First time I used an instant messaging service didn't have file transfers, avatars, sounds or any of that stuff. To be honest, I've got a hotmail account, gmail, yahoo and jabber but I'm an irc-man. Well, talking on IM it's essential to have an hackergotchi (avatar) and a funny phrase to make laugh your contacts.

A hackergotchi is usually a head shot of the author, an emblem or representative symbol, we can see some examples here (I think this funny pictures was created by the gnome people).

These are my hackergotchis, first is a thief of mp3 and last one is my own head when I was 4 or 5. What about your hackergotchi? what it means?