I’m not in agreement. And it doesn’t make sense either, to have them off by default means they’ll never get set by most users, so you might as well not bother. I find avatars make a thread MUCH easier to follow. So if we enable them, the default must be to show them, otherwise there really is no point.
I have mixed feelings about this. I find that, without avatars, it’s easier to focus on what’s being said without thinking about who’s saying it, which can make it less likely that I’ll unfairly dismiss something (or fairly dismiss something, either).
That’s true. But then you could switch them off.
Are you saying that you don’t trust yourself to read something before deciding whether it’s worthwhile?
For what it’s worth, I already routinely skip by anything by a few well-known troll posters because I already know by experience that it’s a waste of time. Avatars might make that easier, I don’t know. That’s in addition to a couple of posters that I have on Ignore. Everyone else (and I do notice poster names much more than I used to) gets either a reading or a decision that I’m not interested in the thread after all. I don’t see any real problem with static avatars at all (no animation please!). I already have mine picked out.
This discussion makes me wonder how the mod loop is going to make this decision. I don’t really know why the board had this rule in the first place, it seemed more inspired by fear and loathing than anything rational.
Good lord. Who’d have thought there’d be so much controversy and worry over such a thing as avatars? I’m gussing it’ll be much ado about nothing, just like the twitter and facebook links were, editing posts, google searches, etc.
If you want this place to look less stark and old fashioned so as to attract new users, setting it as off as default is pretty darn silly. Hard to believe, really.
Well, try it that way for awhile and see what happens, maybe? Then if people realize it’s not as bad as they thought, THEN go for opt out. Or vice versa.
There is only so much time in the day and we (as a society) are still trying to get higher priority items figured out, like self driving cars and nuclear fusion. Once we’re pretty sure we have a handle on those two things, then we can turn our attention to avatars, but until then we need to stay focused.
Avatars, even when enabled can be turned off for any individual by the individual. In fact, that can probably be the default so people would have to turn them on. So you can continue in peaceful bliss not seeing avatars and those that like them can see them.
Addendum: ONLY anime avatars.
We have a bingo.
Hmmm, maybe avatars will help people read the thread. 
There’s an attitude here that we’re better than most boards. But not so much better that we can trust ourselves not to abuse pretty standard message board features such as avatars and inline pictures.
The simple fact is that if you don’t make it opt out then no lurkers, people who find us through google or even most new users will notice that we have taken this great leap forward into modernity. Making it opt in is only to please the fussy old timers who will know perfectly well they can opt out if they hate it so much.
I don’t remember the settings well enough, but I think you could set non-logged in to see avatars and maybe new members by default but leave existing members to default as avatars off. Otherwise, a simple SQL script could accomplish turning off avatars for existing members but I doubt that could happen on the Dope.
Look, it’s really quite simple. Those of you who do not wish to see avatars and are playing in the match this afternoon move your clothes down onto the lower peg immediately after lunch, before you write your letter home, if you’re not getting your hair cut, unless you’ve got a younger brother who is going out this weekend as the guest of another boy, in which case, collect his note before lunch, put it in your letter after you’ve had your hair cut, and make sure he disables avatars and moves your clothes down onto the lower peg for you.
It’s a mystery why a feature that people can turn on or off is actually a subject for debate. Aside from control freakiness, what does it matter how another forum user sets their preferences?
Revenue-raising idea: each Doper shall have an avatar, but that avatar shall be chosen, not necessarily by the Doper him/herself, but by the highest bidder.
The reason why I made the suggestion to make an account at THE BOARD WHICH MUST NEVER BE NAMED BECAUSE CERTAIN MODS LOSE THEIR RAGS OVER IT was because I know that the default for logged in accounts is avatars off, but was not sure if non-logged in people would see avatars. So I wiped the cookies from a browser I don’t usually use and checked, and sure enough non-logged in people do see the avatars, aside from Behind Your Back, where things are a little different. So yes, the software has plenty of flexibility to allow for every special snowflake to have it their way.
I am surprised this conversation has extended to more than 50 posts.