Fourthed, fifthed, whatever we’re up to. The very unavailability of those features is part of what attracts the userbase we have, and conversely, enabling those features, whether or not individual users can opt out, will affect the population. Do Not Want.
Could you drop me an email or PM every few months to remind me of that? I’m old, and my memory ain’t what it used to be! 
Before this thread turns into an endless stream of people sixthing, seventhing, eighthing, etc., can I just point out that, as stated in this thread previously, there already is an option to turn off avatars? It’s useless now because avatars aren’t available, but if they were, you could go right to your user CP and switch them off.
Actually at least two posters* have already pointed that out. But, I think the other side of the coin is some posters prefer the fact the board is unattractive to those scary posters from places like the Disney Board that post 4 words and 200 animated smilies and 6"x6" avatars.
- **bbs2k ** & me.
May I take this opportunity to sixth, seventh and eighth, in an endless stream, because as Invisible Wombat stated so well,
To paraphrase Art Fern,
Make us pay? We don’t care.
Make the boards free? We don’t care.
Intend to bring in avatars? –Whack– Then we care.
I know Mark Ryle already beat me to the punch, but you really made me laugh, MsWhatsit, because the specific post being sixthed, seventhed… addresses your objection!.
Hint: Read what people are responding to first, and then respond yourself.
It’s not like the sort of people who make illiterate posts full of stupid images are sitting around waiting for us to turn avatars on so they can come and drop our average IQ to zero. Our board’s culture places a strong emphasis on literacy and education, which is not appealing to them. Why would they want to post here?
I’d be in favor of avatars if they could only be set and changed by a moderator, and if course if they were small and not animated. I find it a lot easier to keep track of who’s who when pictures are involved.
Mm, my apologies, I misread “Why do I care when it can be shut off” as “Why do I care if it can be shut off” and thought your post was stating your preference that there be an option to shut avatars off, and couldn’t figure out why everyone was vehemently agreeing when, dangit, there IS such an option, duh?
This explains a lot. Also, I feel silly.
No problem. Or as they say on the kiddy avatar boards, LOL 
NP 
!!!11!one!!!
Now it must be me that’s misunderstanding. You want moderators setting and changing your avatar? I don’t like avatars and I don’t want one, but if I ever did get one, then by golly I’d want to be able to set and change it myself!
I am guessing only, but perhaps he meant the mods would have the ability to remove an offensive or copyrighted avatar.
I am also wagging here, we may not have avatars as not only is it that much more storage memory, and slows down load times for dial-up users, but it also causes more work and headaches for the staff.
I’d be all for creating a special title for those of us that signed up on the first day.
I was the one that ran down to Animal Kingdom to buy another pair of hamsters after the original pair, well, umm… We discovered that the first set of hamsters couldn’t handle more than three people online at the same time.
You will always be missed, Fluffy and Petey.
I’d like to think it helps that every time the subject of avatars comes up, charter members line up to vehemently oppose it.
Well said and agreed. The lack of visual noise encourages written conversation. Turning off the avatars could take content out of context. People can turn off smilies (I think), but many a good natured joke would be misinterpreted with them.
I don’t want images or avatars, but I suspect we don’t have much to worry about in that regard anyway. If we can’t post song lyrics here without getting Mod warnings over copyright infringement, there’s no way in hell the legal powers that be will allow us to start posting images of who-knows-what here.
Just for my own curiousity, what does this mean? Just repealing pay-to-post and allowing more people to join? Or something more?
These improvers you speak of, who are they?
I DID. Joined in '99. Proud to have lasted almost 10 years in this community. I’d pay my seven fiddy forever to keep the title below my member name. Nothing I can do if it is deleted of course, but really- a few hundred bucks from Dopers who feel nostalgic/ attached enough/ committed to the idea of being a Charter Member??
The new Overlords would rather NOT have the few hundred bucks?
Overall this is a fantastic move and I am grateful to Ed, TubaDiva, Jerry and the rest of the folks who have poured themselves into The Straight Dope online for more than 10 years.
Ya done good. We still come and laugh and think.
And now and then we fight ignorance. 
Cartooniverse, who wandered into an AOL Board one day and never left…
I joined on the second or third day the forums opened (number 199 or something like that) and have spent nearly a decade here. I’d really like to keep my title, please. Maybe I’m not a 10,000+ poster or anything but I like to think that I did my part, especially during the first years, to make this place what it is. A tiny token of appreciation would be, well, appreciated.
Yes, it might not have come across, but I really hate them also and I would turn them off immediately. I won’t yell and scream about it, but I also would not like it at all. I like the clean look of the dope.
As we’re opening the forum to the unwashed masses, you know the type, the ones who register to post something in the comments boards (usually about the merits of voodoo or something) and then never pay to register because it’s too much work to pay to argue their admittedly shakey positions, I say we should have a reputation system. I’ve been an active member of many boards with rep systems, including a mod on a now (sadly) dead one. Some systems work and some systems don’t and over the years I’ve compiled regulations, guidelines, and do’s/do nots and gotten them implemented that can make rep systems run very smoothly, and fairly and minimize such things that plague them and make them not as desirable such as rep whoring. If anyone’s intrigued I could post my generic “rules and regulations” post I saved from quite a while back, and though it’s mostly a copy and paste job it’s quite long and I don’t want to plague the thread with a long verbose post if noone really cares about the idea a damn.