On the whole I'm agnostic (or perhaps indifferent would be a better word) on the issue. I have no great yen to display an avatar myself. I do think that they tend to "dumb down" at least the look if not the tone of a Forum. On the other hand I had never considered Kevin's point about visual identification and I can see that and also his point that my attitude might be construed as being patronising. Which it wasn't meant to be.
I guess it comes down to what they look like and we'd just have to wait and see - I certainly wouldn't want to get into laying down rules for the look of avatars! There aren't many of us, when all's said and done.
There's no work for me, by the way, Alan. Just a couple of clicks would enable avatars. And John, I'd much prefer to have avatars than set up a separate portraits page.
OK, let's have a poll and I'll abide by the result after, say, a week. I'll post the poll in a moment...
I guess it comes down to what they look like and we'd just have to wait and see - I certainly wouldn't want to get into laying down rules for the look of avatars! There aren't many of us, when all's said and done.
There's no work for me, by the way, Alan. Just a couple of clicks would enable avatars. And John, I'd much prefer to have avatars than set up a separate portraits page.
OK, let's have a poll and I'll abide by the result after, say, a week. I'll post the poll in a moment...