Gio...slow down a second. When you make the assumption that people will do those things it doesn't send a very good message. It's sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Treat people like 5th graders and they are more likely to behave like 5th graders.
Allowing avatars could be done so that those running the site had full control over the image content. The forum software most likely has a built in program for hosting the avatars and setting the rules for using them...meaning not allowing the avatars to be linked to from an outside URL. In fact, it might even be possible to have people submit avatars for prior approval.
At the very least, some acceptable avatars could be provided for members to choose from. And bandwidth isn't much of an issue with avatars by names. The files are very small and as long as they aren't animated, they load very quickly even on dialup.
Allowing avatars could be done so that those running the site had full control over the image content. The forum software most likely has a built in program for hosting the avatars and setting the rules for using them...meaning not allowing the avatars to be linked to from an outside URL. In fact, it might even be possible to have people submit avatars for prior approval.
At the very least, some acceptable avatars could be provided for members to choose from. And bandwidth isn't much of an issue with avatars by names. The files are very small and as long as they aren't animated, they load very quickly even on dialup.