all be dead (pleasant thought) and it turns out the lasting impression we'll leave when we're gone is that we suddenly become too stuck-up to reply to posts on Typophile.

:o)

I was here. (...if only for a moment.)