I think unique avatars would help to promote our cultural diversity ... suitable for a Site like this. The subject matter of this Site wouldn't seem to attract illicit material or abusive members. If bandwidth is a concern, the avatars could be either selectable from a gallery (current method) or linked from another Site, which does not affect the forum Site's bandwitdth at all. People could then upload their avatars to a free site like
http://www.tripod.lycos.co.uk/ and then link to them. The size dimensions could still be controlled here so that bandwidth is not impacted too much on each users computer where the temp files are downloaded.
But, this isn't my site .... just a suggestion. I really don't like the avatar that I selected from the gallery .... but I made due with what was available.
Also, the ability to remotely attach images (hotlinking) already exists here (see Google image below) ... why is an avatar any different in terms of site operation concerns (bandwidth or family site issues)?
