It's the first vBulletin forum that I've been to that completely has all graphics turned off. And I think that for something like a games & arcade forum, it's really important. I originally thought it was my default settings, but images, signature and avatars are all selected on. It's pretty boring without them.
A sizable chunk of our traffic comes from mobile and cellular connections, both with smaller screens and data allotments. Massive signature images don't serve a whole lot of purpose, and avatars are a great way to distinguish developers.
In that case I can see your point regarding signatures. I think though that if we have avatars with a size limit (say 10 or so kb) it's a good way that other users can distinguish themselves among each other. I mean 10kb is nothing in terms of data size but can make a huge difference to the forums appearance, and if users don't like them they can switch them off in their settings. I think it's worth a try. If a lot of complaints start coming in we can remove them.
Yeah, but see...if all of us had avatars, then it would be extremely difficult to spot developers (and the TA boys) in threads. The mods on the other hand...that's kinda different. You'll notice only a handful of us have chosen to use an avatar and I'm pretty certain the fact that we haven't been abusing the privilege is the only reason we still have them. Still, it does make sense for us to have them. While we don't necessarily need them, at least during the times we have to make an announcement or stop a thread from going to hell and whatnot, you can scroll down, be all "Ooh, who's that?" and yeah...whatever we need to get across stands out.