# Avatar holdouts: going to stick to your guns or eventually get one?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-holdouts-going-to-stick-to-your-guns-or-eventually-get-one/940022>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 15, 2021, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-holdouts-going-to-stick-to-your-guns-or-eventually-get-one/940022 "2021-04-15T01:21:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 91

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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-holdouts-going-to-stick-to-your-guns-or-eventually-get-one/940022/91 "2021-04-18T17:34:21Z")

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> [@Mijin](#):
>
> My recollection is of many threads requesting avatars inevitably ending with a mod, or even Cecil using his nom de plume, declaring that avatars were for babies or whatever, and that this was a forum about _ideas_ .

Out of curiosity, I went back and looked at some of those old threads debating avatars (and there were many, some with hundreds of posts). I’ll link a few below if anyone’s curious. (It’s ironic seeing all the avatars displayed in an old thread about why we don’t have avatars).

Lynn\_Bodoni’s post early in the first linked thread sums up many of the reasons against. A lot of people who opposed enabling avatars (and other images) did so out of fear of what _might_ happen: people might post inappropriate images; bandwidth issues might slow down or break the board when displaying all those images; the boards could become cluttered and horrible-looking like other forums that people have experienced. Now that we’ve had avatars for a while, I think that, mostly, these fears have not been realized (which is not to say that things might not have been different a decade or two ago.)

> [@Avatars](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars/590594):
>
> I checked off to see them, but I don’t. I don’t see anywhere to enter mine. Safe to say this board doesn’t use avatars?

> [@No Avatars Here? Why?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-avatars-here-why/625626):
>
> How come none of us can have picture avatars at this forum? Who here wiches they had an avatar? i do

> [@Avatars](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars/819133):
>
> Hello! I am new here and was wondering if avatars are disabled on this site? I saw in the CP the option to see other people’s avatars, but I’m not seeing any in threads nor the ability to upload my own.

> [@Avatars: Yay or Nay?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatars-yay-or-nay/449353):
>
> It appears the powers-that–be will be updating the board software soon. Personally, I’d love to see avatars employed. I find it to be a great way to identify and remember other posters than by just their username alone. It’s also a nice little way to attach some personality and say a little something about yourself. But I’ve seen other users lament their existence. Why is this? Is it merely bandwidth, or do you find them ugly and or of little use?

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