My 2 cents - by anonymous.
I've always been exceptional. Special, some would say. If they had short school buses when I went to school I would've had the shortest.
As some of you can see (and phooey on those of you who can't) I insert a thumbnail in my sig. I avoid animated ones, and try to avoid offensive ones. Ea has talked me into keeping it as compact as I can (formatting be damned).
And here is where my specialness comes in. I like book covers in the sig areas. If they're kept to one line and, of course, not animated/blinking.
I also liked the first day of school, new people, and even new school books!
Told you I was special.
Some of the other discussion boards I've seen look the way this thread is going. No avatars. No sigs. Stripped down. This may make for a great speed reading environment, but boooooorrring.
Many of you are people that I find worthwhile reading. At times I'll scroll down the screen looking for certain avatars. I like the thumbnail book covers as a visual trigger to interesting new books. Some sigs make me laugh. All in all, it makes the forum more interesting to me.
As discussed, there are way to turn off signatures, avatars, and images if they trouble you.
Some of the ones that have caused me problems are -
Zelda - your avatar scares me. Too much like
Phillis Diller.
astra - I had to get one of those rubber roll up keyboards to protect my forehead because I can't control myself when I see your avatar.
Ea - your avatar causes aphasia. Please remember that there are adult men on this site.
JSWolf - You're one scary dude. Stop looking at me with that big eye of yours.
LCF - it is illegal to hypnotize people without their consent.
The list goes on and on. Where's my school bus. I WANT MY SCHOOL BUS!
OK. There are ways to turn off much of what may irritate some. And that is a better solution than to turn this into a visually monotonous forum.