What are the little shields on people's name?

[Liallan]

The thing where an avatar should be... there's shields on some people. I get they don't have an avatar. What I don't get is why some of them are very plain, flat (2D), and why others look more like a real shield, with shape and shadings and such. What's the difference?

[qwertasdfg]

I think they've had the plain one as standard first and then at a later date made the one with shadings as the standard avatar. So everyone who has joined before the date at which they've changed it have the plain avatar, everyone who joined this site after that has the one with shadings.

[Liallan]

Ah, thanks. The newer one is definitely nicer.