What do you think are the downsides?
Don’t pin that poll on me, that was bucketybuck. I’ve been wisely staying out of this one, figuring my time was better spent cultivating a glorious neckbeard.
::strokes beard::
Sorry 'bout that.
By the way, you’ve got a crumb or something in there. Yeah, right there, about eight inches below your chin on the right. Yeah, your right. Yup, there. Okay, you got it.
Well, it’s only been a day, but I’m enjoying my SDMB with avatars. Some of you now appear with your gallery photos or other images you’ve provided. Some of you I’m remembering your place of origin by assigning you avs of flags or coats-of-arms or pictures of landmarks. Otherwise I might assign pics that reference either a screen name or some aspect of personality, in my interpretation.
As far as I can see, I’ve got all the practical benefits of avatars from a reader’s perspective, with no sanction from anybody, no images that don’t make sense to me, and no chance of impacting anyone else’s experience. It might not be everybody’s, but it’s some kind of ideal.
Thank you, Ed. No snark at all when I say that I appreciate your honest response. It’s your board and you simply not liking them is reason enough. This is much better than making up bs reasons that have been shown not to exist.
Well, this is on page 6 and still going strong. How long until everyone gives up this time?
PS. **Avatar **- Movie was “meh”. I mean, c’mon now. Floating mountains? 6-legged beasties? Blue monkeys? Dances with Wolves meets Apocalypto? (Obligatory Avatar - The Movie! jab)
If it helps at all, it would probably mean more people for the Barn House, too.
The advantage would be that they’re fun. Why do you hate fun, Ed? 
Czarcasm, don’t you think you were a little harsh on Red Barchetta in IMHO? He’s totally wrong in his opinions, but he wasn’t “debating” the question. He was clarifying his previous link, and I think that was appropriate.
eta: The elbows warning was entirely warranted.
This is what it boils down to:
I would most likely pay to have an avatar and to see the avatars of other posters. And nobody ever has to see my avatar unless they want to see it. A move to the somethingawful-style of purchasing avatars or signatures would be a great business decision.
Do you want my money or not?
There was a disagreement between elfkin477 and Red Barchetta as to whether Red’s figures were misleading. After elfkin477 made his accusation I told one and all that this conversation(and debating in general) belonged in the ATMB thread on the subject, not the IMHO poll, and I said exactly what would happen if it continued.
It continued, and I followed through.
Why are you asking if this should be modded? I don’t see why not, just like anyone would be modded for creating a sock to parody another poster for any reason. Why do you think stalking will suddenly become wildly more common because avatars are allowed? You can come up with wildly implausible scenarios all day long, and my answer will still be, “well, in the unlikely circumstance where that happens, I guess the moderators will deal with it.”
Or more money if people have to pay for them, as per the Something Awful model. What do you have against money, Ed? 
Your exact words were “take the debate about this subject to the ATMB thread.”
My post that you “moderated” wasn’t a debate. Even the OP agrees it was harsh, whose rules you were (presumably) intending to enforce.
Just out of curiosity, why even make that ruling in the first place? What is the point of a message board thread where you aren’t allowed to discuss the positions put forth by others? Think about it: you’re creating an atmosphere where ignorant statements are protected, and fighting ignorance is punished.
<dramatization>
Poster A: I voted for poll option X because whales have three eyes!
Poster B: No, whales only have two eyes.
Czarcasm: No debating! Warning!!
</dramatization>
Not to mention the fact that threads containing nothing but restatements of how people voted in a poll are dreadfully uninteresting.
IMHO is one of my favorite forums. If you’re going to randomly insist that some threads be nothing but a listing of people’s opinions with no discussion, you’re going to ruin it. Please don’t ruin IMHO.
So wear a party hat when you post. 
Seriously, there seems to be something psychologically deep going on here, where some people have a gut-level, skin-crawling aversion to the very idea of avatars, while others passionately lust after them, when it doesn’t seem like it ought to be a big deal either way, on the surface of it.
I would love to hear the theories of armchair psychologists. Do those who want avatars have a desperate need to assert their identities, to express themselves in a way they find impossible using only words? Are those who are opposed, loath to have their own (and others’) identities summed up with a logo or silly image? Is this really a battle between the visual people and the verbal people? the attention whores vs. the wallflowers? style vs. substance? the sensation-seekers vs. the easily overstimulated? branding vs. … whatever the opposite of that is?
Avatars are certainly a better source of revenue than distribution of malware and spyware. Hey, it needed to be said.
Ed, I know it’s your site, but outside of ATMB you really don’t participate here that much. Why would you be bothered by avatars that you can turn off, on a site you really don’t seem to frequent that often?
If it needs to be modded, then it adds to the mods’ workload. I ask because there are message boards where it wouldn’t be modded. I suspect, given the rules here, that it would be, as you note in your response.
It’s also an example where someone that doesn’t have an avatar could be affected.
I don’t necessarily think that stalking will become wildly more popular. It’s just one more way to do it that would need to be modded and that might affect people who are not participating. Without avatars, that particular method doesn’t exist.
- There was already a discussion going about the subject in ATMB.
- People (mostly in support of avatars) had already posted multiple times in the poll thread, and it was becoming a duplicate of the ATMB thread.
- When a moderator says “stop”, the proper response is to stop. If you wish to dispute the order, take it to the proper forum(ATMB)-do not debate it in the same thread, and do not ignore said order.
- There was absolutely nothing stopping Red Barchetta from linking to the appropriate ATMB thread and clarifying matters there.
Except that there was no reason not to because it didn’t violate the rule you put down, being as it wasn’t a debate. It’s pretty clear to me you just had an ax to grind and made a mistake, as a couple other posters have pointed out.