About those avatars...

[rick]

Few will have failed to notice that there are a lot more faces connected to the content in the new Zones. This thread is specifically for the purpose of a discussing the pros and cons of these avatars, where they should be used, where they shouldn't, what requirements and guidelines should be established about them, etc.

[gdboling]

I've never been a big avatar fan myself. That being said, its nice sometimes to put a face with the name. I'd recommend forum avatars be limited to about 64x64. Bigger than that and it just gets annoying.

[rick]

One aspect of having the photos as avatars is that everyone connects more clearly with this being a community of PEOPLE, not faceless nicknames. The long term trend has proven that most members are willing to be a lot more hostile and rude to faceless, anonymous users on the other end of the line. We want to try our best to get people to behave with more general respect and common courtesy, and I think the pictures are helping.

We will likely reduce the dominance of the avatar panels in the sidebar, but we are also going to make a reasonable photo a mandatory precondition for posting articles, announcements, etc. This helps reconnect the community with its human nature, and hopefully people will be just a little less nasty to one another.