A mascot is not necessarily an alternative to an icon - they can coexist. A few people just like having a mascot for software projects, similar to the lemming of Lemmy or the Reddit alien. :)

A folder isn’t “fun.” Like, reddit has the Snoo alien or whatever, and they went the extra mile of letting users represent themselves with custom Snoo avatars made up of preset parts like a character creator. It’s fun, and having a mascot here would be fun too.

Looks a bit microsofty to me, tbh. Like it’s another app in the office suite.

/u/fixedfun 's parrot is more lighthearted. Like the snapchat ghost or twitter bird.

Apparently there’s a kbin app in development. Don’t feel the folder thing is a good fit for an app tile tbh.

As others have said… a mascot.

But, what would be great in my opinion would be the current folder icon shape stylized like a birds wings.

E.g. flying free amongst the various places of the fediverse

If it incorporated the folder icon into the animal I would love it. The icon is like a shorthand version of it. A kangaroo or koala bear with a pouch that is folder like. WHY a bird?

Not sure about others, but I feel that the bird would be better for bringing in new users who made not be as tech inclined versus the folder. The name “kbin” already has some tech connotations to begin with. For the average user, thinking of a bird when they see the app would probably be better versus the windows file explorer or some MS office/development app. The folder icon doesn’t have to be trashed though, as stated, they can coexist.