I find avatars and emoticons on forums annoying. Always have. I just want to read the posts. Most "good" forums allow you to disable avatars/emoticons but often still show them if "sourced" from places other than the forum. This will allow you to block either or both - based on personal taste. Some find smiley's valuable to convey "meaning," so in that case just block the avatars - you get the idea. Please visit www.tagworld.com/paulfox for more filterset information.